While billions of people are familiar with the existence of traditional Chinese medicine and some of its components, much of the world still views this area of health treatment as old world and believes that as much superstition and belief in “magic” plays a role as does a solid foundation of healing principles. A majority of Westerners scoff at traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and favor modern practices found through technologically advanced hospitals and prescription drugs.

Much of this unwillingness to accept TCM seems to stem from the lack of the Eastern culture to effectively get the right message to those in the West. There are numerous case studies that cite many of TCM’s practices as being not only healthful, but potentially life prolonging, but with explanations such as “expelling toxins” and “clearing heat from the body” and techniques such as cupping and acupuncture, most who are familiar with more modern practices view these things as silly and nonsensical. It seems a shame as well since it is possible that the only thing standing between traditional Chinese medicine and the rest of the world is an effective marketing message.

There has been some headway made in certain areas of the world however. For instance, the government of Australia has recently adopted a huge registry of Chinese doctors and pharmacists which will go into effect sometime and 2012 and because of this, the House of Commons in Canada is reviewing the information for possible consideration as well. This is great news for practitioners of Chinese medicine in these areas, but potentially also for the patients who will be eligible to receive treatments they were never able to before.

So, with the lack of a global understanding of this mysterious Chinese culture, it seems the task of spreading the word about the effectiveness of these unique treatments and medicines is largely left to the individual. Those Westerners who try TCM themselves, receive the benefits, and tell others. This word of mouth marketing is one of the best ways to help others overcome their fears and misconceptions about this centuries old medicine and can potentially make the difference in helping East meet West and allow traditional Chinese medicine to become the well known and respected practice all over the world that it is in China already today.