Combined Chinese, Western treatment explore to improve cardiovascular health

Smoking, unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, being overweight and poor mental health are major risks to Chinese people when it comes to their cardiovascular health, medical experts told a national conference on combined treatment of traditional Chinese and Western medicine.

Chinese people with healthy data on blood pressure, blood fat and blood sugar are still low, while the incidence of cardiovascular disease continues rising. There are about 330 million people with cardiovascular disease in China, including 13 million with history of stroke, 11 million with coronary disease and 8.9 million with heart failure.

Experts believe a combination of TCM and Western medicine through multidisciplinary treatment can achieve better health effects.

“The status quo of cardiovascular disease is very tough in China, so we are looking for an innovation approach through a combination of TCM and Western medicine. Doctors offer therapy targeting different stages of diseases with the two types of medicine and evaluate the effects, which are better than solely using TCM or Western medicine alone,” said Dr Zhou Jia, president of Shanghai Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine.

The hospital has developed TCM therapies targeting hypertension related with depression and cardiovascular disease due to atheroclerosis.