TCM and Geriatric Care
Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM in short covers a range of treatment ranging from internal medicine, acupuncture, Ba Guan moxibustion, bone-setting, etc. It brings with it over thousands of years of historical empirical evidence supporting its treatment and philosophy.
Geriatric care is one of the sub-specializations in TCM and it uses these traditional TCM tools the likes of herbal supplementation and acupuncture with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life for the elderly.
Knee pain, lower back pain, lethargy and fatigue, nocturia, insomnia, are some of the common geriatric problems experienced by the elderly.
In TCM, these can be attributed to a variety of reasons such as the syndrome of kidney and/or liver yin deficiency, yang deficiency, stasis syndrome and so on which causes bodily zang fu dysfunction. This could perhaps be due to over-exertion during younger days, which when left untreated, tends to turn into chronic problems.
TCM treats human beings in a holistic manner and focusses on prevention using natural means to boost our own “Qi”. As we get older and as “Qi” becomes weaker, those aches and pains become a little more pronounced and life begins to create some new challenges.
Sommerfield Homes, believing in the effectiveness of TCM to improve the holistic wellness of the day to day living of its Residents, has gone to great lengths to source and identify a TCM partner with the same exacting standards and quality as ourselves.
In this respect, Sommerfield Homes is proud to partner with Isensei, a highly respected TCM company employing highly qualified practitioners who in collaboration with Sommerfield Homes will help us to achieve the best wellness and quality of life for our Residents.
Here are three areas which most of the elderly will experience and how TCM can help to cure or prevent it.
Pain and Numbness
Acupuncture is a treatment method that employs filiform needles on meridian points all over the body and in this region, it is mostly associated with pain management. However, Sommerfield Homes’ TCM partner, iSensei, employs its proprietary acupuncture treatment methods using ancient needle manipulation techniques, that is not only able to help pain management effectively but in the process achieves the result of improving health and vitality. These methods activate and dredge or tonify the meridian points, helping to fine-tune bodily functions and customised to each and every individual patients.
Studies have shown that acupuncture is highly effective at treating chronic pain conditions. For example, rheumatoid arthritis is commonly treated with acupuncture. Of course, the frequency, length and number of treatments will vary depending on the severity of the condition. Acupuncture has been proven to be a powerful tool to relieve the pain, discomfort, and swelling that often comes with the disease.
Acupuncture has also been shown to be highly effective at treating numbness of limbs, back and neck pain as well as neuropathy pain, particularly for those with diabetes. Neuropathy impacts the peripheral nerves of the body and for those suffering from it, it feels like a tingling or burning sensation in the legs or arms. Acupuncture helps by promoting nerve conduction.
Nutrition/Digestion
Another common health challenge for the elderly is the digestion issue and compromised nutrition. For some, it’s the result of a lifetime of poor dietary choices and sometimes it could be caused by a medical condition or the side effects of a particular medication.
Some of the digestive disorders helped by TCM include poor digestion, anorexia, nausea, diarrhoea, bloating, vomiting, poor appetite, gastritis pain, constipation, epigastric pain and haemorrhoid. When chronic, this can lead to fatigue and lethargy and a host of other body functional issues including nocturia, mental health issues, etc.
In Sommerfield Homes, our TCM partner iSensei, does not believe in generic supplements for patients. Isensei customises the supplements for each and every individual patient in order to achieve a customised integrated approach to supplementation and complementing the various medication the elder is already taking as part of their western medical treatments. This is more beneficial to the patient in the long term as we can focus our regime to cater for individual needs and hence maximise its effect at pain management, improve vitality and longevity with improved quality of life.
Mental Health
Many among the elderly suffer from mental health issues. We at Sommerfield Homes are extremely concerned about the psychological wellbeing of our Residents and therefore place great emphasis on using TCM to assist in this respect. TCM adopts a holistic approach to treatment, focussing not just on the disease but also on patients’ general condition, lifestyle and habits. It allows physicians to pick up on other details of patients’ lives relevant to their mental health. From that, we are able to diagnose the TCM syndrome.
Here, the elderly often experiences emotional mood swings, chest tightness, depression, dizziness, and ultimately insomnia, which over pro-long duration exaggerates the matter.
At Sommerfield Homes, we work closely with our TCM partner, iSensei, so that using TCM techniques, we are able to recognise that the body and mind work together, in other words, emotions can have a physiological effect on the body. Treatment of acupuncture with herbal supplements can help the elderly to relax and restore body balance, without most associated side effects.
All in all
At Sommerfield Homes, we together with our TCM partner iSensei, believe in the philosophy that every patient is different and requires utmost attention and a customised treatment, in order to achieve Longevity and Vitality 2U. We believe in only the best treatment and hence continued research is our priority. Towards that end, our TCM partner iSensei have a long-term collaboration with Inti International University, ensuring only Best Quality in our treatment.
Note : At Sommerfield Homes, TCM is used to improve and enhance the day to day mental, emotional and physical wellness and holistic quality of life of our Residents. TCM is not a replacement for Western Geriatric Medical care and the attending Physician of each Resident will have the final say in all aspects of the medical care of our Residents.