TCM gives the Swiss a healthy option

"After taking acupuncture and massage therapies, I feel comfortable and relaxed," Mogel says, giving a thumbs-up after receiving treatment in traditional Chinese medicine at a clinic in Schaffhausen.

TCM has become increasingly popular with people in Switzerland. In Schaffhausen, an old town in the country's northernmost canton with the same name, there are seven TCM clinics. Mogel got his treatment from one of them called "TCM-City".

Mogel is a frequent visitor to the TCM-City clinic due to his sports injuries. "I believe in natural therapies," he says.

According to TCM practitioner Jia Kejie who runs the clinic, most of her patients are from Schaffhausen and the neighboring cantons of Zurich and Thurgau.

Over 20 years ago, TCM began being popularized in the Swiss health resorts of Bad Ragaz and Baden, and then gradually spread throughout Switzerland. Nowadays, many patients are referred by doctors in hospitals and other Western medicine clinics to TCM clinics for complementary treatments.

"While I was receiving acupuncture therapy, I fell asleep, even though I was nervous at the beginning," says Miroslava, who has been suffering from physical and mental disorders for a long time.

Miroslava, who works in early childhood education, says that she had tried treatment elsewhere, but it did not work. "Finally, I accepted my friend's recommendation and decided to try this clinic."

At the clinic, Jia and her colleague Zhang Zhitai communicate with patients in fluent German.

At 10 am local time, the first patient finished his treatment, leaving the clinic. The next patient was on the way. In this cold and damp weather, many patients came here for the treatment of rheumatic diseases. Jia was scheduled to treat 14 patients that day.

"TCM practitioners in Switzerland regularly conduct business online or offline," says Jia, who graduated from a traditional Chinese medicine university in China and has practiced TCM in Switzerland for more than 20 years.

Jia, also vice-president of a local association involving TCM and Western medicine, estimates that her clinic in Schaffhausen has treated some 60,000 patients since its opening in 2002. About a total of 5,000 people came to the clinic and received TCM treatment.

"TCM is the natural medicine with a complete medical theoretical system," she says, adding that its unique properties are also the source of its vigorous development in Switzerland.

Jia's clinic establishes a medical file for each patient and keeps detailed records of each treatment. "In accordance with Swiss law, we keep all patient cases for at least 10 years,” she says.