Chinese Medicine and Cancer Treatment

Chinese medicine has addressed cancer since ancient times, offering a complementary perspective on how body, mind, and emotion are connected when facing a serious illness. It is worth stating clearly up front: Chinese medicine is not a substitute for conventional oncology diagnosis and treatment, but a complementary tool that can support a patient alongside standard medical care. This article looks at how Chinese medicine explains the emergence of illness and how complementary treatment may help through the course of coping with it.

Internal and External Causes of Illness

According to Chinese medicine, illness arises from a combination of internal and external factors. The internal factors are known as “the damage of the seven emotions”: excessive or unnatural joy, anger, worry, obsession, grief, fear, and fright. The external factors include cold wind, heat, dampness, dryness, and fire, alongside modern factors such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites, chemical substances in food and water, air pollution, hereditary constitution, and other risk factors.

Ancient Chinese texts describe each emotion as linked to a specific organ: excessive joy affects the heart, anger the liver, grief the lungs, worry the spleen, and fear the kidneys. In other words, according to this view, prolonged emotional disturbance may affect the function of internal organs and the immune system.

Vital Energy and the Development of Illness

According to the Huangdi Neijing, one of the central ancient texts of Chinese medicine, harmful factors mainly manage to take hold in the body once its vital energy is depleted. The causes of cancer, as understood today, are numerous and complex, yet medical research also points to a link between reduced immune function and the risk of abnormal cell development in the body. In this respect, there is overlap between the ancient Chinese view and modern medical understanding of the immune system’s importance.

Emotionally, a diagnosis of serious illness can trigger anxiety, fear, and difficulty sleeping, eating, and breathing properly, which may weaken the patient further. Chinese medicine therefore places great importance on treatment that supports emotional well-being, not the body alone.

The Approach of “Coexistence” with Illness

From ancient times to today, Chinese medicine holds an approach known as “coexistence” with a tumor — that is, an aim to restrain and slow its development while strengthening the body, rather than necessarily fighting aggressively at any cost. Under this view, treatment that depletes the body’s strength excessively should be avoided, since excessive harm to positive energy may give rise to further complications. This approach does not replace oncological medical decisions; it complements them, with an emphasis on quality of life and overall bodily strength.

The body’s root energy, known in Chinese medicine as Qi, should be as strong as possible to support recovery. Treatment in Chinese medicine aims to strengthen this energy and regulate the body’s condition, and in some cases may help patients cope with side effects that accompany treatments such as chemotherapy — always in coordination with the treating medical team.

The Importance of Emotional Support

In the healing process, conversation with the patient holds a place no less important than physical treatment. Encouraging a person’s spirit and strengthening their will can contribute to a sense of capability and emotional well-being throughout the course of treatment. People carry within them a strong will to live, and supportive treatment aims to strengthen precisely that force.

Balance Between the Body’s Energies

A central principle in Chinese medicine is the balance between Yin and Yang — opposing and complementary forces at work in the body. The goal is not to eliminate one type of energy entirely, but to maintain equilibrium. Just as antibiotic treatment affects beneficial bacteria alongside harmful ones, powerful medical intervention may affect the body as a whole. From this perspective, complementary treatment focuses on the main symptoms disrupting daily function, aiming to help the body return to natural physiological balance as much as possible.

Book a Treatment

Shai Davids offers complementary Chinese medicine treatment alongside guidance and support for people coping with serious illness, at the clinics in Jerusalem and Ramat Gan. Such treatment is intended to support the patient and never replaces oncological medical follow-up and care. Get in touch for an initial consultation.