But with the discovery of synthetic drugs in the 19th and 20th centuries, the study of herbal medicine waned. Although herbalism has been enjoying a renaissance in the West in the last 30 years, many Chinese medical concepts still seem alien to us. That's because our concepts of treating illness differ dramatically. In the East, practitioners treat the whole person in an effort to get to the root of the problem. A Chinese doctor, for example, might determine that your headache is the result of a digestive disorder, and prescribe a regimen of herbs and lifestyle changes to correct the disorder and prevent the headache from recurring.
Chinese medicine takes time to work.
As such, it's best employed for chronic illnesses. Western medicine excels at treating acute conditions. If you break your leg, for example, you'd want a Western doctor to bring you immediate relief. Diabetes is a good example. We fool our bodies with insulin.