Certain foods and herbs are hot or heaty, others cooling. An increase of qi is controlled by consuming cooling foods and herbs, and a decrease by taking heaty ones. Attempts to isolate the precise chemicals that separate the two classes of foods have failed so far. While statistical analysis can indicate whether a drug lowers cholesterol, no one has been able to prove if something as intangible as qi has increased and what effect a cooling potion has on it. But a system is not always invalidated because it defies scientific analysis.
Many patients present symptoms for which no physical basis can be found.
Besides, Chinese physicians have thousands of years of tradition and cultural compliance to strengthen their hand. This is not the case. No respectable Chinese physician would claim to be able to do a coronary bypass or to cure cancer. I just hope my treatment will help him tolerate the drugs better. And children love it - at least in Hong Kong.