TCM training course held on PLA Navy’s 'Peace Ark' hospital ship

What can a glass cup do in the battle field? Nicholas Ross, a military doctor on the "Mercy" hospital ship of the US Navy, now gets a new answer to this question.

The "Peace Ark" hospital ship of the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLAN) participating in the "Rim of the Pacific 2014" (RIMPAC) multinational naval exercises hosted a training course on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) on the afternoon of July 8, 2014, local time. A total of 18 medical personnel participating in the RIMPAC 2014 exercise from the navies of the countries including the US, Canada, Singapore and so forth attended the course and experienced the unique effects of the TCM skills such as massage and cupping therapies.

"It is marvelous that the chilliness accumulated in the human body can be removed by using glass cups," Ross said. Although the materials used in many therapy methods of the time-honored TCM are simple, the clinical effects are apparent, Ross added.

Sun Tao, director of the "Peace Ark" maritime hospital participating in the RIMPAC 2014 exercise, introduced that the host of the exercise hoped that the Chinese hospital ship be staffed with TCM doctors, and give a special lecture on "Application of the TCM in modern military medical service".

In addition, when visiting the Chinese "Peace Ark" hospital ship, Vice Adm. Matthew Nathan, chief of the Medical Department of the US Navy, especially came into the TCM consultancy and treatment room and spoke highly of the TCM treatment that "the TCM has wider and wider application in aspects such as chronic pain treatment and body exercise."