政府新闻
草药补品与儿童棒棒糖一起变得更有吸引力 2024-10-10
Along with the drop in temperature, local hospitals unveiled the annual gaofang season, a herbal tonic boosting health and enhancing immunity. While sticking to tradition, hospitals are bringing innovations to make TCM more accessible to young people, children and even expats through new styles, new ingredients, new tastes and new packages.
Gaofang is a paste made of condensed liquid medicines taken in winter. In traditional Chinese medicine theory, it can enhance health, especially for the elderly, children with poor development, and people with weak immunity and chronic diseases. It can also help young and middle-aged people who are in poor health due to work pressure and unhealthy lifestyles.
"Gaofang is a traditional tonic but following a modern medicine theory – precise medicine, as each paste is tailor-made as doctors must check the patient and then make a prescription. Our hospital follows the traditional process of making gaofang which consists of seven steps and takes up to two days," said Dr Zhao Qing from Shanghai Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine. The hospital is the only one in the city to maintain tradition by having a special plant with 100 bronze vessels to make the tonic.
A doctor at Shanghai Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine checks the pulse of an elderly man during a TCM health-care festival.
"Though sticking to a traditional approach, we are making innovations in line with modern life. The traditional gaofang is put into a big jar for daily consumption. For convenience of the public, especially working people, we also make gaofang in small packs with a daily dosage. People can take a pack with them to the office or on an outing," Zhao said.
In addition to small packs, Shanghai Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine has developed gaofang lollipops for children with respiratory diseases or poor appetite.
Shanghai Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine has developed gaofang lollipops for children.
For children with slow development, frequent respiratory infections and poor digestion, a proper intake of health tonics is beneficial, doctors say. But children usually don't like the taste of TCM and are not willing to take them regularly.
So the hospital developed a lollipop with an anti-cold effect and one which stimulates the appetite.
At Longhua Hospital, doctors are also changing some ingredients of gaofang to make it more acceptable for expats and vegetarians.
"Donkey-hide gelatin is a major ingredient in gaofang in order to make it into gel-like texture. But expats and vegetarians won't accept it. To make our TCM more internationally accepted, we have developed pure herbal gaofang by using brown sugar and honey instead of donkey-hide gelatin and avoiding the use of other animal ingredients," said Dr Song Yu from the hospital's dermatology department.
The gaofang lollipops taste good and their cute designs appeal to children.
Source: Shanghai Daily
