In the early 1990s, the U.S. Senate coined the term “alternative medicine,” and the National Institutes of Health established the Office of Alternative Medicine after studies revealed that one-third of adults in the U.S. were routinely seeking CAM treatments, including acupuncture, massage, self help, and herbal remedies.

Eisenberg also cited findings that between 1990 and 1997, Americans made 629 million visits to CAM practitioners and only 400 million visits to primary care physicians. During that time, patients paid $27 billion for CAM treatments not covered by insurance.

He said that greater cooperation between Eastern and Western doctors was necessary to understanding the interactions between CAM and prescription drugs.

For instance, one study found that the popular herbal remedy St. John’s Wort nullified the protective benefit of the drug “cocktail” designed to fight AIDS.

Concluding his lecture with a motivational Chinese aphorism, Eisenberg asked the American and Chinese audience to “honor” the vast knowledge embedded in traditional Chinese therapies.

While American medicine has been hostile to TCM, some Chinese are equally hostile to Western medical science. During a question-and-answer session, one Chinese journalist challenged the feasibility of sharing knowledge and questioned the need to validate TCM with Western standards.

With an analogy comparing Chinese and Western approaches to a “wild duck and a chicken,” he concluded that no one should expect the two medical cultures to communicate.