For the first time, the World Health Organization has included Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in its globally influential medical compendium (汇编),according to an international science journal.

An article published by Nature said that TCM had been included in the latest version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) released last year. Starting from the 1800s, the ICD has been revised and published in a series of editions, reflecting the advances in health and medical science over time. It serves as the foundation for the identification of global health trends, and the international standard for diseases and health conditions.

The latest ICD is based largely on the work of the International Classification of Traditional Medicine (ICTM) project’s experts from around the world, who had been working on traditional medicine research and practices for years.

China has been promoting the modernisation of TCM and pushing for TCM to gain acceptance worldwide. Tu Youyou, a Chinese expert focusing on the scientific study of drugs and medicines, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in2015 for her research in TCM. Her discovery has saved millions of lives in developing countries in South Asia, Africa and South America. TCM is sure to grow in popularity globally.

While the use of herbal medicines, acupuncture (针刺疗法) and other traditional medical practices has been on the rise, there’s still a shortage of global classification and terminology (术语) tools for traditional medicine now, according to officials of the WHO.

“The decision is to promote the safe and effective use of traditional medicine by regulating, researching and combining traditional medicine products,practitioners and practice into health systems,where appropriate,”the WHO was quoted as saying by Nature.

Tapping, also known as Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT, is an alternative therapy that’s gaining a lot of interest as a low-cost, non-invasive way to help manage stress and anxiety.

Tapping involves tapping on various points of your body while saying your feelings out loud. It draws on the idea of energy meridian lines (能量经络) from Chinese medicine, suggesting that tapping on these lines can re-balance energy in the body and help manage negative emotions.

While there is limited research about tapping, some studies have shown it can help with anxiety and many people are using the technique to help them manage their mental health. Caroline Fitzgerald from Galway in Ireland is one of them.

Since she started tapping three years ago, Caroline has felt like a different person. “I’ve never felt more supported in terms of my own mental health and my emotional well-being,” she says. Tapping has helped Caroline overcome over 20 years of anxiety and insomnia. “After exhausting so many other paths — CBT (认知行为治疗), counselling, medication, talk therapy and soon, EFT tapping has allowed me to process so many limiting beliefs and memories-it has allowed me to change my thinking,” she says.

“By physically tapping on 14 key easy-to-reach points on the body while talking about how you are feeling signals are sent to the amygdala in the brain,” says Sarah Tobin, EFT practitioner and trainer, and founder of Tapping for Mums, “which can help tell the brain you are safe and turnoff the stress response in the body.”

“Tapping is the hack that tells your brain you are safe, so by tapping in moments of stressor anxiety you are able to calm your nervous system, reduce the cortisol (皮质醇) and adrenaline (肾上腺素) and start to feel safe again,” Sarah says. While it can look slightly unusual, “the act of talking about how we are feeling while we are tapping effectively releases the negative emotion, making us feel lighter and the emotional intensity itself lessens,” says Sarah, who has been tapping since 2014 and now teaches other people how to use the technique.

Some critics of EFT say it can prevent people from seeking more traditional forms of help for physical or mental health problems, but as long as it’s practiced with care and as a complementary practice the risks are very low.

As a senior resident, I often distributed poems to my team, printing and posting them above the computers in our hospital workrooms. Once, during a rare quiet moment in the ICU, with permission from my colleagues (同事), I read a couple of poems out loud. I remember watching my colleagues’ eyes close and their bodies visibly relax as the words washed over them.

Since then, I have shared poems — my own and others’ — in talks at my institution and across the country. I’ve also led other healthcare providers in creative writing exercises during workshops, lectures and classes. Many institutions host book clubs, story slams, film screenings and other opportunities for medical learners to engage with the humanities (人文学科).

While poetry can be frightening to some, many contemporary poems provide approachable emotional experiences. Pieces like Safiya Sinclair’s “Notes on the State of Virginia” fully illustrate how a place that seems innocent or even beautiful to some can be upsetting to others. Monica Sok’s “ABC for Refugees” powerfully paints a portrait of a young child caught between languages and cultures — a reality that many pediatric (儿科的) patients face. “Ode to Small Towns” by Tyree Daye overturn s common assumptions about rural life. In “Medical History”, Nicole Sealey shares a patient’s perspective (视角) on a part of health care that, for many of my students and colleagues, has been reduced to a series of check boxes on a computer screen. These and other poems provide fertile ground for enhanced understanding of the human condition, as well as inspiration for a clinician’s own potentially transformative reflective writing.

The possibilities for cooperation between literature and medicine are wide open. I believe all clinicians have a role in recognizing and dealing with how everyone has been shaped by an unreasonable society. The history, sociopolitical context, imaginative perspective and reflective practices the humanities offer may improve the practice of medicine. Through understanding others’ experiences and reflecting critically on their own, every clinician can move closer to being the kind of healer they intend to be.