Ghislaine Morin
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Overview

No. Stopping a treatment to start TCM is dangerous, and no responsible practitioner will ask you to. A complementary practice accompanies a medical treatment; it does not suspend it, and it never decides in the doctor's place.

Where this idea comes from

It comes from a confused but common reasoning: if two medicines are practised, they must compete. A patient who has suffered from side effects, or from a treatment that did not work, may then hear a practitioner's criticism of "chemical medicine" as an instruction to stop.
It also comes from a real practice, fortunately marginal: some practitioners present their technique as an alternative and suggest spacing out or stopping a prescription. This is illegal when it amounts to practising medicine without a licence, and it is always dangerous, whatever the intention.
The third source is practical: patients often stop on their own, without telling anyone, because they fear disapproval. Silence is the main risk factor here, more than the practice itself.

What Chinese medicine says

The classical texts describe a medicine of functional regulation, practised in a world without antibiotics, insulin or antihypertensives. Nothing in that corpus addresses the question of stopping a modern drug, simply because those drugs did not exist.
The code of ethics of the profession is explicit on this point: the practitioner works in complementarity with the medical profession, does not intervene in a treatment decision, and refers the patient back to their doctor when the situation exceeds their competence.
In practice, the correct attitude is the opposite of what the rumour says: the practitioner asks for the full list of treatments, checks for interactions, and encourages the patient to inform the prescribing doctor. A practitioner who discourages that conversation is a red flag.

What the research says

The trials that support acupuncture are designed as add-on studies: patients keep their usual treatment and receive acupuncture in addition. Vickers et al. (J Pain, 2018) for chronic pain, Linde et al. (Cochrane, 2009) for migraine prophylaxis, Yan et al. (Cancer Med, 2023) for chemotherapy-induced nausea: none of them tests a substitution.
What is documented on the other side is the harm of interruption. Stopping an antihypertensive, an antiepileptic, an anticoagulant or insulin without medical supervision exposes you to complications that can be immediate, and no complementary technique compensates for them.
What is established: TCM has never demonstrated that it can replace a treatment whose effect modifies the course of a disease. What is debated: which symptoms it can relieve alongside that treatment. What is unknown: how many patients interrupt their treatment on bad advice, because no one counts them.

What to expect in practice

In practice, a session can reduce pain, improve sleep and lower anxiety, which sometimes makes a treatment better tolerated. That is a gain in comfort, not a reason to reduce a dose. Any change belongs to the doctor who prescribed it, with monitoring.
At the Centre Équilibre in Grenoble, Ghislaine Morin asks for the treatment list at the first session and never advises an interruption. The TCM dispensary she organises there works the same way: a place to discover the practice, not to replace a follow-up.

When to consult, and when not to

Consult if you want complementary support, with your treatments unchanged and your doctor informed. Bring your prescriptions, your latest blood tests and the name of your specialist: a practitioner who asks for none of this is not working safely.
Do not consult a TCM practitioner instead of your doctor if you are considering stopping a treatment. Speak to the prescriber, ask what the treatment protects you from, and decide with them. That conversation is the only valid one.
One specific case deserves a clear answer: antidepressant and psychiatric treatments. Their interruption must be gradual and medically supervised. A TCM practitioner may accompany the patient, never pilot the reduction, and never announce that the treatment has become useless.

Frequently asked questions

My practitioner told me to stop my pills. What should I do?
Do not stop anything, and speak to your doctor first. A practitioner who gives such advice exceeds their competence and, in France, may be committing an offence. You can also report the situation to the professional body or association they belong to.
Can herbs interact with my medication?
Yes, some can. Certain plants affect blood clotting or the liver enzymes that metabolise drugs, which changes their effect. Always give the complete list of your treatments, including over-the-counter products, and tell your doctor about any herb you take.
How do I know if the treatment still works?
Only your doctor can answer, using measurements, not feelings: blood pressure, blood sugar, seizure frequency, blood tests. Feeling better is good news, but it does not prove that a treatment has become unnecessary. Ask for a review rather than deciding alone.

Frequently asked questions

Useful links

Sources

  • Vickers AJ, Vertosick EA, et al. Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Update of an Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis. J Pain, 2018. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29198932/ — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29198932/
  • Yan Y, Lopez-Alcalde J, et al. Acupuncture for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Cancer Med, 2023. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37226372/ — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37226372/
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Ghislaine Morin
Ghislaine Morin
Praticienne en médecine traditionnelle chinoise et sophrologue à Grenoble
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