Clinical Experience in the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis with Chinese Medicine

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the second most common form of arthritis after osteoarthritis and affects approximately one per cent of the population worldwide, manifesting with both articular and non-articular symptoms. Based on the author’s 50 years of clinical experience in treating RA patients with Chinese medicine, this article summarises the aetiology and pathology of RA, offers insight into the key issues involved in treatment, and discusses the traditional and biomedical characteristics of Chinese materia medica and the use of acupuncture and moxibustion for RA. The article ends with two representative case studies illustrating the role played by Chinese medicine in treating long-term RA patients.