Health & medical disclaimer

Everything on this website — articles, programme pages, event descriptions, policy documents, questions and answers — is published for education and general information. It describes how Chinese medicine is understood and taught within its own tradition, how the college teaches it, and what the current research does and does not show.

General information is not personal advice. Two people with the same diagnosis may need entirely different approaches, and a qualified practitioner reaches a view only after taking a history, examining the patient and considering their medication and circumstances. A web page cannot do any of that, and this website does not try to.

We do not provide diagnosis, treatment recommendations or prescribing advice by email, through the enquiry form, or in response to comments or messages. If you send us a question about your own health, we will not answer it clinically — we will suggest that you speak to your GP or another qualified professional. That is not evasiveness; it is the responsible answer.

Using this website does not create a practitioner–patient relationship between you and the college, its tutors, its students or any practitioner named on it. Reading an article, downloading a prospectus, sending an enquiry, following the college on social media or attending a free public lecture creates no clinical relationship and no duty of care in respect of your health.

A clinical relationship begins only when you attend an appointment and are assessed, with your informed consent, by a qualified practitioner. In the teaching clinic, treatment is carried out by students under supervision, and clinical responsibility rests with the supervising practitioner, who assesses every patient before treatment begins.

A free community consultation is a consultation, not a course of treatment. It includes assessment and general advice, and it may include a recommendation to see your GP or another practitioner. It does not commit you to anything further.

Chinese medicine is a distinct tradition with its own reasoning and its own therapeutics. It is not a replacement for modern medical care, and the college does not present it as one. In particular, it is not a substitute for:

• Emergency assessment and treatment, including for suspected heart attack, stroke, severe infection or serious injury.
• Surgery, or any condition where surgery is indicated.
• Antibiotics and other medicines where they are clinically indicated.
• Vaccination.
• Cancer diagnosis and treatment, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery.
• Mental health crisis care, and treatment for severe mental illness.
• Diagnostic imaging, blood tests and pathology, which are how many conditions are identified and monitored.

If you are using Chinese medicine alongside conventional treatment, that is a legitimate choice — but tell both your doctor and your practitioner what you are doing, so that interactions and contraindications can be checked. Concealing treatment from one practitioner in order not to offend the other is how people come to harm.

Never stop, reduce or alter treatment prescribed by a doctor because of something on this website or because a practitioner has suggested it. This applies to medication of every kind — including medication for blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid conditions, epilepsy, mental health, anticoagulation and immunosuppression — and to other treatments such as inhalers, insulin and hormone therapy. Stopping some medicines abruptly can cause serious harm.

If you want to reduce or stop a prescribed treatment, discuss it with the prescriber. They may agree, they may taper it, or they may explain why it needs to continue. A practitioner who tells you to stop prescribed medication without consulting the prescriber is acting outside safe practice, and you should be cautious about their advice generally.

Similarly, do not use this website to self-prescribe herbs, and do not take a herbal formula given to you by someone else. Herbal prescriptions are individual, and the same formula can be inappropriate — or unsafe — for a different person.

The college takes a deliberately moderate position on health claims. We describe health and illness in the terms the tradition itself uses, because that is how the subject is taught and understood; those descriptions are part of a coherent framework rather than statements of biomedical fact.

What we do not do — anywhere on this website, in our advertising, or in our teaching materials — is claim that any treatment offered or taught by this college diagnoses, treats, cures, prevents or reverses any medical condition. We do not describe a treatment as “clinically proven” unless there is documented, citable evidence that says so, and we do not use patient testimonials to make clinical claims.

If you see a claim on this website that appears to breach this position, please tell us — see the editorial statement and corrections policy.

Research into acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine is genuinely difficult to conduct well. Blinding is hard when the intervention involves needles; placebo controls are contested; the practitioner’s own skill is a variable; and trials are often small. Those problems are real, and they mean the literature has to be read carefully rather than counted.

The result is an uneven picture. For some chronic pain conditions — notably chronic lower back pain and tension-type headache — a number of trials and several systematic reviews report effects that are modest but real. For many other conditions, the evidence is thin, inconsistent or absent, and some claims made in the name of acupuncture have no meaningful support at all. Herbal medicine has its own evidence base, with some well-studied substances, a great deal of preliminary research, and important questions about interactions and quality that are not settled.

We teach this honestly, including the parts that are unflattering. Students who hear only the favourable half of the evidence are poorly equipped for practice, and patients who hear only the favourable half are poorly equipped to decide.

No practitioner can promise you a particular outcome, and the college does not. Responses to any treatment vary with the condition, its severity and duration, your general health, medication, age, circumstances and factors nobody fully understands. Some people improve considerably; some improve a little; some notice no change at all. Averages from research describe groups, not individuals, and cannot tell you what will happen in your case.

Treatment also carries some risk. Common and minor effects of acupuncture include small bruises, temporary soreness at needled points and feeling faint. More serious complications are rare but documented, including pneumothorax, infection and damage to structures beneath the skin. Herbal medicines can cause gastrointestinal upset, allergic reactions, and interactions with prescribed medicines; some herbs carry specific organ risks. A practitioner should explain the risks that apply to your treatment, and should record your consent.

If something goes wrong, or you think it has, tell the practitioner and the college. Adverse events are recorded and reviewed under the health & safety policy, and you can raise a concern through the complaints procedure.

Herbal medicines are pharmacologically active. That is why they can do anything at all, and it is why they need to be taken seriously. They can interact with prescribed medicines, affect how quickly the liver clears other drugs, and be unsuitable in pregnancy, while breastfeeding, in young children and alongside particular treatments.

Some herbal material on sale in the UK is adulterated, contaminated, misidentified or substituted, and some products marketed as Chinese herbal medicines have been found to contain undeclared pharmaceuticals or heavy metals. Quality assurance is therefore part of safe practice, not a detail. The college tests and traces the herbs it supplies, and teaches students to ask suppliers the same questions.

Tell any herbal practitioner about every medicine and supplement you take, and tell your doctor about any herbs you are given. Report suspected adverse reactions through the MHRA Yellow Card scheme.

Acupuncture and herbal medicine are not currently regulated by statute in the UK, which means anyone can call themselves an acupuncturist or a herbalist. That puts the checking on you, and it makes the following questions worth asking before you book — of any practitioner, including anyone associated with this college.

• Where did you train, and for how long? A qualification from a recognised college, and a programme of at least three years for a professional practice, is the normal baseline.
• Which professional body are you a member of, and can I check my membership with them? Membership of a body with a code of practice and a complaints route matters more than the letters after a name.
• Do you hold current professional indemnity insurance covering the treatments you offer, and can I see evidence of it?
• What is your training in safety — needle handling, contraindications, herb–drug interactions and what to do if something goes wrong?
• What happens if I have a problem with my treatment? Every practitioner should be able to describe a complaints route without hesitating.

If you think something on this website overstates what Chinese medicine can do, or is inaccurate in any other way, we want to know. Email [EMAIL] with the page and the point you are querying. Corrections are published openly with the date they were made.

If you are unhappy about care you have received in the teaching clinic, or about the conduct of a practitioner, use the complaints and appeals procedure. Patient complaints are handled by the Clinical Director, and you can also complain to the practitioner’s professional body or regulator.

This disclaimer applies to the whole of this website and forms part of the website terms. It is reviewed annually by the Clinical Director, and the next review is due by [DATE].