[paraditedc]

Perhaps the missing point is that the TCM approach to illness or health is dramatically different from Western medicine.

Surgery or modern medicine (injection, pills) focuses on one particular manifestation of illness and targets a particular illness.

On the other hand, TCM is not targeting a particular illness, but rather, it sees illness as the symptom of something deeper going off track in the body. Hence it tries to regulate and balance the body so that it can correct itself, without too much intervention.

It's not something that you can quantitatively study easily and get concrete results, as it is more long-term and therapeutic rather than short-term result driven.