Traditional Chinese Medicine in Mauritius

Acupuncture is the heart of my work at the practice. Very fine, sterile, single-use needles — barely thicker than a hair — are inserted at precise points to regulate the flow of Qi, the energy that animates the body in Chinese medical thinking. In practice: eight to fifteen needles depending on the pattern identified, then around thirty minutes resting on the couch with the needles in place. Most patients describe a deep sense of calm, and many drift off to sleep.

The most common reasons people come fall into a few broad groups: pain, stress and sleep, digestion, energy levels and women’s health. There are no guarantees with acupuncture: after the first few sessions we review progress together, and if nothing shifts, I adjust the approach or refer you on. For a minute-by-minute account of a session, what it feels like and how many sessions to plan for, see the article Acupuncture in Mauritius.

Tui Na is the hands-on branch of Chinese medicine — a therapeutic massage, not a spa-style relaxation massage. Pressure, mobilisation and stretching follow the course of the meridians with a specific aim: easing a stiff neck, loosening a tight back, supporting a painful joint. At the practice, this manual work draws on a dual background: techniques from the Chinese tradition, and the clinical rigour of my first career as a French state-certified physiotherapist. It is a combination particularly well suited to musculoskeletal pain.

For children, paediatric Tui Na stimulates the points… without needles: a gentle approach that is generally very well tolerated. As is usual in TCM, massage is rarely used on its own: it fits into the session alongside acupuncture or cupping, depending on your pattern. For long-standing joint pain, see the article (in French) on osteoarthritis and joint pain.

Cupping — familiar from the round marks on elite athletes’ backs — is part of Chinese medicine’s classic toolkit. The idea is simple: gentle suction applied to the skin, which lifts the tissues slightly and is used to relax tight areas and encourage local circulation. At the practice, I use it in particular to release the neck, the shoulders and the diaphragm, on areas that feel tight or cold, or near — rather than on — a patch of skin that needs to be left alone.

Cupping is not painful. The cups sometimes leave circular marks on the skin — harmless, and gone within a few days; worth knowing if a beach day or a wedding is coming up. Chinese tradition links cupping to back tension and to the ‘blockages’ it describes as Qi stagnation. Cupping often complements acupuncture within the same session — for example when supporting people with sciatica and lower back pain.

Moxibustion means warming an acupuncture point with a moxa stick — dried mugwort that smoulders slowly — until a diffuse warmth is felt, without touching the skin. Chinese tradition uses it to ‘warm’ the patterns it calls Cold or Deficiency: always feeling the cold, sluggish digestion, deep-seated fatigue, pain that worsens when the weather turns grey. It is also one of the tools I offer to people who are not ready for needles, and some protocols carry on at home as self-moxibustion, after a demonstration at the practice.

Its most studied use is in obstetrics: moxibustion at the Zhiyin point when a baby is in the breech position, always with the agreement of the obstetric team. The article fertility and pregnancy devotes a whole section to it.

In Chinese medicine, herbs are the long-term treatment: classical formulas, composed and refined over centuries, chosen according to your pattern to work on the terrain between sessions — or remotely, when coming to the practice is not possible. This service will run entirely online: a detailed health questionnaire and a photo of your tongue, then a personalised assessment with the appropriate formula, made in France by Laboratoires JZ and shipped worldwide.

It is not open yet: join the waiting list to hear as soon as it opens and get the launch price. An important point: the questionnaire asks about your medication and medical history specifically so that certain formulas can be adapted or ruled out — during pregnancy, while breastfeeding or if you take blood thinners, for instance. All the details are on the Chinese herbal medicine online page.

In Chinese medicine, food is a tool in its own right: every food has a nature — warming, neutral or cooling — and affinities with certain organs. Chinese dietary therapy matters all the more in Mauritius’s tropical climate: in TCM terms, the constant humidity keeps taxing the Spleen, the organ which, in this tradition, transforms fluids — hence the saying ‘the Spleen likes it dry and warm’.

In practice: favour cooked, warm food, go easy on iced drinks that ‘put out the digestive fire’, and make ginger a daily ally. The ginger, garlic and thyme base of Mauritian cooking happens to fit these principles naturally — good news if you are new to the island and getting to know the local cuisine. At the practice, dietary advice goes hand in hand with the sessions: a few targeted adjustments, suited to your pattern and your habits, never a rigid diet. Further reading: tropical humidity and fatigue: making peace with Dampness.