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Ironically, the increasing global popularity of Tibetan medicine has only exacerbated Tibet’s health care problems, diverting medical resources from poor areas in China to feed profit-making ventures abroad. The Chinese Business Times estimated that Tibetan medicine exports generate $2.5 billion in revenue annually. The increase in global demand for Tibetan medicines and alternative medicine in general may find its root in the proliferation of chronic degenerative diseases (CDGs) resulting from the dramatic increase in lifespans over the past century. In addition, the spike in obesity in both the developed and developing worlds has led to a huge increase in chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Craig Janes, a prominent medical anthropologist and Tibetan medicine Chinese province. Janes visited numerous towns where he noted a major shortage of medicine and practitioners. As a consequence, many Tibetan villagers suffer from untreated illness, ultimately leading to an enormous increase in medical costs for those that can least afford it.

While these problems might seem specific to China, a closer look reveals how economic globalization interferes with any nation’s ability to address global health crises. For example, the World Bank’s misguided health policy encourages developing countries to push healthcare into the private sector to make them accessible to foreign investment. Countries like China, influenced by the prospect of economic gain, are in the process of privatizing most public sector healthcare.

These global changes have transformed the role of alternative care around the world. From his fieldwork in Tibet, Janes cites a dramatic increase in the demand for CAM in developed countries due to general dissatisfaction with the perceived ineffectiveness, costliness, and inappropriate medicalization of biomedicine. As this shift occurs, it is likely that alternative medicine will also be privatized and that practitioners will begin to compete for patient fees. Once completely decentralized, the management of alternative care will inevitably commoditize, compromising the integrity of care.

As multinational pharmaceutical companies attempt to satisfy the rise in Western demand for holistic medications, governmental intervention will be necessary to ensure that adequate supplies of medicines are available domestically at affordable prices. Otherwise, not only will China’s geographical and socioeconomic health disparities widen, but the integrity of an ancient tradition and an essential component of a suppressed culture will be lost forever.