Gansu health official promotes folk medicine

BEIJING - Doing a breathing exercise to cure hepatitis B and lung disease and eating pigs feet to recover from cancer surgery are among the remedies being promoted by a senior health official in Northwest China's Gansu province.

Liu Weizhong, head of the Gansu provincial health department, has been advocating folk remedies in a series of articles published on his department's website in recent weeks.

In an article posted on Tuesday, he said the health department has urged local hospitals to implement 10 cures for black lung disease, including eating pigs feet, raw carrots or chufa - an edible tuber also known as earth almond - and doing a breathing exercise or singing.