How TCM led to my 'unhealthy' marriage

"Stop being fussy and just swallow it," my wife snapped, leaving me in no doubt her patience had run out. It was early 2009, our first Spring Festival since moving to Beijing, and I was experiencing the worst flu of my life. For two days I'd been running a fever and was virtually unable to get out of bed, which had prompted my wife to visit the nearby pharmacy to pick up some traditional Chinese remedies.

She had already made me eat an entire packet of tiny black balls without water - they tasted truly awful, like scrapings from a donkey's hoof, which they may well have been for all I knew - and she was now telling me to swallow a big white "pill" in one go.

I could barely get it in my mouth, let alone swallow it. "It's impossible. It'll choke me," I croaked before breaking into a coughing fit. She insisted the woman at the pharmacy had told her I should take one pill every four hours. I looked into the bag she was holding, spotted about 10 of these white balls inside, and my life flashed before my eyes.