Hi, my name is Gary and it's my first time
posting here, glad to meet everyone. I
have been writing articles about Chinese
Medicine based on my own experiences and
understanding of this field of healing. I
would like to share an article I wrote
recently. Please give it a look and give
me some comments on my trend of thought.
Thanks~
Please visit my site
http://mcm-health.com for other
articles.
From the
story of King Midas, to the development of
Modern Medicine vs. Chinese
Medicine
When I was young, the story of King Midas
left a deep impression in my mind. King
Midas had the power to turn everything
that he touches into gold, making him the
wealthiest person in the world. Although
this power ended up becoming a burden for
the king, the idea of creating gold has
been an aspiring one. Alchemy, the
investigation of nature with the goal of
converting metals into gold and silver has
long been a major driving force of Western
science up to the 18th century. Many
alchemists made significant contributions
to what was the modern day chemistry and
physics through their quest to uncovering
the recipe of gold making. The study of
alchemy helped lay the foundation for
modern day chemistry which is also the
basis of modern day medicine.
By contrast, ancient Chinese emperors have
long been pursuing immortality. Qin Shi
Huang’s (The first emperor of the Qin
Dynasty) aspiration for eternal health has
been well documented as well as various
other emperors throughout Chinese history.
Instead of wealth, Chinese emperors were
more interested in prolonging their life.
Such difference of goals between Western
and Eastern rulers had a deep impact on
the science development of each
civilization. While alchemy was considered
a serious science up to the 18th century,
Chinese emperors turned to Taoism and
Taoist priests for guidance towards
immortality.
If Western medicine was developed under
the foundation of chemistry, Chinese
medicine was a science built from
systematology. Before the invention of
computers, human have never built any
product that had similar systematic
make-up as the human body. Because of the
lack of knowledge in systematology,
Chinese medicine theories have been
difficult to understand in the past for
non practitioners and are often times
considered as metaphysics or sometimes
even as a religion. However, since
computers became a common commodity in the
late 20th century, systemotology has
become everyday knowledge for many people.
If we compare our body system to the
computer system, we can see that they have
many similarities. For example, a typical
computer system consists of hardware,
operation software, and application
software. Similarly, Chinese medicine
defines to body system into 3 parts, body,
mind, and soul. The mind, in the sense of
Chinese medicine, is not just the brain
organ but rather the entire conscious of a
person. If a person attempts to dissect a
computer, he will not be able to find
proof of the operation and application
software. By the same token, mind and soul
cannot be seen through anatomy. Operation
and application systems can only be seen
when the computer system is functioning.
Similarly, a person’s mind and soul can
only be found while the person is still
alive. Many observations of Chinese
medicine can only be found on a live
person, these phenomenon disappear after
the person dies.
Reincarnation is a concept that is
believed by many Eastern religions. The
believe that a person’s soul will remain
after the persons body is deceased is
similar to a computers software being able
to function on different computer
hardware. However, because we cannot prove
any of these theories through anatomy, we
are unable to explain these occurrences.
Modern medicine, like most other sciences,
is interested in evidence and proofs. Most
of these proofs are obtained through
anatomy, which is a field that Chinese
medicine is lacking in. If anatomy is a
science that is performed on a dead
person, Chinese medicine can be described
as a science that can only be performed on
a living person. For instance, the
meridian is a major system used in Chinese
medicine. During acupuncture therapy, when
the needle arrives at the correct meridian
points, patients will report sensations
such as soreness, numbness, and bloating
feel. Acupuncturist will feel that the
needle appears to stick to the meridian
points once the needle is in place. Such
event is known as Attracted Needle in
acupuncture. Acupuncturists have attempted
to perform acupuncture on corpses,
however, these phenomenon do not occur on
dead subjects. Thus, researches regarding
acupuncture can only be done on living
creatures, rather through plain anatomy.
Besides acupuncture, the flow of the body
fluid is also a key study in the meridian
system. Yet once a person dies, the body
fluids will no longer flow regularly.
Therefore once again we cannot observe
these phenomenon through anatomy. For
these reasons, it has been much more
difficult to provide proofs for Chinese
medicine theories compare to modern
medicine.
Besides the lack of proof using anatomy,
Chinese medicines diagnosis is based on
another system that is difficult to prove
scientifically. Chinese medicine
constructed a complete model to describe
the human body system. This model divides
the body’s 10 major organs into 5
groups, each group consists a pair of
organs. Each pair of organs is related
closely to each other. When an organ
experiences changes during illness, the
organ that corresponds to sick organ will
go through similar changes. Chinese
medicine practitioners observed these
changes and created a system that uses
wood, fire, earth, metal, and water as
symbols to describe the body system.
During Chinese medicine diagnosis, Chinese
doctors need to observe the patients
symptoms closely as well as the
patient’s physical and mental
conditions. Using the above system as a
guide, Chinese doctors then use logical
reasoning to diagnosis the illness. Such
reasoning requires the doctor to be both
experienced and skilled. Thus, traditional
Chinese doctors are trained through the
form of master and apprentice.
Similar to the meridian system, Chinese
medicines model for human body system can
only be seen on living body. With the
current technology that we have access to,
we cannot prove many phenomenon described
in the model. Yet with the continuing
technological progress, the real concepts
of Chinese medicine should be able to be
accepted as more and more people
understand its various systems. And for
many current chronic diseases, Chinese
medicine may be the right direction
towards finding a cure.
