|
|
|
Approaches to Knee Pain Relief
You use your knees every time you walk, run, or move your lower body at all. Knee pain, therefore, dramatically affects the daily life of sufferers, who must use their knees throughout the day. Knee pain is the second only to back pain among...
Ayurveda - Principles & Practice
Ayurveda - Principles & Practice Ayurveda which has been evolved around 600 BC, apart from treating ailments concentrated more in its prevention. This was followed by the Aryans & Dravidians who were inhabiting India and has been practiced ever...
B Vitamin Hype: With Ambitions of Fighting Acne, Rosacea and Tumors, What Can This Vitamin Really Do For You?
Vitamin B is no small time player in the high stakes game of the beauty. Just take the case of pellagra for example. Pellagra is a life threatening skin disease characterized by dementia, diarrhea, and dermatitis that results from a niacin (B...
Conquering the Common Cold
What do we know about the Common Cold? No Cure. Antibiotics, designed to knock out bacterial infections, do nothing when it comes to treating a cold. None of us are safe! No matter how strong and healthy we are, an occasional ...
What do you need to know about levitra
Viagra is now not the sole cure to impotence. A number of medications have come up that claim to curb this disease called erectile dysfunction. These drugs belong to the class of PDE-5 inhibitors. The drugs promise effects like increased blood flow...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Can Western Medicine Accept Chinese Medicine?
Q: My doctor is skeptical of Chinese medicine. Is there a way to make it acceptable to the western medicine way of thinking?
A: This is a complicated issue. Ideally, we could use scientific research to make this possible. This has been done to some extent. However, there are still problems with research and its acceptance.
Not Testing Authentic Chinese Medicine
Studies often diverge from authentic Chinese medicine methodology. Investigators rarely make use of pattern discrimination, which is fundamental to Chinese medicine. Also, studies have yet to acknowledge another reality of CM - its plurality. There are many ways to practice it, and many many herb formulas, herb combinations, acupuncture point combinations, and needling techniques.
See What You Want To See
Plus, studies of people reading and using studies have proven that when we disagree with a study's conclusions, we are much more critical of its methodology and validity than when the results agree with our beliefs. That is a breakdown in the scientific method. In the scientific method, we let study outcomes revise our beliefs - not the other way around.
The Good Research That's Out There
If you want to see good acupuncture research, and great commentary by an MD who devotes his medical practice fully to acupuncture, and who studies authentic CM, go to Acubriefs.com.
I did a short review of the best acupuncture studies since the 1997 National Institutes of Health statement.
Effectiveness and Proof are Secondary
An interesting twist: Historian and anthropologist Paul Unschuld's suggests that the acceptance of any medicine has more to do with how it fits or doesn't fit with the social zeitgeist (spirit of the times). People must understand a medicine in a way that fits with their beliefs and values first. Scientific evidence, and personal experience of effectiveness are secondary.
Acceptance by Western Medicine
But as for acceptance by western docs- it depends on the doc. I doubt the AMA is going to be accepting Chinese medicine as a separate and equally valid medical system. But some individual docs might.
Who Speaks For Western Medicine?
According to Modern Healthcare Magazine, "Not counting medical students and residents, who are lured by deep discounts in annual dues, AMA members account for only about 29 per cent of 726,000 practicing doctors in America."
This raises the question- who represents most doctors? How do we know what they think or want?
I did an internet search, both on Google and Yahoo, for other medical organizations... most of them were state, or country-oriented.
I did find a few others,
but their membership numbers may overlap:
The Christian Medical and Dental Associations (CMDA) - 17,000 members
American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) - 2,000 members
American Holistic Medicine Association (AHMA) - membership not listed
So even though the AMA represents less than one-third of physicians, it doesn't appear that any other organization has nearly as many members. Perhaps no one speaks for Western medicine.
Pattern Discrimination Isn't So Strange
Besides all the distinct ontology (the study of what exists) like meridians and organ-systems, a fundamentally unique feature of CM (used in China to differentiate CM from WM) is pattern discrimination.
Different treatment for different symptom/sign patterns is not really that strange. Western docs don't give all patients the same antihypertensive drugs, for example. It depends on the patient, and there are specific groupings according to symptoms, signs, and other diagnoses. We do the same thing - just different groupings.
Regardless, many Western docs look down their nose at pattern discrimination. Perhaps they don't think it's scientific enough? They don't see the benefit. It's outside their paradigm.
Inequality in Credibility and Authority
Chinese medicine's biggest obstacle to making progress politically and in the media is that MD's are seen as the one true medical authority. They are the experts on everything. Pure scientists don't get as much attention, nor do scholars, or Master's degree people. Politicians and journalists both have this perspective. Because of this, our objections (to the actions of AMA, FDA, and drug companies against Chinese herbal medicine) go unheard. We are not seen as being as competent to assess dangers. Nor do they take Chinese docs very seriously. You have to either be an MD or affiliated with a big institution.
So, to summarize, you can't convince some people no matter what. Others will get behind Chinese medicine regardless. Those in the middle will be swayed by the media and their friends.
It's going to take some time for enough of us to have the degrees, affiliations, and willingness to make statements loud enough to be heard above the din of the prevailing winds.
About the Author
Acupuncturist, herbalist, and medical professor Brian B. Carter founded the alternative health megasite The Pulse of Oriental Medicine (http://www.PulseMed.org/). He is the author of the book "Powerful Body, Peaceful Mind: How to Heal Yourself with Foods, Herbs, and Acupressure" (November, 2004). Brian speaks on radio across the country, and has been quoted and interviewed by Real Simple, Glamour, and ESPN magazines.
|
|
|
|
|
| National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health |
| Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine offers access to health information for consumer, patient, and physicians ... |
| www.nlm.nih.gov |
|
| Health and Medical Information produced by doctors - MedicineNet.com |
| Doctor-produced health and medical information written for you to make informed decisions about your health concerns. |
| www.medicinenet.com |
|
| Medicine in the Yahoo! Directory |
| Collection of sites for health professionals, with sections on specific disciplines, organizations, continuing education, conferences, publications, ... |
| dir.yahoo.com |
|
| MedlinePlus Health Information from the National Library of Medicine |
| Health information from the National Library of Medicine. Easy access to Medline and Health topics, medical dictionaries, directories and publications. |
| medlineplus.gov |
|
| Medicine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Medicine is a branch of health science and the sector of public life ... The practice of medicine combines both science as the evidence base and art in the ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| Journal Home - Nature Medicine |
| Nature Medicine has a vacancy for a Locum Assistant Editor for six months. The position involves working in all aspects of the editorial process, ... |
| www.nature.com |
|
| The New England Journal of Medicine: Research & Review Articles on ... |
| The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a weekly general medical journal that publishes new medical research findings, review articles, and editorial ... |
| content.nejm.org |
|
| eMedicine Clinical Knowledge Base |
| eMedicine features up-to-date, searchable, peer-reviewed medical journals, online physician reference textbooks, and a full-text article database in 62 ... |
| www.emedicine.com |
|
| Open Directory - Health: Medicine |
| the entire directory, only in Health/Medicine. Top: Health: Medicine (11429). Description · Medical Specialties (4888); Surgery (2265) ... |
| dmoz.org |
|
| the www virtual library biosciences medicine |
| www.ohsu.edu/cliniweb/wwwvl/ - Similar pages |
|
|
| Medicine - home |
| Bimonthly journal covering the latest results in clinical investigation relevant to hospital and office practice. |
| www.md-journal.com |
|
| Institute of Medicine |
| The Institute of Medicine serves as adviser to the nation to improve health. |
| www.iom.edu |
|
| ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News |
| Medical Research News. Health news on everything from cancer to nutrition. Full-text, images, updated daily. |
| www.sciencedaily.com |
|
| Google Directory - Health > Medicine |
| Search only in Medicine Search the Web. Medicine. Health > Medicine, Go to Directory Home. Categories. Alternative Medicine (6308) Basic Sciences (66) ... |
| www.google.com |
|
| the world wide web virtual library biosciences medicine |
| www.mcb.harvard.edu/biopages/medicine.html - Similar pages |
|
|
| PLoS Medicine - A Peer-Reviewed Open-Access Journal |
| PLoS Medicine is a peer-reviewed, international, open-access journal published ... Every issue of PLoS Medicine contains a selection of readers' responses. ... |
| medicine.plosjournals.org |
|
| Medicine On-Line - Medicine Online -The International Medical Journal |
| Medicine Online - independent and peer reviewed journal published by Priory Medical Journals - priory.com. |
| www.priory.com |
|
| Entrez PubMed |
| PubMed is a service of the US National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for ... |
| www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |
|
| Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Home Page of the Stanford University School of Medicine. |
| med.stanford.edu |
|
| Medicine OnLine |
| Meds.com offers medical information and education on cancer (lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, leukemia) and HIV / AIDS for patients, ... |
| www.meds.com |
|
|