Chinese Medicine

[toptuan]

"Faith" is the operative word.

Au contraire, monsieur..."Fact" should be the operative word in this discussion.

After 10 years and $10,000+ of attempted diagnosis and unsuccessful treatment for TMJ (a painful jaw dysfunction), a $2.50 bottle of little black pills from a Chinese doctor, taken over two weeks, permanently cured me.

On TMJ therapy:

"If phase III therapy fails, psychological counseling is advised to identify stresses, and patients are referred to a" ..........

To a, to a,....... Chinese doctor, of course!

Glad it worked for you. Keep the Faith and don't let Facts get in the way.

Actually, I had no faith at all. I was dragged, kicking and screaming by some Vietnamese friends who insisted their Chinese doctor would fix me up. I went just to shut them up. Instead, it shut me up. And, having skipped the "psychological counseling" phase your source suggests, I'm just as crazy today as I was then!

Edited November 24, 2009 by toptuan

[amexpat]

Cool. It keeps you from going insane.

[FolkGuitar]

Quack practitioners don't stay in business very long. They don't get many 'word-of-mouth' referrals if their treatments don't work. They don't get many patients who return time and again. People 'vote' with their wallets.

But the use of Acupuncture as a treatment form has increased all over the world.

Chinese medical practitioners have spread through other countries.

Chiropractic medicine (which my father would ridicule) has helped millions.

Ayurvedic treatments (which I used to ridicule) has helped millions.

Does this mean that so many millions of people all over the world are stupid? Are they all idiots who can't tell if a treatment is working or not? Do they all just take on faith that they have been helped?

Or perhaps "there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are drempt of in your philosophy."

[Drew Aitch]

Despite man's independence and ability to think for himself, the 'millions' argument doesn't always carve the truth. It's a fact that most of the people on the planet are foot soldiers (followers) and easily influenced by those they look up to. Most go with whatever flow they've been taught to believe. There are millions more employees in the world than there are employers. People, especially the vulnerable in society (the sick and the weak), believe in stuff because parents, friends, educators, and leaders have told them to believe. When the foot soldier's boss, elder, or leader, advises, teaches, or preaches, he will say to himself, "Oh well, if so and so says it's right, then it must be so!".

Another example of the 'millions' argument is that of religion. The only thing that mankind knows about religion is written in story books for other 'men' to read. That's it! That's all there is! The written word of story tellers, who I hasten to add, often wrote tales about people and events some hundreds of years after the supposed happening. Not only did they not know the person, or people they wrote about, but they often came from different countries and cultures to their own.

A story teller and author from say Egypt heard a tale about someone who did something miraculous that lived 400 odd years ago in a distant land. He would then creatively write the story adding his own twist to it as he went along and it would then get published in one of the holy scripts.

Millions, dare I say billions, of folks around the world believe in the adult fairy tales of religion and make-believe gods (yes, there are new ones invented every few hundred years), but just because millions, billions, or trillions, of people over time have believed it to be true, it doesn't mean it is!!!!

Stories written by men for other men to read and believe is the same clever advertising hype that many (although not all), alternative medical practitioners use to give people belief in blind faith. They sell hype hope that the mysterious, mystical, and supernatural is there for all who want to 'pay' for it. It's funny how some parents tell their young kids, when they get to a certain age, that there is no such thing as the Tooth Fairy, yet in the same breath many will tell them that the fairy should now be replaced with a belief in angels. Aren’t angles just grown up tooth fairies who are stingy with their money!!!

The above is of course is just my humble opinion of which I'm entitled to. You can keep your spinning crystals, skinny needles, chanting, praying, voodoo dancing, healing flowers and feline spit, along with Chiang Mai's curiosity cure shops run by local Jeen entrepreneurs, and good luck to you. For me, I'd sooner go with the tried and tested pills, scalpels, and pain killers to cure and treat modern day ills that may plague my body some time in the future.

Earthlings need down-to-earth cures when they get sick. Save the hocus-pocus for other beings residing in the galactic confederation, that's what I say.

Aitch

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

Drew your trying to equate nearly mainstream alternatives like acupuncture, chiropractic and chinese medicine with voodoo and mystical rituals?

Chinese herbal medicine is just a fore runner of pharmaceutical medicine. In the old days they used plants, mineral, animals etc in combinations as a tea etc to alleviate symtoms and modify the body process. Modern pharmaceutical medicine takes many of these same plant, mineral sources and manipulates and modify them to produce a more targeted medicine. None of this stuff is coming from outer space. It's hardly anything to be mystified about.

Herbal medicine is gentle and does not work as quickly or dramatically but has fewer side effects

Pharmaceutical medicine is stronger and more effective against symptoms but more side effects

Western insurance companies pay out 100's of millions of dollars each year for acupuncture and chiropractic treatments. These companies are into making and saving money. If Acupuncture and chiropractic work well then they utilize it.

As folkguitar points out sometimes it's good to use allopathic medicine and sometimes its best to utilize eastern methods. Think of it like a tool box. If your toolbox is larger and has more tools then wisely using the various tools allows a better solution.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

-- F. Scott Fitzgerald

so yes Chinese medicine can be good and bad. Pharmaceutical medicine can be good and bad. It just depends on the specific health problem that is attempting to be solved.

[nakachalet]

CobraSnakeNeckti...

your post is reasonable and

you are wise beyond your years.... lol

Edited November 25, 2009 by nakachalet

[ferd54]

I live in Beijing. I recently went to the most renowned TCM pharmacy in the city to get something for joint pain. Like my other a previous experience with TCM, you're supposed to take a lot of this stuff -- 8 to 12 large capsules a day. The first time I took some (for another ailment) I felt very lightheaded. This time I got extremely ill, but it could have been something else that caused it.

I think this stuff is largely unregulated and made outside the standards used for Western pharmaceuticals. By the time you find out you're having a bad reaction, you've already pumped so much of this into your system that you're in for a good ride indeed.

I thought I'd give in a chance. I did, and won't do it again.

[nakachalet]

ferd54

did you ever ask the dispenser, what exactly are those little pieces of this and that and that....? lol

i did and tried to remember them.... then i just gave to my personal attendant what is left, after all those pieces of 'meat' were carefully discarded.... behind my beloved back.... and she does not have eyes behind her back either.... even though she often claims that she does.... lol

it is disgusting to swallow, chew, or even contemplate boiling them, then drinking the broth.... yukkkkkkkkkkyyyyyyyyyyy

of course, i do not mind those delicious smelling fragrances of the chinese herbs.... they smell very much like what i could recall in the days of my youth.... someone's skin after a fresh cold shower, after 15 min in the finn's sauna.... lol