Chinese Trad Medicine Is Bs

[udon]

Transcript....

The World Today - Thursday, 26 October , 2006 12:50:00

Reporter: Stephen McDonell

ELEANOR HALL: A Chinese professor has started a storm of controversy with an online campaign to have traditional Chinese medicine removed from his country's public health system.

Professor Zhang Gongyao says Chinese medicine is not scientifically proven and can be dangerous.

But defenders of the craft have accused the professor of being ignorant of history and blind to the demonstrable benefits of Chinese medicine.

China Correspondent, Stephen McDonell reports.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: For thousands of years, the Chinese have been treating their ailments with traditional Chinese medicine, using ground up plants, sometimes animal parts and also treatments like acupuncture and cupping.

It's deeply rooted in Chinese culture, but Professor Zhang Gongyao says it's conceptually vague, unreliable and sometimes unsafe. Now he wants the Government to dump it from the official health system.

(Zhang Gongyao speaking)

"What I want to say is that medical science is very serious. We should seriously research and discuss it. Some of our out-of-date concepts should be renewed and changed. We should use a scientific attitude to treat human beings and their lives".

Professor Zhang told the ABC that he started his campaign against government funding of traditional medicine after years of studying it as a specialist in medical history.

He's been using his website to garner support for the shift and it's in internet chatrooms where he, in turn, is being attacked as ignorant of his own culture and history.

That's not surprising, according to Shen Zhixiang, the Director of Government's Administrative Bureau of Traditional Chinese Medicine, who also claims Professor Zhang is ignorant.

(Shen Zhixiang speaking)

"The Government's been investing more on the development of traditional Chinese medicine using scientific research, good medical practice, planting herbs, and developing the factories.

We've already done a lot of research on the safety of traditional medicine. We've even used clinical trials".

Since the revolution, the Communist Party has supported the development of both Chinese and Western medicine.

In this way, to throw traditional medicine practitioners out of hospitals would be to admit a failure of Government policy.

So, not surprisingly, Government figures have been quick to dismiss the campaign as without merit, saying Chinese medicine will remain an officially sanctioned treatment.

Professor Zhang says he's not deterred.

(Zhang Gongyao speaking)

"I only care how to pursue the truth. If I find the truth, I will use my own way to deliver it. How other people view it, how the Government views it, that's their business".

One thing this campaign shows is the growing power of the internet in China.

Some commentators say the speed of the Government to dismiss Professor Zhang and support traditional medicine has more to do with a fear of this type of online subversion.

ELEANOR HALL: China Correspondent, Stephen McDonell.

ABC (Aus)

How a tiger's penis is good for your health is a classic example of Chinese BS.

[londonthai]

part of the chinese medicine is tui-na massage - which is a pretty good technique (as good as traditional thai massage). I don't mind if it stayed part of the free national health service.

[John K]

I don’t want to sound crazy here but western medicine is in it for the money, and it would seem they want as many people as possible on some sort of drug.

Chinese medicine comes from nature as does many western medicines. The one difference is western medicine is much more controlled in consistency where Chinese can vary from batch to batch.

I think that there is a blending of the two that has yet to be found.

[LaoPo]

I don’t want to sound crazy here but western medicine is in it for the money, and it would seem they want as many people as possible on some sort of drug.

Chinese medicine comes from nature as does many western medicines. The one difference is western medicine is much more controlled in consistency where Chinese can vary from batch to batch.

I think that there is a blending of the two that has yet to be found.

There is.

In most Chinese hospitals (believe me, I've been there for treatment) they have 2 pharmacies; 1 for so called 'Western' medicines and 1 for traditional herbal medicine.

It's up to the Doctors what they prescribe for their patients.

The problem is that Western people/doctors don't know anything about the Chinese traditional medication and therefore it's easy to say: 'it's rubbish'.

The point is that Chinese herbal medication had very bad press because in the past they used indeed odd and strange ingredients, like mentioned before (tiger penis), and that sort of things.

That kind of ingredients is history.

One particular article in the press from one particular Chinese Doctor is not going to change the traditional Chinese medication in a country with 1.3 Billion people.

A thousands-of-years history and knowledge of traditional herbal medication can't be that bad...can it ?

The same for acupuncture, but that's another story....

LaoPo

[fruittbatt]

A good TCM practitioner and a good WM practitioner will both admit the strengths and limits of their respective traditions. My TCM practitioner in Australia ALWAYS referred my family to doctors/specialists/other medical services, when he considered this was indicated. I have also been to doctors who incorporated acupuncture and herbal remedies into their WM practices.

IMHO Western medicine is great for fractures. MRI's and CT scans are often invaluable technologies. Lasers are a brilliant invention.

TCM is great for organic/neurological problems. My family has been treated successfully by TCM for ailments ranging from Bell's palsy to period pain to migraine headaches.

I hope China will adopt a holistic approach and not throw 2000 years of TCM benefits overboard in its rush to modernise.

Incidentally, the efficacy of Chinese herbs was developed over many centuries by trial and error. Herbalists experimented first on themselves, sometimes with fatal results!

Edited November 9, 2006 by fruittbatt

[joinme2leave]

as about my own experience with TCM.....it helped. it was dammmmn cheap (but this wasn't the reason for me to use it). and i would do it again and again and again.