«思考中医»

[hbuchtel]

Hello, is anybody else reading the book "Contemplating Chinese Medicine" (思考中医)?

I bought a copy after hearing a lot about it from classmates and teachers. I'm only in the first chapter, but it seems the author (刘力红) is addressing many of the frustrations of learning CM in China.

One of his points is that if the level of CM practiced by most CM doctors today (basically a supplement to WM treatments) really represents the highest level of CM, then why are we wasting so much time teaching and studying it? Of course, he feels that the Doctorates and Doctors today don't really represent CM. So far in the book he's only given a few medical cases to justify this viewpoint- I hope there is more detail later.

Anybody else taken a look at this book?

Henry

[hbuchtel]

Here is the isbn- 9787563339198

Do you know how long your GP spent learning the acupuncture technique she uses? I think the author is talking about the usual 5-year bachelors (10 years for a Doctorate) CM program.

In most cases, the CM practiced in Chinese hospitals (including those which are called "Chinese Medicine Hospitals") is reduced to simple techniques that do not make use of the theory, diagnostic skills, etc that students spend so many years learning.

Henry

[gato]

In most cases, the CM practiced in Chinese hospitals (including those which are called "Chinese Medicine Hospitals") is reduced to simple techniques that do not make use of the theory, diagnostic skills, etc that students spend so many years learning.

I've been receiving accupuncture and accupressure treatment for upper back pain for the last month in a small clinic in Shanghai, and it's worked well for me. What's the difference between simple techniques and theory and diagnostic skills in practice?

[hbuchtel]

Myriam, where are you living? Is the three years of acupuncture study exclusively Chinese medicine?

Actually, for mainland China CM students, if you took away the English, Political, and WM classes, the remaining CM courses could easily be taught in 3 years.

gato, the author of the book is focusing on the use of herbal medicine (specifically the theory and formulas from «伤寒论» ("Treatise on Cold Damage"). Acupuncture and Tuina is a completely different branch of CM, and I'm not sure what the author's take would be on that.

To give an example of what he is talking about, a common treatment for a WM diagnosis of coronary heart disease is to use the "xue fu zhu yu" decoction, a formula created by Wang Qingren of the Qing dynasty based on his theories about blood stasis in the chest. The diagnostic skills used here are all from Western medicine, and there is no application of CM theory- it is simply "X WM diagnosis use X CM formula."

In the book Liu Lihong tells this story of his clinical experience just after graduating- an elderly patient came in with a high fever and the WM diagnosis of lung infection based on X-ray diagnosis. This is considered to be a very dangerous situation due to the age of the patient. Being a "young calf that fears no tiger," Dr. Liu decided to use his CM training to treat the patient. He took her pulse and examined her tongue, and gave her a prescription for a diagnosis of lung heat (肺热). Each time the patient took the decoction she would have clear diarrhea resembling the medicinal tea she just took. When, on the third day, the patient's fever had still not receded, Dr. Liu became very worried and rushed to his professor to ask for help. After listening to the description of the case, his professor determined it was a case of heat evil in the yang ming (阳明) and cold in the tai yin (太阴) channel. (This is based on the 6-channel theory from "Treatise on Cold Damage.") It would be necessary to treat both at the same time by applying a particular warming ointment (I cannot remember which- I don't have the book here) at the shen que acupuncture point and continuing with the previous cooling decoction. This treatment was carried out in the evening, and the next morning the patients temperature had returned to normal. She was shortly able to leave the hospital.

Dr. Liu's original mis-diagnosis occured because he didn't have a very good grasp of the necessary theory, which his professor did. When his mistake was corrected the results were immediate and effective. Liu Lihong said in the book that this case had a very deep impact on him and contributed to his current opinion about the situation of CM in China.

In most cases, a patient coming in with that WM diagnosis would simply get the standard WM treatment- there would be no question of using CM to treat such a dangerous case. This leads many people to say that CM is not effective, with the result that it is only used in a supplementary role.

Regards,

Henry

[gato]

Thanks, Henry. Very interesting.