The Treatment of Modern Western - Biblio.nhat-nam.ru

2 THE TREATMENT OF MODERN WESTERN DISEASES WITH CHINESE MEDICINEBASIC PREREQUISITES FOR TREATING MODERN WESTERN DISEASES WITH CHINESE MEDICINALS• Basic Chinese medical physiology• Basic Chinese medical pathophysiology• The four examinations• Basic Chinese medical pattern discrimination• Basic Chinese medical treatment principles• Materia medica (not less than 160 individualChinese medicinals)• Formulas & prescriptions (not less than 70 basic formulas)• Processing Chinese medicinals• Combining Chinese medicinals• Modifying formulas with additions & subtractions• The Chinese medicinal treatment of two dozen or moretraditional Chinese diseaseswork overlaps, each modality has its own huge body of informationwhich must be memorized and mastered. This contemporaryseparation in the practice of these two modalitiesmirrors the situation in most Asian countries throughout themajority of historical periods. 2 In the West, most students areexpected to learn both modalities in 3-4 years of often parttimetraining possibly conducted at night and on weekends.Because most Western practitioners of Chinese medicinepractice both modalities concurrently on the majority of theirpatients, we have given both Chinese medicinal and acupunctureprotocols for each pattern of each disease discussed.However, to practice either modality competently requires agreat deal of study and practice. Further, some diseasesrespond better to internal medicine than to acupuncture,while other diseases are adequately treated by acupuncturealone. When one is truly competent in either of these modalities,then one understands what one can and cannot treatefficiently and effectively. Those conditions which fall outsidethe scope of one’s personally practiced modality should bereferred to a specialist expert in the other modality.If one has not completed the above elementary courses inChinese medicine, then one cannot reasonably and responsiblyuse the material in this or similar Chinese medicalclinical manuals. Chinese medicine is not safe and effectivebecause its modalities are either Chinese or natural.Chinese medicine is safe and effective because of its prescriptivemethodology, and one cannot apply this prescriptivemethodology in a professionally standard, competentway until or unless one has mastered the foregoing coursework. 32. THE CHINESE MEDICALPRESCRIPTIVE METHODOLOGYBasically, the Chinese medical prescriptive methodology canbe summed up in four Chinese words: bian zheng lun zhi.This means that, no matter what the patient’s disease diagnosis,professionally administered Chinese medical treatmentis primarily predicated on the patient’s Chinese patterndiscrimination. When Chinese doctors say that treatmentshould be based on the patient’s personal pattern discrimination,they are implicitly juxtaposing this methodology withthat of basing treatment primarily on the patient’s diseasediagnosis. In Chinese, this other methodology is called bianbing lun zhi. Basing treatment primarily on disease diagnosisis the prescriptive methodology of both modern Westernmedicine and most Chinese folk medicine. According to thislatter methodology, patients with the same disease get thesame treatment. However, in standard professionally practicedChinese medicine, patients with the same disease donot always get the same treatment. Thus it is said:Different diseases, same treatment (yi bing tong zhi)Same disease, different treatment (tong bing yi zhi)This means that two patients with different named diseasediagnoses will receive different Chinese medical treatments iftheir Chinese patterns are different. In fact, not only will thetreatment for one patient not help the other, it may, in fact,cause serious harm. Conversely, two patients with differentdisease diagnoses will receive the same treatment in Chinesemedicine if their Chinese patterns are the same. For instance,one patient may be diagnosed as suffering from systemiclupus erythmatosus and another from Lyme disease. InWestern medicine, these are two different disease diagnoses.One is an autoimmune disease and the other is an infectiousdisease. Nevertheless, if these two patients both exhibit thesame Chinese patterns, their Chinese medical treatment willbe essentially the same and possibly even identical.THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEENDISEASES & PATTERNSBoth diseases and patterns have their pathognomonic ordefining signs and symptoms. However, the defining signsand symptoms of patterns are always more inclusive than thedefining signs and symptoms of a disease. Said the other wayround, the defining signs and symptoms of a disease arealways only part of the signs and symptoms of the patient’spattern. The defining signs and symptoms of a patient’s patternare all those deviations in all bodily functions and