was Kidney deficiency Now Western Versus Chinese differentiation

[Guest guest]

Just a quick note on this discussion. I read in one

book the following levels of differentiation:

 

The first simply involves western disease categories

as they exist, linear and reductionistic in nature.

 

The second category involves using western disease

entities as the top level name and then doing a _kind_

of TCM pattern differentiation. This is known as

" typing " . i.e. " Asthma " and then the different types

of asthma. This is _not_ a TCM pattern

differentiation. It is " typing " .

 

The third category is exactly the TCM pattern

discrimination, which, like it or not, does not fit

either of the above methods. It is a fluid, supple

system which needs to be taken as a whole, or it loses

its fluidity and eventually its effectiveness.

Looking for a symptom, say 'wheezing', we will not

find it neatly under the category of 'lungs' or

'breathing' or 'asthma' - instead it will be

dispersed, seemingly randomly, throughout the TCM

canon.

 

This is one thing which I have found difficult but

very rewarding in my studies - symptoms are never easy

to look up, but the search takes you places which

bring to light how complex and truly inter-related the

human body and its environment is and are. How

non-categorizable the situation is.

Of course we can categorise to an extent, but best

done with the understanding that categories are a

crutch for a temporary or limited use only, I think.

 

Bye for now,

Hugo

 

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[Guest guest]

> This is one thing which I have found difficult but

> very rewarding in my studies - symptoms are never easy

> to look up, but the search takes you places which

> bring to light how complex and truly inter-related the

> human body and its environment is and are. How

> non-categorizable the situation is.

> Of course we can categorise to an extent, but best

> done with the understanding that categories are a

> crutch for a temporary or limited use only, I think.

 

Thanks, Hugo.

 

In an ideal world any Western health care professionals who wanted to

learn TCM could afford the money and time to study TCM in depth for a

prolonged period. But this is not an ideal world, and few will be

able to do this. The next best teaching method is to provide them

with lists of what TCM imbalances can underlie specific Western-

defined disorders. When used correctly, this method can help both

their confidence and their TCM analysis abilities.

 

But, in order for this to work properly, they have to learn the

basics of TCM first. It won't work if all they do is to go down a

symptom checklist of possible underlying TCM Roots for a particular

disorder. When used properly, what they do is to start formulating

the TCM diagnosis based on what they have learned. The list of

possible underlying TCM imbalances for a particular disorder only

serves as confirmation that they know what they're doing and to add

further details to enable them to reach a correct analysis.

 

One of the things that I recommend that Western health care

professionals make a priority in their TCM learning are Hot and

Cold. And also know the signs and symptoms of False Heat - True Cold

and False Cold - True Heat. Not only is the concept of Hot/ Cold the

easiest for most Westerners to really understand, knowing the signs

and symptoms of Heat and Cold is something that is going to make a

difference in a great number of cases. Think of it as the maximum

return for the time and effort spent learning and understanding a

concept.

 

One reason why it's so very important that Western health care

professionals who wish to use TCM put forth the time and effort to

learn the basics is that TCM is more holistically oriented than

Western allopathic medicine is. Western medicine should be more

holistically oriented than it is practiced. Anatomy AND physiology

is a required course for many Western health care professionals. But

the physiology part often gets short-shift in the methods used in

Western research and diagnosis. It's far easier to do research (or

make a diagnosis) when one isolates certain factors for examination.

But the real world doesn't work like this. Anything one does to the

body - be it the administration of a prescription drug, a change in

diet, the administration of an herb, the working of an acupoint,

massage, chiropathic/ oseopathic adjustment, etc. is going to have

mulitple effects on the body. It's not a straight line effect, it's

more like a ripple effect.

 

I was very fortunate in that when I took anatomy and physiology, the

emphasis was on the physiology. I learned to think automatically in

terms of how one thing could affect so many different things in the

body. I think this is one of the things that enabled me to pick up

TCM so easily and so quickly. I already was thinking in holistic

terms.

 

When a Westerner learns the basics of TCM and starts to gain

understanding, the Westerner is beginning to think holistically. This

frequently carries back to the way they view Western medicine. They

start to be more aware of multiple effects and how everything in the

body affects everything else, be it in a TCM framwork or a Western

physiology framework.

 

Victoria