Chinese medical education

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In a message dated 5/28/00 2:20:43 PM, yulong writes:

 

<< I'm not saying that such interests and pursuits are wrong.

Perhaps they are powerful and wonderful. I have not spent

much time pursuing them. And I do not mean to challenge

their efficacy, only to point out that they are not Chinese

medicine. >>

 

Does this mean that is not a paradigm of medicine, but a set

of textbooks that cannot be deviated from?

Can't a field of medicine be used to better understand observations made by

more current thinkers?

I was attracted to Oriental Medicine due to it's flexibility and it's ability

to fit alien observations into its milleau without confusion or judgement.

While I do understand that a number of generations of observation may be

necessary to codify, at the same time I am not of the belief of " withdrawing

certificates " or saying anyone is not doing Chinese medicine if they are

using treatment patterns other than those from ancient texts.

Oriental Medicine has always had the flexibility to embrace a variety of

views, which is its enduring legacy. Academic nationalism, while useful in

scholarly discussion, leads to a stunting of growth, as can be seen by the

present day pseudo-scientists who run the NIH and the FDA.

We need to remain open to the growth of our profession and to it's clinicians

using whatever means they feel comfortable with to dothe best for thier

patients. I might add that they also need to recognize the educational

requirements to ethically practice whatever they add on and that they are

best off looking at whatever they are doing and its results from an OM

viewpoint.

There is no doubt that OM can advance every patients well being, but when I

have a patient that can't handle herbs, I'll be damned if I don't use diet to

build them and NAET to remove impediments to their advance, and then use

herbs and whatever else I need to bring about a lasting state of health when

they can handle them.

I avoided NAET for 2 years as those around me had amazing success stories

because I thought it was flaky and I didn't understand it through my filters.

Then, I went for it and the results have been nothing short of miraculous,

but only if combined with herbs and diet at the right time and in the right

way. How do I know when that is? My Oriental Medicine diagnostic process. Do

we refuse patients who went to a homeopath before us? Then why can't we

integrate homeopathy into our practices as long as we get education to do so?

Don't get me wrong. I love academics. I have a friend who is an MD and whose

hobby is anatomy, for instance. He feels that MD's need another year of

anatomy. Could be.

College is there to provide inspiration and a construct from which to view

professional life. After college, one learns. Inspire your students to focus

on Chinese medicine and its uses, but don't denigrate their choices after

graduation, or work to legislate against their getting better at and using

those choices. Just an many remain dogmatically involved in Chinese medicine

as move away from it to look at other places where there is no set view vis a

vis textbooks. The way to tell if you have done your job as an OM instructor

is to find out how they look at the patient and the changes in that patient

they stimulate.

David Molony