TCM in china

[Guest guest]

, " Dagmar Riley " <dagmar-

riley@g...> wrote:

 

The outcome of this policy is: Western diagnosis and Chinese herbs.

Or, as above, western diagnosis and Western drugs. When I did my

clinical practice for acupuncture in the Dongzhimen hospital, I found

many doctors not even feeling the pulse and placing needles " as in

the book " , meaning according to fixed needle prescriptions without

any changes according to the individual case. Then again, there are

brilliant doctors. But they are mostly the old generation.

 

Dagmar

 

With all due respect to dissenting views, I have heard Dagmar's

sentiment expressed by many many travelers to China, none of whom I

will quote verbatim. But Volker Scheid had a scholarly article to

this effect several years ago in the European Journal of OM. This

opinion has also been expressed by Manfred Porkert, Paul Unschuld and

Heiner Fruehauf at various times. So it is clearly not without

foundation.

 

In fact, Fruehauf has tried to distinguish his program from state

sponsored integrative medicine by calling it classical chinese

medicine, a misnomer that nevertheless underscores his trong feeling

son this subject. I first met Dr.Fruehauf waiting on line for lunch

one day where he was railing about blood pressure cuffs replacing,

not supplementing, traditional methods in many hospitals

 

In addition, a number of chinese professors have confided in me that

many of those who really want to pursue TCM instead of integrative

medicine leave China for the west. That is one of the reasons that

PRC professors here in the west may not reflect the situation Dagmar

describes; they are the cream of the crop who has left China.

Apparently, cheng du is still somewhat of a bastion for

traditionalists, but there are even pressures there to change.

 

Largely, it comes down to market forces, ironically, not communism,

that is doing this. For one thing, development of products for sale

to the west is a large source of cash flow for most university

hospitals these days. Also, the prestige of western doctors is so

much higher than that of TCM doctors, that it is no suprise that TCM

doctors often end up practicing essentially western medicine with

herbs and acupuncture thrown in. They do this to make a living. The

modern chinese are as likely to want antibiotics for an acute

illnesses

asin the west. So while never having been to China myself, Dagmar's

tale rings true to me.

 

And while there are no doubt pockets of great enthusiasm and skill, I

think the opinion of a variety of detached scholars holds a lot of

weight here.