by any means

[Guest guest]

What I/we all see from the patient's side many times is that they come

to us precisely because we are not the Western paradigm. We offer them

a way out of the " alienation of health " where their lab tests are more

important than them. Eventually, the candles and little shrines may

seem superfluous to the experienced practitioner but to many patients

these artifacts of Eastern thought it is a dream space beyond the

prison of (Western) rationality. For those with " definable " diseases,

(i.e. diabetes, hepatitis, high blood pressure) we risk perpetuating

schizophrenia in the patient when take the lab tests as important as

their Western doc. Don't get me wrong (!), I'm all for curing diseases

(by any means necessary, right on!) but just putting a word in for the

shaman vote out there.

doug

 

 

someone wrote :-)

But doesn't diabetes include peripheral neuropathies, impotence, loss

of eyesight, etc. as part of the disease? The glucose levels are just

the most dramatic and visible part of the disease.

[Guest guest]

What I/we all see from the patient's side many times is that they come to us precisely because we are not the Western paradigm. We offer them a way out of the "alienation of health" where their lab tests are more important than them. Eventually, the candles and little shrines may seem superfluous to the experienced practitioner but to many patients these artifacts of Eastern thought it is a dream space beyond the prison of (Western) rationality. For those with "definable" diseases, (i.e. diabetes, hepatitis, high blood pressure) we risk perpetuating schizophrenia in the patient when take the lab tests as important as their Western doc. Don't get me wrong (!), I'm all for curing diseases by any means necessary, right on!) but just putting a word in for the shaman vote out there.dougDoug, I agree wholeheartedly. I left medical school in the 3rd year and went into basic sciences and began teaching because I thought I could make a difference in that realm. I felt I was becoming an agent of the problem in medical school. There may well be an enlightened cohort of researchers out there who may be guided by larger prinicples in their work and less guided by needing to publish the next paper and find a product for the industry.

 

Emmanuel Segmen