defining medicine

[Guest guest]

We are practicing a professional form of medicine. What distinguished

all professional medicines from folk medicine, self-medication, fitness

and self-cultivation is differential diagnosis. This is true of

ayurveda, unani, TCM and even WM. Our primary skill is our diff dx

skill. Many other folks use herbs and acupuncture and nutrition and

exercise and stress management techniques in their practices or

professions or jobs. But none of this is professional medicine unless

it involves diff dx. for example, yoga can be prescribed by ayurvedic

physicians based upon diff dx. of dosha. A yoga therapist might

recommend postures for specific symptoms regardless of pattern and a

yoga teacher might teach the same class to 50 people regardless of

pattern or complaint. Only the ayurvedic physician is practicing

medicine in my mind. He is using skills of diff dx that took years to

master. People teach yoga classes after a 6 month teacher training

program. granted there are teachers of greater and lesser skill and

experience, but one can safely and effectively teach yoga after a short

training. If you use yoga according to diff dx, that is medicine, but

if not, then it is fitness or self-cultivation. It diminishes the

value of our actual professional training if we lump generic yoga or

generic tai ji or generic qi gong or generic bodywork into TCM. The

public knows all of these things are done well by those with minimal

training, so if herbs are just one more generic holistic modality the

logical conclusion is that one should get their herbs from a health

food store clerk and save a few bucks. We should vigorously support

the use and promotion of all such ancillary modalities, but it is a

mistake to make these practices (and their spiritual trappings) central

features of our medicine. An MD would not teach his own yoga classes,

though most MD's would recommend them today. Now if one wanted to

teach a yoga class for liver qi stagnation or spleen qi xu, that's

another thing altogether. But if one starts to get precise about

things like yoga therapy, one better be on solid ground and not just

MSU. If you start to dig, I think people will find that qi gong as a

modality based upon diff dx has never been well developed in china. It

has been a generic, often cult-bound, health practice. It has value,

but it is not medicine in my mind. again, practice as you please, I

just think many of us do not want to be labeled as new age jacks of all

trades, but want to do serious diff dx and the rational treatments

derived therefrom.

 

 

Chinese Herbs

 

 

FAX: