disease causes

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On Jun 20, 2004, at 7:16 AM, shannahickle wrote:

 

> Dear Todd

>

> I'm afraid you may have either misunderstood me or just forgotton

> your good old TCM 101.

 

 

Shanna

 

What you suggest as a basic point that I may have forgotten is hardly

the case. the distinction between etiology and pattern is a critical

one which I impress upon my students constantly. What you still seem

to be misunderstanding is the distinction I am making between generic

and differential remedies that one may apply after determining BOTH the

etiology and the pattern.

 

While I think generic relaxation techniques and other measures have

profound health benefits, I just see no sophistication in their one

size fits all recommendation. I have 2 students right now who work as

health coaches. They basically counsel stressed executives in generic

stress reduction measures. No medical training is required for this

job. In fact, it was merely the fact that they are massage therapists

that got them in the door.

 

Perhaps some examples will illustrate my point:

 

If a person is determined to have been injured by diet, is there just a

single remedy or a number of generic remedies or is the best remedy for

a diet caused disease one based upon the patients pattern dx? Of

course it is the latter. If diet is a factor in an illness of one who

is primarily damp and spleen xu, the remedy could be quite different

than in a diet caused illness of one who is primarily yin xu. Both of

these patterns could appear in diabetes in different stages

 

Or if a person suffers from lack of exercise, is there one generic

answer? Perhaps one pattern would benefit more from yoga, another from

martial arts, another from weightlifting, another from aerobics. In my

practice, I make these discriminations when prescribing exercise. A

very weak person if further weakened by overtaxation, so techniques

that gather strength are recommended fist. Likewise, young men with

excess yang conditions are often injured by supplementing exercises

like certain types of qi gong or bikram yoga, to name an example. Yet

the bikram yoga teachers in town say it is the best choice for anyone.

However sweating like a pig for hours in a 105 degree environment is

clearly not right for many. I find stretching good for hose who are

tight (liver qi stag) and weightlifting for those who are loose (spleen

qi xu), gathering qi gong for those who are taxed (kidney xu), etc.

 

Heiner Fruehauf lectured this weekend on a doctor in china he knows who

sees 300 patients a day and treats them all on the emotional level,

considering that emotions are the primary cause of chronic illness.

However, in almost eerily worsleyite fashion, this doctor treats the

emotions by differentiating the the patients by 5 phases and then

telling the patient a story designed to cause a shift in the patients

qi to correct the five phase imbalance. He recognizes emotions as the

cause, but treats the cause differentially. Now I am not saying that

treating the cause differentially is required for healing in all cases,

just treating the cause generically is really not sophisticated and

could be taught to kids in school. Eat right, exercise, relax, takes

drugs on only rare occasions, etc. To teach these skills does not

require medical training; to make differential recommendations does.

 

Or consider iatrogenesis, another common cause of illness. One can

only determine the source of the iatrogenesis after making the pattern

diagnosis. that does not equate the two, it just shows their

interrelationship. If a drug is known to cause yin xu, then such a

drug would be possible source of illness in a yin patient. but a drug

that typically caused damp or yang xu would not be the likely culprit.

 

You can't remedy the cause until you make the pattern dx. If you

could, then there would be no reason for TCM or any other professional

medicine to exist. As I have said many times, it is not a deficiency

of acupuncture or herbs that causes illness, it is the internal,

external and misc. causes. If the causes could be addressed

satisfactorily without differential diagnosis, then medical training is

not necessary at all.

 

 

 

Chinese Herbs

 

 

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