clinical experiences

March 27, 2005

Below is a list of modern western diseases. I chose the most common

internal disorders I see in clinic and my comments refer only to the

chronic forms. I have personally managed at least a dozen or more long

term cases of each of these conditions, usually a few dozen and

sometimes over a 100 (migraines, for example) except for the few as

noted (like ALS). In almost all cases, the patients experienced

syndrome relief of varying degrees for varying periods of time. But I

cannot think of a single case where rectifying the pathomechanisms as

understood by any form of traditional chinese herbology or acupuncture

actually eliminated the disease for good. Perhaps it is my failings.

Or perhaps the failure of my patients to properly comply. I could

accept that. I am certainly quite imperfect and don't even get me

started on the whole compliance thing. But I have attempted for many

years to check my observations against the results of my colleagues in

the PCOM clinic as well as soliciting for any documentation of cures of

such cases from anyone on this list or anyone they know. I even set up

an easy to use online databases to collect the results. It remains

essentially unused 5 years later. Perhaps folks are too busy to report

the data, but I find that hard to believe. So the only conclusion I

can come to based upon this long observation is that cure of chronic

illness is not one of TCM's great strengths.

For most of the conditions below, TCM gives decent to superb relief of

syndromes as well as positively affecting lab values where applicable.

However, this is often accomplished by combination of drugs and herbs.

We have no choice often in the states and this also seems to be the

purposeful trend in the modern chinese clinical research literature.

Superior results seem to be always obtained in combination drug-herb

therapy, not one or the other. And WM alone is quite toxic in most

conditions listed below. But for many of the patients in these

studies, the assumption would appear to be lifelong use of both the

herbs and the drugs in some form. Check out all the DM abstracts on

the www.chinesemedicaldiabetes.com site for examples. While most of

the conditions below are affected by a range of lifestyle factors such

as diet, most of them are also probably strongly affected by genetics

or involve chronic low grade infections and thus can never be

completely eliminated from the body. This is recognized by ayurveda is

their designation of constitutions as defects. And that one can only

offset the inherent defects for so long before the defects win.

If you accept the facts of evolutionary biology, then there really is

no mystery as to why people get all these various illnesses. It is

merely a quirk of fate. All species evolve the necessary fitness to

reproduce themselves successfully. Nature has no stake in longevity

and in fact human longevity has likely been detrimental to ecosystems.

The fact that some animals live a long time is just an aberration.

Most animals do not live much past reproduction and child rearing. So

in the long course of human evolution, many genes were selected because

they increased reproductive fitness. It is likely that many

genetically rooted diseases (which more and more will shown to be) are

unfortunate tradeoffs made in this process. If a gene keeps you alive

long enough to reproduce in some way, but hypothetically also has a

built in time bomb in the form of a disease like alzheimers, then it is

just a quirk of fate that you will live long enough in modern times to

see the bomb detonate. No amount of lifestyle or diet or TCM is gonna

help. Call it karma, if you like.

Only some way of rejuvenating damaged or defective or infected cells at

the nuclear level could correct genetically rooted problems. TCM has

the concept of jing, but has always been bound by the precept that

prenatal jing cannot be altered, though they certainly tried. One of

my chinese colleagues sees most patients as having jing disorders and

frequently prescribes zi he che. His key sign is the tender tongue

(which I see on most chronic patients). For a modern spin on zi he che

that might really be able to rejuvenate essence, check out information

on umbilical cord blood stem cells (www.biomark.com is one site). If

anyone finally wants to challenge this hypothesis, I will be glad to

entertain any data to contradict it. I have read mountains of chinese

clinical research and while most shows some degree of syndromic relief,

including what they call cure or markedly improved, none unequivocally

documents eradication of such illnesses with TCM principles alone. I

am not suggesting current WM does any better in most cases, but western

medicine is about to make a quantum leap and TCM has little to offer

that has not yet been written. WM' s future might turn out be a

disaster, but I do not see any indication that TCM will ever be able to

alter the jing level of pathology and thus will always be limited to

syndromic treatment or allopathic use of herbs to later biochemistry

directly.

Now all of this of course brings up the issue of whether we should even

consider altering essence (gene therapy, stem cells, etc.) in order to

treat illness. A few things come to mind. All of medicine is human,

not natural, per se. An invention of the mind, often involving some

degree of technology (tool use). Everyone has their own line to draw

on this matter, but those lines usually blur as soon as something

dramatic happens. If stem cell therapy cured Alzheimers, you'd see any

objections fizzle fast. All I can say is that the chinese recognized

some essence passed from mom and dad to be the foundations of health.

They tried to alter it in may ways, including qi gong, internal and

external alchemy, use of substances like cinnabar. Yet they failed.

Instead, TCM focused on symptoms and syndromes since certain root

causes could not be affected. But now we have more data, so does it

violate TCM to receive a cord blood injection. While derived from a

high tech procedure, it is really no different than taking an essence

tonic to try and rejuvenate oneself, except that this or future

variants may actually work. For most of the disease below, there is a

time in one's life before they emerge. If ones cells could be

maintained at that level of vitality or altered in some way to prevent

the manifestation of the defects altogether, it would be a whole new

ballgame.

Many of the things that used to be assumed to be magic by the ancients

now exist due to modern technology - flying, communicating at a

distance by sending messages along invisible waves of force, explosive

power to destroy a whole city, access to the entire world's knowledge

from ones desktop, see images at a distance, etc.. Is it so

unfathomable that previously unimaginable miracles of healing due to

technology are just about here as well. We just mapped the human

genome ten years ago. This is all just beginning, like computers in

1945. Forgot everything you ever thought you knew about western

biology and medicine. As for syndromes, they will still arise even in

those who regularly undergo rejuvenation treatments. And they will

still have be treated in the most noniatrogenic way possible. The gift

TCM has to offer modern medicine is not is purported ability to cure

chronic illness, but what is can contribute to developing effective,

safe strategies to manage chronic illness. Syndromes are the key to

this. When one focuses solely on either symptoms or biochemistry, one

gets side effects. Only by determining the syndrome can one treat

illness without negative consequences. But treating illness is

different than curing it and many patients I meet are under the

impression that they have a god given right to live a life free of the

regular use of any drugs, herbs or other medicinals. We need to

dispense with that madness.

chronic acne

allergic rhinitis

alzheimers

(ALS - 2)

(Aplastic Anemia - 2)

BPH

chronic asthma

chronic bronchitis

hep C

chronic pancreatitis

chronic prostatitis

chronic sinusitis

atherosclerosis

heart disease

hypertension

insomnia

major depression

generalized anxiety disorder

bipolar disorder

schizophrenia

crohn's

diabetes

hypothyroid

hyperthyroid

interstitial cystitis

(macular degeneration - 5)

meniere's

migraines

MS

Osteoarthritis

Parkinson's

Stomach ulcer

RA

(Scleroderma - 5)

Lupus

Ulcerative colitis

Chinese Herbs

March 27, 2005

WM does any better in most cases, but western

medicine is about to make a quantum leap and TCM has little to offer

that has not yet been written.

>>>Todd that is the attitude of the traditionalists. I think we can improve on

what TCM can offer. It is true however that WM is on a verge of a great

revolution, that is genetic and molecular understanding of many diseases and

what promises to be a much less toxic approach to treat these.

March 27, 2005

The real breakthrough will not be in chemistry but in quantum physics so I

guess they have a ways to go.

Mike W. Bowser, L Ac

> " " <alonmarcus

>

>Re: clinical experiences

>Sun, 27 Mar 2005 14:13:16 -0600

>

>WM does any better in most cases, but western

>medicine is about to make a quantum leap and TCM has little to offer

>that has not yet been written.

> >>>Todd that is the attitude of the traditionalists. I think we can

>improve on what TCM can offer. It is true however that WM is on a verge of

>a great revolution, that is genetic and molecular understanding of many

>diseases and what promises to be a much less toxic approach to treat these.

>

April 5, 2005

One small project I am attempting is to get patients to keep long-term

records of recalcitrant conditions such as eczema, including periods of

outbreak and remission, situational stresses, diet, moving to new

locations, etc., to see how such conditions respond to changes in the

internal and external environments. I see Chinese medical treatment as

a way of adding one more set of influences to such conditions, steering

the course of a disease towards remission or a low-grade chronic

condition that is not life-threatening or overly damaging to quality of

life. We need to develop protocols for long-term followup and

observation in such conditions, with patient participation.

Certainly genetic medicine holds great promise, but we also need to

advance the tools of our own medical system as well and apply them in

new ways.

On Mar 27, 2005, at 10:53 AM, wrote:

> But I have attempted for many

> years to check my observations against the results of my colleagues in

> the PCOM clinic as well as soliciting for any documentation of cures of

> such cases from anyone on this list or anyone they know. I even set up

> an easy to use online databases to collect the results. It remains

> essentially unused 5 years later. Perhaps folks are too busy to report

> the data, but I find that hard to believe. So the only conclusion I

> can come to based upon this long observation is that cure of chronic

> illness is not one of TCM's great strengths.

>

April 6, 2005

Hi Z'ev,

I agree with this. Right now I have a patient who has chronic low back pain

which is worse only when she is tired, so I am having her keep track of what

makes her tired and what alleviated this tiredness. I see having patients keep

records of their condition's progress as part patient education, and part

enrolling our patients in taking better care of themselves.

<zrosenbe wrote: