History repeats itself

[Guest guest]

To all who will listen,

 

I have kept myself on the sidelines these past few

months as the future of Chinese medicine in the US has

been debated intellectually and textually on the CHA.

For the most part I have remained silent due to the

simple logistical reason of lack of time. It takes a

lot of energy and time to confront this issue, and yet

it is a VERY important issue to all of us in the

profession. The choices we make as individual

practitioners today, will guide the direction of

Chinese medicine in this country through this century.

This was made quite clear to me as i recently read

about an uncannily similar debate undertaken 100 years

ago, by another " alternative " group of medical

practioners the Osteopaths.

The debate was essentially between the " Lesion

osteopaths " -those DOs who wanted their profession and

schooling to be strictly about the fundamental

teachings of their medicine as espoused by their

founder Andrew Still, and the " Broad Osteopaths " -those

who believed in 'integrating' their medicine with the

Allopathic modalities of the time(surgery, materia

medica, obstetrics, etc.) The profession was literally

split down the middle(of course delighting the AMA who

im sure at the time would not have shed a tear if the

DOs had disappeared altogether as a result of the

split). Eventually the modernization of medicine and

a greater scope of practice led the " Broad DOs " to win

the debate in the end. And so modern osteopathy 100

years later is the only other medical system in the US

with a full scope of practice next to the MDs. But

the question can be asked at what price did the

profession pay. They are fully integrated, and yet

Osteopathic manipulation is rarely used by the

profession as a whole. Only a small percentage of DOs

use manipulation. But they are full fledged

physicians with full benefits and (arguably)the same

respect....So was it a victory or a loss??? Any of

you who do not think this example is relevant to our

profession better brush up on your history, and on the

concept of yin and yang. History has the surprising

way of repeating itself ie. yin becomes yang and yang

becomes yin.. What we do today will influence the

future direction of our profession like it or not..

As for myself I do hold a strong opinion on the

direction I would like to see the profession develop.

I believe integration is inevitable and

good(optimist). So I have taken myself back to

school, and have almost completed a 2nd Bachelors in

Biology, and hope to make it into a DO school sometime

in the next year or two. With a solid background in

medicine, I will be able to practice what I want,

whenever and wherever I want, not becoming dependent

on the political and philosophical whims and biases of

others. And through this foundation I can be a true

physician of medicine(using all the tools in the

medicine bag to help my patients get BETTER, whether

it be needles, herbs, stem cells, pharmaco, etc).

I now step off the soap box and leave it to others..

 

Anton.

 

...Infinite gratitude to all things past..

....Infinite respect to all things present...

.....Infinite responsibility to all things future....

......Tao.....

 

 

 

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