biomedical TCM

[Guest guest]

Sometimes I wonder what all the fuss is about when there are

discussions about how Chinese medicine is being enslaved to biomedicine.

After all, are these articles appearing in present-day magazines not

just a continuation of Chinese medicine?

Agreed, the information presented in such articles is not complete,

but the same can be said from textbooks. Articles and textbooks are

only indications of patterns one is most likely to encounter in

clinical practice. It is up to the practitioner to just follow these

guidelines or to accept them as ideas, as building blocks for the

actual practice.

 

I mean, what is the alternative? We have to start somewhere, right? So

why not from a biomedical diagnosis like " deep vein thrombosis " ? 500

years ago it might have been called tui tong/ leg pain, but what's the

difference? We still have to do an analysis, and with the biomedical

information that we have now, we may be able to know more about

pathology than 500 years ago.

 

If we would all forget about bian zheng and the classics, then there

would be a problem. But this is not happening- Chinese textbooks are

filled with quotes from the classics and students still recite them

(don't know if they always " get " them but that's another topic). And

bian zheng is our duty. So I am not worried by the inclusion of

biomedical information into Chinese medicine. Z'ev might say we don't

even know our Chinese stuff and he may be right, but is that really a

reason to stop this evolution?

 

Tom.

[Guest guest]

Tom,

For you there may be no fuss, because you are fairly fluent in

Chinese language (judging by your excellent translation skills), and

you have full access to the Chinese medical literature, and you

obviously study it. For the vast majority of practitioners in the

West, however, this is sadly not the case. If the foundations in

Chinese medical theory are strong, then one can adapt information

from any place, and not just biomedicine, but also Ayurvedic

medicine, homeopathy, or naturopathy, for example. Bian bing/or

disease differentiation is one of the diagnostic criteria of Chinese

medicine, and one can input Western disease information into this

categorization method, and then determine further bian zheng lun zhi

from there. Zhang Xi-chun, who was one of the first

'integrationists' of the early 20th century, taught that one could

input data from biomedicine into Chinese medicine, as long as the

criteria of Chinese medicine were not compromised. Today, this is

clearly not the case. There is great pressure both in the East and

West for Chinese medicine and other indigenous medical systems to

conform to the criteria of biomedicine in order to survive.

Other than this, there are the other cultural, economic and

social forces that make it difficult to absorb and maintain the

mentality behind bian zheng lun zhi. Judging by the majority of

posts on this and other lists, pattern-based thinking is not well

ingrained in Western practitioners of CM. This to me is of great

concern.

 

 

 

On Jan 27, 2006, at 1:09 AM, Tom Verhaeghe wrote:

 

> Sometimes I wonder what all the fuss is about when there are

> discussions about how Chinese medicine is being enslaved to

> biomedicine.

> After all, are these articles appearing in present-day magazines not

> just a continuation of Chinese medicine?

> Agreed, the information presented in such articles is not complete,

> but the same can be said from textbooks. Articles and textbooks are

> only indications of patterns one is most likely to encounter in

> clinical practice. It is up to the practitioner to just follow these

> guidelines or to accept them as ideas, as building blocks for the

> actual practice.

>

> I mean, what is the alternative? We have to start somewhere, right? So

> why not from a biomedical diagnosis like " deep vein thrombosis " ? 500

> years ago it might have been called tui tong/ leg pain, but what's the

> difference? We still have to do an analysis, and with the biomedical

> information that we have now, we may be able to know more about

> pathology than 500 years ago.

>

> If we would all forget about bian zheng and the classics, then there

> would be a problem. But this is not happening- Chinese textbooks are

> filled with quotes from the classics and students still recite them

> (don't know if they always " get " them but that's another topic). And

> bian zheng is our duty. So I am not worried by the inclusion of

> biomedical information into Chinese medicine. Z'ev might say we don't

> even know our Chinese stuff and he may be right, but is that really a

> reason to stop this evolution?

>

> Tom.

Chinese Herbal Medicine offers various professional services,

> including board approved continuing education classes, an annual

> conference and a free discussion forum in Chinese Herbal Medicine.

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

I'm going to take the chance and post this abstract I found at:

http://www.nricm.edu.tw/icom12/pdfpaper/O-18.pdf

 

(By the way encoded weith GB 2312 Simplified)

 

Obviously the nricm.edu.tw site is worthy of a further look...

doug

____________

 

The Inspection of Bing-Ji (??) in Nei-Jing (??)

 

Yu-Sheng Chen, Jin-Lie Hong, Hen-Hong Chang

 

Center for Traditional , Chang Gung Memorial Hospital & Graduate

Institute of Traditional , Chang Gung University, Taiwan

 

In the early era of 1950, it was encouraged to develop traditional Chinese

medicine

research in China Mainland. Ying-Qiu Ren (???) published " the system of Bian

Zheng Lun Zhi (????, Zheng differentiation to therapy decision) in traditional

Chinese medicine (TCM) " . Bo-Wei Quin (???) and Chun-Hua Jiang (???)

also discussed this system by a few articles. These points of view decided the

special

position of this Zheng (?) system in TCM. Almost all the doctors in TCM need to

use and discuss Zheng (?) in their practice. In the same time, all the TCM

researchers encounter some problems of the system of Zheng (?), including: What

is

the nature of this system? How it should be practiced? How do the majority

accept

this system? The teaching material of TCM in China Mainland emphasized that

Zheng (?) is the pathological summary related to the disease development and

course,

including Bing-Yin (??, similar to " etiology " ), Bing-Wei (??, similar to

" focus " ),

Bing-Xing (??, similar to " characteristics " ), Bing-Shi (??, similar to

" tendency " )

and Xie Zheng (??). These concepts above are almost as same as the connotation

of

Bing-Ji (??, similar to " mechanism " ). Yao-Zhong Fang (???) thought that the

nature of Bian Zheng Lun Zhi (????) is how to analyze Bing-Ji (??). What

was the ancient TCM doctors' realization about Bing-Ji (??) if the connotation

of

Zheng (?) and Bing-Ji (??) were the same ? The word, Bing-Ji (??), first

appeared in Zhi Zhen Yao Da Lun (?????) of Nei-Jing (??). The later

researchers always explained Bing-Ji (??) as the meaning similar to " mechanism " .

Is this realization the true nature of Bing-Ji (??), or a misunderstanding from

the

idea in western medicine, this topic will be one of our emphasis in this paper.

We

inspected the word – Ji (?) – in Nei-Jing (??) and reviewed the books in the

same

era of Nei-Jing (??). We found that Ji (?) had much relationship to the physical

structure of crossbow in Chin dynasty and we found another meanings of Bian

Zheng

Lun Zhi (????) in TCM.

[Guest guest]

if you change the number, in this case, 77 to something else you get a new

abstract. In

other words a random survey of Taiwan papers about TCM.

 

 

http://www.nricm.edu.tw/icom12/pdfpaper/O-77.pdf

 

This one is kind of interesting for us....

 

 

 

 

Research on the Steroidogenic Potency of Herbal Extracts

 

Jen-Hsou Lin1,2, Krishna Kaphle1, Jack N. Y. Yang2, Leang-Shin Wu1

 

1

Department of Animal Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei

2

China Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan

 

Elderly populations, rate of geriatric diseases and intractable chronic diseases

are

rising internationally. Though several other factors are involved, frenetic

lifestyles and

deteriorated environment are linked with premature aging, which is associated

directly

with stress and imbalance of sexual hormones. To maintain the better health,

herbal

extracts have been rediscovered as better and safer alternatives to conventional

drugs,

and their global sales are rising steeply. Critics of herbal medicine and

seekers of

pharmacologically active compounds highlight the lack of scientific evidence to

justify such a trend. As part of an ongoing scientific assessment of the

clinical efficacy

of ancient traditional medical knowledge, the aim of this work was to screen

>100

different herbal extracts for their steroidogenic potency. The herbs were

selected

mainly from Chinese herbal- and Ayurvedic-texts and other sources. The herbal

extracts were co-cultured with steroidogenic animal cells (Leydig cells, luteal

cells

and adrenal cells). Enzyme immunoassay and radioimmunoassay determined the

amounts of testosterone, progesterone, and corticosteroids secreted. The potent

herbs

were investigated further to determine the cellular signaling pathways involved,

and

the crude extract was fractionated to identify its potent active compound and

verify its

mechanism of action. This paper discussed the importance of this research, which

identified many herbal extracts as having potentially useful clinical

applications. For

example, extracts from Tribulus terrestris, Gynostemma pentaphyllum, Piper

betle,

Epimedium macranthum, Astilbe rivularis, Zanthoxylum armatum, and many others,

stimulated testosterone production in Leydig cells in vitro. Extracts from other

herbs

inhibited or stimulated synthesis of different steroids. For example, Gynostemma

pentaphyllum, Epimedium macroanthum, Artemisia argyi, Eclipta prostrata,

Trichosnthes kirilowii and Morus alba stimulated progesterone production from

bovine luteal cells. Polygonum mutiflorum, Rubus chingii, Trichosnthes kirilowii

stimulated cortisol production from bovine adrenal cells. Many herbs also had

significant inhibitory effects such on different steroids such as Cassia tora,

Allium

sativa, Rubus chingii on progesterone, Dendrobium nobile, Cinnamomum osmoloeum

on cortisol hormone secretion. Because of these very positive results and their

significance for future health care, we are seeking support to continue our work

in this

area and increase opportunities for collaborative research.

[Guest guest]

, " "

wrote:

>

> I'm going to take the chance and post this abstract I found at:

> http://www.nricm.edu.tw/icom12/pdfpaper/O-18.pdf

 

That paper was written by some of my teachers at Chang Gung Hospital

in Taiwan. I've written about it to some degree and can share more of

their ideas if you are interested. I'm not on my laptop at the moment

so I don't have any material available to post, but in the next couple

days I can upload a file that contains some of their ideas on the

subject of pathomechanisms. If you have any questions for those guys,

let me know.

 

Eric

[Guest guest]

I think that would be great to have some more of their ideas....

doug

 

 

, " Eric Brand " <smilinglotus>

wrote:

>

> , " "

> wrote:

> >

> > I'm going to take the chance and post this abstract I found at:

> > http://www.nricm.edu.tw/icom12/pdfpaper/O-18.pdf

>

> That paper was written by some of my teachers at Chang Gung Hospital

> in Taiwan. I've written about it to some degree and can share more of

> their ideas if you are interested. I'm not on my laptop at the moment

> so I don't have any material available to post, but in the next couple

> days I can upload a file that contains some of their ideas on the

> subject of pathomechanisms. If you have any questions for those guys,

> let me know.

>

> Eric

>