Traditional Chinese Medicine

NomaDBuddha

Somehow, I got my hands on a book called " Xie's Chinese Veterinary Herbology ", and this was like the first contact with, let's say 'scientific' traditional Chinese medicine. Being used to applying therapies that are 90% 'synthetic' substances and 10 % plant extracts, after reading the first chapters of this book, I began to see this area of medicine a terrain worth exploring. From what I've read, some of the basic principles adhere to common sense, but others seem not to.
Now I have to ask, those who know, or those who had contact with TCM ( herbology, especially ) how effective it is ? And how much time does it take for a patient, treated by applying TCM methods, to recover from a mild illness ( in general ) ?
What would be the pros and cons of TCM ?

Chaz

You might consider checking out the Vajracakra forum. There's a guy called Malcom there who's trained in traditional Tibetan medicine which is similar to the Chinese.

I looked into this as an alternative to tradition methods of dealing with cancer.

federica

TCM accesses the natural energetic meridians of the body, which in turn are direct access channels to main organs and associated organs, and treats the whole by addressing the imbalance.

Briefly, and simply put, Western medicine tends to focus on symptoms.
TCM seeks the causes.

Therefore, the system is much slower but more thorough.

TCM doctors are paid to keep their patients healthy. If a patient on 'their books' falls ill, they cease receiving an allowance for that patient.
To add, there are probably as many 'Pro's and Con's' in TCM as there are in Western medicine.

NomaDBuddha

Chaz said:

I looked into this as an alternative to tradition methods of dealing with cancer.

And how did it work for you ?

federica said:

TCM accesses the natural energetic meridians of the body, which in turn are direct access channels to main organs and associated organs, and treats the whole by addressing the imbalance.

The basics of pathology starts with the principle of homeostasis and how the imbalance from either external factors, or internal factors, can bring a living thing on it's knees. So far so good, I say.
About those energy channels, how can they be felt or ? The medicine that I so far practiced and assisted cannot be performed if : a. there is no patient on the consult table; b. the medic doesn't 'feel' the patient.

federica said:

Briefly, and simply put, Western medicine tends to focus on symptoms.
TCM seeks the causes.

Therefore, the system is much slower but more thorough.

TCM doctors are paid to keep their patients healthy. If a patient on 'their books' falls ill, they cease receiving an allowance for that patient.
To add, there are probably as many 'Pro's and Con's' in TCM as there are in Western medicine.

From what I've read so far, both TCM and WM tend to seek the causes. As I understand from you ( federica ), TCM tries to strike right at the cause of the disease ( through thorough clinical exams: pulse, mucous aspect, skin aspect, breath smell, etc, which is really good) which is the number one objective of every medic, and WM focuses on treating the symptoms. Yes, and no. The only times when mostly symptoms are treated are when : the doctor doesn't figure out what's the cause and either tries to buy time or tries to cover his lack of experience/knowledge, or, when the disease manifests with a whole lot of symptoms that put the individual in a state of discomfort ( allergic dermatitis for example ; you have to administer antihistaminics or corticosteroids to solve the itching that will make the individual scratch the area 'till he bleeds ) .

* on a short note : My plan is to try to adapt the principles of TCM to what I've learned from WM, to see if there is something worth applying in the clinical act.
So far, from what you, federica, said, it's not that bad, at least when it comes to the philosophy that TCM and WM apply .