Subject: Re: TCM testing western medicine?

From: [email-masked]
Date: 24 Jan 1995 15:28:45 GMT

On 1/24/95, margot asked:

: Have western treatments ever been subjected to comparative testing by 
: TCM standards of effective healing? What I mean is this: Are there
: any  studies, where patients have been diagnosed with a particular
: pattern  of disharmony according to eight principles, then turned
: over to an MD  for 'conventional' diagnosis and treatment, and after
: a report of success from the MD, re-examined according to eight
: principles?  

Certainly, this is what every practitioner does daily, though I can't think
of any particular studies that have been done on this, except in China's New
Medicine, and the Flaws work we discussed last week, _Something New Something
Old_, which looks at conventional drugs from the East-Asian Traditional
Healing standpoint.

I do this all the time, and have become skilled at identifying the effects of
recreational drugs, and frequently have to determine whether a particular
drug has caused an imbalance. ETH has a very productive manner of thinking
about such things.

[email-masked] (Paul Iannone, P.O.B. 66843, L.A., CA 90066).

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From: MARGOT <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 17:12:50 +0100

On 1/24/95, margot (myself) asked:

Paul Iannone replied: (partial quotes)

>Old_, which looks at conventional drugs from the East-Asian Traditional

Is China's New Medicine a journal? 

Part of the reason for my original question is this: We seem to live in a
world where the word 'study' seems to guarantee credibility - I don't 
want to discuss whether this is good or bad - it simply is. It may help 
people of this time and world to better appreciate the connections and 
differences amongst various medical traditions if Oriental Medicine (to 
use the term of the mailing list) was to be presented in a format which 
people are familiar with - i.e. 'studies'. There are plenty of studies 
looking at meridians and points from the 'Western medical' eye - and 
seemingly very little from the other perspective. (i.e. looking at 
"Western" treatment principles in terms of patterns of disharmony)

This may lead to the (wrong) impression that somehow one tradition is
capable of conducting studies about the other, but not vice versa -
mounting into the (wrong) conclusion that the body of knowledge of the one
doing the examining is more authoritative. Consequently, it seems to me 
that practicioners of Oriental Healing traditions should conduct and 
publish studies - lots of them. 

(just to explain: My perspective is biased from participating in a project 
dealing with our "Weltbild" (world-image), the conception people have of 
reality.)

		margot

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 02 Feb 1995 14:40:54 GMT

: Is China's New Medicine a journal? 

New Medicine is an ongoing experiment in China, combining Western and TCM
therapies in Chinese hospitals, in associated wings, with interaction between
practitioners of these paradigms, in an attempt to glean the best of both
systems.
 
[snip, for brevity]
 
: (just to explain: My perspective is biased from participating in a
: project dealing with our "Weltbild" (world-image), the conception
: people have of reality.)
: 
:   margot

Excellent study, that. Study of the impact of 'Weltbild,' which I usually
refer to as paradigm, on science and culture is very revealing. Indeed,
healing and science are not somehow free from culture, no matter how much
proponents of science would like to believe or propose it is. Anthropology is
still not well-integrated into Western culture. Give it another fifty years.