Traditional chinese medicine east meets west in medicine of the future - abstract

ABSTRACT

Traditional Chinese Medicine has a recorded history dating back 5,000 years. During that time, it has survived primarily in mainland China and outlying areas. It was introduced in a dynamic way to the West on President Nixon's visit to China. Criticisms of this tradition by Westerners have been mainly on unfamiliarity, and the resulting conceptualization of Traditional Chinese Medicine with a Western model. Western Medicine uses the basic concepts of Newtonian Philosophy. This relates to matter having cause and effect. Traditional Chinese Medicine fits in more with the concepts of Albert Einstein, which regard matter as having an energy component. Chinese Medicine focuses on the balancing of the energy system within the body. Modern physics, either directly or indirectly, is beginning to show these concepts in a much more scientific fashion. As a result, an integrated approach to medicine can combine these two traditions. Western Medicine can deal with the energy components of the molecule. An example of this is the concept of childhood Attention Deficit Disorders. In diagnosing by the traditional Chinese method, they are seen as having excess energy which needs to be reduced so that the child can become harmonious with himself. Clinical applications have already shown improvement in this area. There is also potential for studies in various areas of psychiatry such as depression and anxiety disorders which would be easy to measure. This affords the opportunity for a potential reduction of medication and the possibility of potentiating the combined effects for quicker, more efficient and economical delivery of health care (AU)