I am reminded over and over, as I grow closer to my graduation, the increasing distain and mistrust some of those who have chosen this path of medicine feel towards western medicine. I am saddened by this stance so many of my future colleagues have chosen to take over these issues.
Ours is a medicine that has a rich history over 2500 years in the making, humble in its beginnings, half art, half revolutionary science, carried around the globe by the tireless efforts of the men and women of China and given to those of us in the west as a gift. This medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, is truly a gift. However, it was never intended to supersede the benefits that western science have been able to give to us. Of course western science has flaws, which amongst us does not? With its progress in full body CT’s and MRI scanning, western medicine provides the eastern practitioner with the ability to see within a patient without the need for dissection. A resource never imagined by the fathers of traditional medicine. These resources are just that, resources. They do not, and should not replace an eastern practitioner’s ability to diagnose through careful consideration of symptoms, tongue findings, or pulse palpation. They do however lend a new light on our ability to see further, look deeper and make wiser decisions about the course of our treatments methods.
Ego is defined by Webster as “the self, especially as contrasted with another self or the world.” It is my belief that ego is responsible for the dichotomy of eastern verses western medicine. Many among us have or currently practice meditation, Qi Gong, or Tai Chi. One of the fundamental teachings in any of these practices is the release of ego. Our patients come to us generally when western science has failed to provide answers for their ailments. They come to us seeking a different type of patient practitioner relationship. Most importantly, our patients come to us because we have something to offer to them that they have been unable to find in other practitioners. Patients do not come to us because we are better than another form of medicine, though our methods for their particular illness may be more suited. When they come seeking our care, they most certainly do not expect to find that our egos are just as inflated, and unsettling as the western doctors they have visited before us. Western medicine is not in itself depraved. It is however often times seen in a poor light in large part due to the acts of individual practitioners who lack respect for the power of this medicine and seek personal gain. By speaking poorly of western medicine, even with its numerous flaws and sometimes recklessness, we are creating an unnecessary division between our two medicines that begins and ends with our own personal egos.
Any one of us who has taken the opportunity to speak with our Eastern instructors will learn that, not only is western medicine practiced in China it is appreciated. The two medicines are inspirable. We in the west who have chosen the path of eastern medicine have been blessed with the fortune of having been privileged enough to take for granted the benefits of western medicine. Let us not chose the path of shunning one for the other. Let us chose instead the path of joining the two with understanding and acceptance that each has a place in modern medicine.
Our medicine is no better than western medicine. Our medicine is a gift, a gift that we have been given and though this gift we have the ability to share a different path with our communities. Traditional Chinese Medicine is a path towards a healthier life, not a better life.
Alex Sturman