Three Myths About Chinese Medicine

What associations do you have when you hear the phrase “Chinese medicine”? What is it-oriental exoticism, fashion trend or serious science? And is it true that Chinese doctors use only ancient methods, without the help of modern equipment? Let’s find out where the truth is and where the myths are.

Is it true that Chinese medicine is a set of methods and approaches that are diametrically opposed to European ones?

No, it’s a myth. In fact, despite certain differences between traditional Chinese and European medicine, they are not isolated or opposed to each other. Chinese doctors know, including new diagnostic methods, and use the achievements of modern science in their practice.

But the differences do exist. Western medicine has long followed the path of division, deepening: each doctor is a specialist in his own narrow field. If we have a stomach ache, we go to a gastroenterologist; if we are worried about heart pain, we go to a cardiologist; if we have problems with the nervous system, we go to a neurologist, and so on. Often this approach is justified, and many diseases are successfully cured. But not all of them.

In turn, Eastern (including Chinese) medicine considers the human body as a single system, where everything is interconnected. The Chinese doctor does not have a narrow specialization in the usual sense — he does not treat a specific organ, but the cause of the disease, affects its origin. This is what helps to cure many diseases, including some of those that are considered chronic in the European tradition.

Is it true that Chinese doctors use methods of non-traditional, traditional medicine, while European medicine uses the achievements of science?

And this is also a false statement. Traditional Chinese medicine is a science that has a history of more than one thousand years. It is believed that the first medical treatise was written by the legendary Emperor Shen-Nun, a collection of descriptions of medicinal substances and medicinal plants. This document is dated to 3216 BC, unfortunately, it is known only from later sources — the work itself has not been preserved; the first extant Chinese books on medicinal plants date back to 2500 BC and contain descriptions of 900 herbs. There are also sculptures on which acupuncture points and meridians are marked — and the age of these “visual aids” is also measured in millennia!

But it’s not just the age of the sources that matters. It is important that this knowledge is accumulated and multiplied from century to century, forming an e-system. Chinese medicine did not know the persecution to which European science was subjected in the Middle Ages, and later avoided the division into “official” and “folk” medicine, combining centuries-old wisdom with the latest scientific developments. And today, Chinese doctors help patients, relying both on ancient traditions and on the achievements of world science; they use in their practice both old methods and the possibilities of modern medical technologies.

But it should be understood that these features do not exclude the use of laboratory results, X-rays or MRI data. The Chinese doctor will not limit himself to them-but he will not deny these diagnostic possibilities.

Is it true that the popularity of Chinese medicine is just a tribute to the modern fashion for everything oriental?

This is not true. In fact, the interest of Europeans in Chinese medicine is not a trend of that time, not a fashionable hobby of our days. Two traditions, two schools — Western and Eastern-have been interacting for a long time, and this is a two-way process. We have already said that Chinese medicine uses, among other things, modern medical equipment and scientific knowledge. But European doctors also borrow the experience of their Eastern colleagues, studying the ancient traditions of China.

For example, the Chinese technique known to many today — acupuncture – has long been the subject of close attention of Western medical science, which not only explores its capabilities, but also applies them in practice. And many medicinal plants that were used in China since ancient times were borrowed by other countries and are successfully used, including in official medicine.

But does this mean that the borrowed techniques work in the same way, and therefore it does not matter which doctor to contact? No, X-rays will not replace traditional diagnostic methods for a Chinese doctor, and a European reflexologist trained in Western methods uses acupuncture in a different way than his Chinese counterpart, who has absorbed not only knowledge, but also ancient philosophy. It is not a method, not a device, and not a “wonderful” drug that treats-it is a doctor with the necessary experience and theoretical training.