Pursuing the Elixir of Life

Chinese Medicine for Health

Hong Hai, Karen Wee

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9789813207066
• Topic: Medicina
• Subtopic: Acupuntura

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Since time immemorial Man has pursued the elusive elixir of life. The wisdom of ancient Chinese medicine declared immortality unattainable, but offered the elixir of longevity through lifestyle, diet, the judicious use of herbal tonics and the practice of subtle but powerful exercises of qigong and taijiquan.

This concise volume explains in modern scientific language the principles of ancient Chinese methods of health and the practice of yangsheng 养生 or life cultivation. Natural holistic solutions to health issues and the intricacies of Chinese diagnosis and therapies are brilliantly exposed, complete with detailed descriptions of herbs, acupuncture and tuina.

Discover appetizing recipes for soups, porridges and teas that give you that healthy glow and nourish your body and soul. Based on a series of popular lectures by the authors, this book opens a new chapter in your pursuit of a long and fulfilling life. It is also excellent preparation for more advanced studies in Chinese medicine.

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--> Contents:

• From Spirits to Natural Science:
  • The Origins of Chinese Medicine
• Why Chinese Medicine Matters:
  • Ten Distinguishing Characteristics of TCM
• The Precious Ingredients of Life:
  • Basic Substances in the Body
• The Inner Workings of the Human Body:
  • A Unique Narrative Drawn from Experience
• Why We Fall Ill:
  • Diagnosis and Principles of Therapy
• Hope Springs Eternal:
  • Ancient Wisdom on the Elixir of Life
• Nature's Goodness in a Humble Root:
  • The Nature and Flavour of Herbs
• Potions That Heal:
  • Herbs and Herbal Formulations
• Navigating the Body's Meridian Network:
  • Acupuncture and Tuina
• Attaining Longevity and Vitality:
  • The Art and Science of Cultivating Life
• Medicated Foods and Teas:
  • Healthy Recipes that Please the Gourmet
• Nip it in the Bud:
  • The Prevention and Management of Chronic illnesses
• A Brave New World:
  • Will TCM and Biomedicine Converge?
• Annex 1: Common Chinese Herbs
• Annex 2: Common Chinese Prescriptions
• Annex 3: Glossary of Common Names of Herbs
• References
• Additional Information on TCM
• Index

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--> Readership: General readers interested in cultivating health; students and practitioners of medicine and healthcare who wish to gain a modern insight into the mysteries of Chinese medicine. -->

Chapter
1

From Spirits to Natural Science

The origins of Chinese medicine

Glamorous Hong Kong Phoenix TV hostess Liu Hairuo was seriously injured in a British train accident in May 2003, suffering severe multiple fractures to her ribs and damage to her head, liver, lungs and spine. She underwent several surgeries at the Royal Free Hospital in London but remained in a coma on life-support. British doctors conjectured she was brain dead and were prepared to pull the plug and end her life.

Her grieving family refused to give up and decided to seek an alternative in Chinese medicine. A month after the accident she was admitted to Beijing’s Xuanwu Hospital. An astonishing miracle happened. After receiving treatment with a combination of Chinese and Western medicines, Liu Hairuo regained consciousness, made a full recovery and resumed her career, with the additional mission of speaking and writing about her experience of Chinese medicine snatching her from the gates of death.

One of the key medications used to treat Liu was the humble Angong Bezoar or angong niuhuang wan (

), a common traditional resuscitative medication used to revive patients who faint from excessive stress or exposure to heat, also often used in Chinese hospitals for patients in the immediate aftermath of a stroke.

In the SARS world epidemic in 2002, the average mortality rate was 12–25% in countries outside China, compared to an estimated 7% in China where a combination of Chinese herbal medications and Western drugs were used.¹

There are numerous impressive anecdotes of the power of Chinese medicine to cure unusual illnesses, as well as millions of patients throughout the world who seek and find Chinese medical cures for both acute and chronic illnesses. Such accounts give comfort to Chinese physicians and their patients. Their belief in the efficacy and scientific nature of Chinese medicine is frequently challenged by Western medical practitioners, who may be uninformed about Chinese medicine and therefore view it with scepticism over its safety and efficacy.

In fairness and to be more convincing, Chinese physicians need to view the successful results of Chinese therapy with caution as most of their methods have not been subjected to clinical trials to validate that such results can be repeated with some consistency. This is the reason why large resources throughout the world are now being allocated to tests using modern methods of evidence-based medicine.

Nevertheless the weight of historical evidence found in numerous case records suggests that there is something special in Chinese medicine, despite its ancient origins and its lack of use of modern technology, that makes it worth our while to try to understand it better and be more discerning as to when to use it for our health and for healing our illnesses.

In 2014 the Cleveland Clinic, which together with the Mayo Clinic rank as the most renowned in the United States, started a TCM section offering acupuncture and herbal medicinal treatments to the public, despite its acknowledgment that much of TCM treatments has not undergone clinical trials expected of medical interventions in the US. This far-sighted decision indicates the clinic’s willingness to try therapies that are wanted by patients, many of whom feel better after receiving such treatment and prefer them to conventional Western medicine. It speaks for the perceived potential that Chinese medicine can offer mankind in health care from its thousands of years of accumulated experience and wisdom.

1.1 Chinese Medicine in Antiquity

What is Chinese medicine and how did it begin?

Chinese medicine has origins going back thousands of years when herbalists like the legendary Shen Nong (circa 2500 BC) painstakingly combed the hills and forests of China to seek out leaves, roots and animal parts that had healing powers. The early practitioners of acupuncture used sharpened stones to exert pressure on selected points in the body and discovered that this could ease pain and promote flows in the body to achieve internal balance and healing. This laid the foundation of the complex science of acupuncture, now practised in modern clinics throughout the world and approved for health insurance claims in America.

But was Chinese medicine always based on science? For thousands of years, a large part of it was not. In ancient China, healing was often attributed to pacifying the spirits as it was believed that people fell ill because they were possessed by evil spirits and demons. Mediums had to be employed to pray and appease or drive away these spirits. There were similar practices in ancient Korea where Shaman priests were employed. Greece and Rome in antiquity practised ‘Temple Medicine’ by which sick people would spend nights sleeping in temples in the belief that in their dreams the Gods would appear to deal with the spirits that troubled them.

It was only about two thousand years ago during the great flourishing of carefully recorded medical cases by the great physicians of the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) that the collective wisdom and experience of these physicians were captured and compiled in the greatest of all Chinese medical classics, the Huangdi Neijing (

) (The Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Medicine). This monumental work marked the beginning of the scientific Chinese medicine.

The Neijing declared that illnesses were not caused by spiritual agents but by natural forces, which are basically climatic, dietary, lifestyle and emotional in nature. Over the next 2000 years, hundreds of legendary physicians further developed these ideas into the Chinese medicine taught today in medical colleges and practised in clinics all over the world.

TCM is thus the product of a long history of experimentation, conjectures about the inner workings of the body, and the equivalent of thousands of clinical trials in which different herbal and acupuncture formulations were tried on generations of patients. These results were painstakingly recorded in case studies of eminent physicians. Even in modern societies today, these case studies continue to lend important insights into the methods and ideas of these physicians.

1.2 Chinese Medicine Modernises

Up to the first half of the 20^th century, Chinese medicine was mainstream medicine, but its position was increasingly challenged by scholars who had studied Western medicine abroad. On the 5^th of May 1919, an event of historic importance happened that later became known as the “May 4^th Movement” (

). Students at Peking University, tired of a weak China, once the most powerful and technologically advanced nation in the world being humiliated by foreign military incursions in her territories, marched and protested against unfair treaties imposed by foreigners.

The May 4^th Movement was in fact the beginning of the modernisation of China. Returned scholars were determined to change China by introducing science and technology, and a greater measure of public participation in governance. One of the consequences of this movement was that the scientific nature of Chinese medicine came into question, as there were differences in the science as practised in ancient China and that in the West. Attempts were made by Western-educated physicians to reject Chinese medicine altogether and replace it with Western medicine. Several decades of debate and contention followed, and the issue was not settled until the ascendancy of Chairman Mao Zedong following the 1949 Chinese Revolution.

Mao was a believer of Chinese medicine, calling it a “a treasure trove of Chinese wisdom” but had no illusions that it had exclusive or complete knowledge of the science of health and healing. He felt Chinese medicine had to be modernised by absorbing some of the ideas and methods of Western medicine, in particular carefully recording and systematising medical knowledge into textbooks similar to those used in Western medical schools. As a result of Mao’s intervention, Chinese medicine was preserved in China and its teaching modernised through new textbooks written in contemporary plain language. Medical education was carried out through new colleges of Chinese medicine offering undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. Chinese medicine taught formally and practised this way became known as ‘Traditional Chinese Medicine’ (TCM). In China and Taiwan today, Chinese and Western medicine are practised side by side in many major hospitals and clinics. In many ways, their patients enjoy the best of both worlds

It should be noted that TCM as taught and practised under government regulatory supervision is different from a variety of old Chinese practices not incorporated in modern textbooks. These comprise mainly what we may call folk medicine which uses methods and ideas that do not fall within mainstream of Chinese medicine. TCM is the form of Chinese medicine which governments in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysian and Singapore recognize and license physicians to practice.

 

¹ Report of the International Expert Meeting to review and analyse clinical reports on combination treatment for SARS (2004) referenced in http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Js6170e/3.html (retrieved 8 September 2016).

Chapter
2

Why Chinese Medicine Matters

Ten distinguishing characteristics of TCM

What is special about Chinese medicine that makes it a mystery to sceptical Western observers yet passionately embraced by myriads of users in the Orient? Why does it enjoy a sizable and growing following in Europe, Australia and America?

Chinese medical thought and practice represent the synthesis of its ancient culture and philosophy with the clinical experience of generations of physicians dedicated to conquering illness and promoting health. Many of the ideas in TCM may be found in Chinese literature and ancient philosophical writings. Hence Chinese medicine is not just a method of healing, but a culture of living a full life through enjoying good health and finding fulfilment in harmony with nature and society.

Several distinguishing features of TCM make it different from Western medicine. These include the holistic character of TCM and its emphasis on harmony. This in turn leads to seeking treatment for the root of a health disorder rather than symptomatic relief.

TCM is patient-centric in the sense that treatment is customised to the patient, so that two patients with the same disease may receive quite different medications because their underlying conditions and body constitutions may be different. A chronic headache often treated with an analgesic like paracetamol in Western medicine would be diagnosed by a Chinese physician as having arisen from one of several root causes, among which might be weakness of vital energy known as qi, internal heat arising from over-consumption of rich foods, or an accumulation of phlegm within the body that disturbs the mind. For each condition, a different treatment is prescribed by TCM.

The Chinese physician takes into account the inherent constitution of the patient, which affects what kind of medication his body is likely to find congenial. Little wonder then that Chinese physicians have a lot of time for the iconoclastic eminent Oxford professor of medicine William Osler who famously said that “The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.”²

On the important issue of what causes disease, we shall see that TCM takes quite a different view from Western etiology, and that the treatment modalities and methods are consequently different and special to TCM.

Let’s take a look at ten aspects of TCM that make it special and different from conventional biomedicine.

2.1 Holism

The concept of holism is central to Chinese medical philosophy. Holism, as the term implies, means viewing things as a whole rather than in parts. It requires seeing the big picture and regarding the body as a functioning organism with all its parts working together in harmony and in accordance with regularities in nature.

In his celebrated verse about the majestic Mount Lu in Jiangxi province...