A Case for Integrating East and West Medicine

Our world is getting more and more populated with human beings as the years go by. And even though we may say this as a general blanket statement, the people that populate the different regions of the planet are just as diverse as the environments that they live in. People that live in the jungles are very different than people that live in deserts. Such is the case with the people of European descent and the people of Asian descent. This is where many people focus their examples of difference in medicine because it is these two differing societies that fully brought their medicine to fruition and kept it going throughout the hundreds and thousands of years. But, why the big difference in the way medicine is approached? And should we try to integrate the two so there is one cohesive medicine that takes the best of both worlds? Two completely different societies, on opposite sides of the planet, both having a medicine that works and exemplifies that respective societies way of thinking. That is the main reason the medicines are different. The cultures were different. Everyone will agree that humans are essentially the same structurally from society to society. It is only the small differences that set us apart, i.e. blue eyes, brown hair, short, hairy, language, etc. So, why are the medicines so different? In actuality they once were the same. There is evidence compiled by Shigehisa Kuriyama in his book The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine that shows that Greek and Chinese Medicine were at one time almost identical. One example is that in Chinese Medicine there are approxiamately 28 different types of pulses that a doctor can find at the wrist position, or radial arterial pulse. Currently, Western Medicine only takes the number of beats at the radial artery and nothing else. There is evidence that Greek Medicine, which is the forefather of Western Medicine, once had

the same number of types of pulses at the radial artery, 28. So, at one time the two different medicines were very similar. Why is this? I surmise that there was a lot of trade and word of mouth back then. There was no internet, phones, mail service, not very many books were printed, etc. This leads to a method of vocal transmission of ideas. From experience, I have found that word of mouth can precede one while journeying, allowing others to know of you before you even get there. That means that word of mouth would have spread from culture to culture through travelers, wars, etc. This would allow for a transmission of ideas from culture to culture. Human beings have not really changed all that much in the past 10,000 years or so. We have the same basic emotions that we go off of. I would surmise that the curiosity of human beings was the same back then as now, allowing for the interest in understanding another culture and gathering the best from that culture to use for their own culture. However, at some point our philosophies took a completely different turn? According to Richard Nisbett, in his book The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differentlyand Why, the main philosophical basis of modern science, hence Western Medicine (M.D. stuff), is that of Aristotles Logic. The main philosophical basis of Chinese Medicine (Eastern Medicine) is a combination of ancient divination techniques (I-Ching, Ba Gua), every day philosophies for living (Confucianism, Taoism) and natural occurances that the average person, i.e. a farmer, would see as obvious everyday events in nature (5 Elements, 7 External Evils, 7 Emotions, etc). This main difference carries on to this day in the cultures that are present in each of those separate geographical locations (for this purpose we will chose the USA and China). According to Nisbett, the main premise that all human beings think alike is flawed and false. There is now a plethora of data showing that Asian cultures view things more from a basis of relationships between objects, whether they be living or not. Where as, the Western cultures view things in a very basic logical manner, where everything fits into little boxes and is able to be deduced from the basic

theories of 1+1=2. That being said, the funny thing with the Western way of doing things is that most people do not have the time or effort required to fully understand where the basic theories of logic eventually progress. The basic theories of logic (1+1=2) eventually lead to theories of The Speed of Light, The Chaos Theory, Quantum Mechanics. These theories are at the forefront of redefining our world as we know it, and interestingly enough are highly similar to the philosophy of Taoism (and perhaps others I cannot recall). Mathematics is the most basic of logically instruments, designed to attempt to explain our world, our existence with numbers. Interestingly enough, the field of Math realized that logic based theories that were introduced hundreds, thousands of years ago are no longer completely relevant in todays world, but are a necessary foundation to have in order to understand the workings of the higher theories that better explain existence. That is why people such as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawkings have made such monumental impacts on our world. They took the basic theories and developed more complex, but relevant theories. For the most part, this has not been done here in the USA, for the Western Medicines. Everyone knows there are a lot of politics that hamper true scientists, healers, and those that truly want the truth from doing their jobs. Many people jump on the money making business of pharmaceuticals, and such, as the main reason why our medicine is in a quagmire. I agree, but that is an easy way out. I believe that the main reason that Western Medicine isnt truly progressing on its own is because of the Egotistical behavior of people who have devoted a majority of their adult lives to attempting to understand a complex instrument with a manual that is too basic. The basic theories of development are slow to come in Western Medicine. The idea that you take a basic concept, only to understand basic things, and use more complex theories to understand complex things is not in the Western Medicines. The idea that Mathematicians used, transgressing from 1+1=2 to E=MC*2, just

isnt there. The most complex living organism on the planet (that I have met) is the Human Being. Western Medicine should not be using the instructional manual of a set of Tinker Toys to put together the Space Shuttle. However, that is what they are doing. But, how is Eastern Medicine different? Eastern Medicine differs from Western Medicine because the basic ideas that are used in Eastern Medicine are complete systems that are malleable, hence adaptable, to different situations and individuals. These complete systems take one viewpoint and attempt to explain the world in full. Within this complete system there is no need to go along a line of furthering philosophies, i.e. Chaos Theory, etc. Instead of progressing forward, they revolve in a circle. The information is set into the basic ideas, you just have to dig deep enough to find it. In order to do this intellectually, one has to be willing to think non-linearly. This non-linear concept is what the higher concepts of Math, such as Quantum Mechanics, are attempting to explain. Quantum Mechanics thinks non-linearly, but Western Medicine is still in First Grade using basic Math to explain the complexities of the world. This non-linear way of thinking is a basic concept in Eastern thinking, according to Nisbett. It is not a basic concept in Western thinking. Therefore one has to be trained in order to think in this fashion. Western Medicine has a lot to offer that Chinese Medicine does not. They are able to perform life saving surgery, transfusion of blood and fluids that also saves lives, scan the body with electronic devices (x-ray, MRI, etc.) giving an actual picture of what is going on inside the body. These are all good, however, Western Medicine is missing the key component that would make the treatment of patients more resilient to the pitfalls of failure. That component is the insertion of a new, fresh way of thinking (the philosophies of Chinese Medicine) that would help spark ideas and push the limits of Western Medicine. It would eventually take the best of both the East and the West and get rid of that which does not work. For, isnt our final goal the betterment of peoples lives through physical and emotional means.

Everyone is eventually going to die. It isnt the beginning or the end of journey that matters, but what happenes in the middle that means the most. Hence, we attempt to keep people healthy, prevent disease, and keep people from being in pain. Those are some basic concepts that comprise the basic foundations of medicines in all cultures. We now have a world where ideas are traded on a daily basis from different sides of the planet. Why not take all these ideas and start seeing how they are similar? See how they are different? See what works? See what does not work? And create a New Medicine for a New Age. The Information Age is upon us, let us take advantage of it. Being a student of Chinese Medicine and a Westerner, who was highly interested in Anatomy as a young student, there are many correlations between Western and Eastern Medicine. This is because no matter what philosophy one uses the body is still the same. Some things will work and some things wont, from both Eastern and Western Medicine. The philosophies can change, but the body is still basically the same. Let us start integrating the concepts from two Great Civilizations and come up with the Theories that make the most sense for this time, this now. Let us start thinking for ourselves, and not just repeating information that we read in a book. We owe it to our intellectual and moral selves to further the concepts layed down by our forefathers of Medicine. Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, Zhang Zhong Jing, Hua Tuo, Li Shi Zhen, Li Dong Yuan were all impactful and historically important figures in each of their respective cultures, times, and medicines because they thought for themselves. Let us start doing the same.