A sudden new crown epidemic in 2020 once again allowed the Chinese people to see the situation of joint Chinese and Western medicine fighting the epidemic. Today, while achieving phased victory, it also brought us more time to think. As a traditional medicine of the motherland, traditional Chinese medicine has been with China's development history for nearly 5,000 years, and its efficacy has been controversial in the past century. So whether traditional Chinese medicine can cure diseases, and what role does it play in the reproduction and development of the Chinese nation?
As a Chinese medicine enthusiast, I have a deep affection for traditional Chinese medicine, and naturally I also support traditional Chinese medicine. But objectively speaking, traditional Chinese medicine is not pure medicine, but closer to philosophy. It is basically using the philosophical ideas of naive materialism to cure people.
So, in Western medicine, there will be a meticulous and rigorous division of disciplines, including internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics. In addition, in the detailed internal medicine, it can be divided into respiratory medicine, gastroenterology, cardiovascular medicine, neurology, oncology, endocrinology, hematology, infectious diseases, etc. Due to the limitations of the knowledge learned and clinical experience, Western medicine doctors can only focus on and be competent in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in one or several departments. For example, Academicians Zhong Nanshan and Academician Li Lanjuan, who played the main role in this epidemic, are experts in respiratory medicine.
Traditional medicine is more like a miscellaneous in this regard. A traditional Chinese medicine doctor with cultivation will basically be a general practitioner.
Take Bian Que , the founder of traditional Chinese medicine, as an example, it is said that he traveled everywhere and practiced medicine among the people for a long time. When he came to Zhao State in Handan, where there were many women who were sick, Bian Que was in charge of gynecology. When he came to Zhou State in Luoyang, he knew that the folk customs here respected the elderly, and most of them had poor ears and ears, Bian Que was mainly in the ventral arteries department. The Qin State in Xianyang is relatively martial and attaches great importance to the cultivation of children. Here, Mr. Bian Que is also in charge of pediatrics.
Bian Que
Although the above is just a legend, it is true. Traditional Chinese medicine doctors are basically general practitioners (it is not a general practitioner but it is just because they lack clinical experience in certain diseases, but theories are basically the same). Since the principles of traditional Chinese medicine for treating diseases are nothing more than yin and yang and five elements, generation, restraint, treatment and transformation, evil, good, deficiency and excess, and qi and blood. If you understand this, you can be treated properly and not limited by the disease. This is why when Western medicine is invaded by new diseases such as SARS and COVID-19, Western medicine often cannot produce special drugs for the time being, while traditional Chinese medicine can calmly diagnose and type and respond actively based on the valuable theoretical experience left by our ancestors.
Since traditional Chinese medicine is not pure medicine but philosophy, then proving the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine is not limited to the medical level of curing diseases and saving lives. Today, we will re-understand our colorful world from the philosophy brought to us by traditional Chinese medicine. The world is still the same world. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine and from the holistic concept, you will see a different world.
In the world of traditional Chinese medicine, diseases can be divided according to the meridians to which the disease belongs, such as Taiyang meridian syndrome, Yangming meridian syndrome, Shaoyang meridian syndrome, Shaoyin meridian syndrome, etc., or according to , five internal organs, , such as wind and cold infringement of lungs, liver yang hypertension, kidney yang deficiency, etc., or according to Wei Qi and Ying blood (warm disease category) or the eight-level syndrome (yin, yang, exterior, interior, cold, heat, deficiency, and solid), but in the end it is nothing more than yin and yang, that is, the problem must be viewed through yin and yang.
The concept of yin and yang in traditional Chinese medicine is not a constant yin and yang relationship, but a relatively flexible and dynamic yin and yang relationship. For example, when it comes to the human body, the front is yin and the back is yang. If you look at the front alone, the upper body is yang and the lower body is yin. If it is specifically inside and outside, the body surface is yang and the inside is yin. No matter how it changes, yin and yang can always be distinguished. This is how traditional Chinese medicine recognizes diseases.
Mr. Luo Dalun, a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, once said a simple way to divide yin and yang, that is, visible and tangible matter belongs to yin, and the function it realizes belongs to yang (this is only one level of the relationship between yin and yang).To give a simple example, all the hardware and software composition of a computer belongs to Yin, and it can realize the functions of typing, computing, Internet access, etc. are Yang; for a table, all the wood composition belongs to Yin, it can be used as a table to hold objects, and the functions it realizes are Yang.
Specifically speaking, blood is yin and qi is yang, because blood is tangible substance, qi cannot be seen or touched. Specifically, the kidney, one of the five internal organs, is also divided into yin and yang. Kidney Yin represents a kind of tangible essence substance, so kidney yin deficiency indicates the lack of tangible substances in the body. Among the Chinese patent medicines, Liuwei Dihuang Wan, Zuogui Wan, etc. are common medicines to nourish kidney yin. Kidney yang deficiency mainly indicates a function problem. For example, manifestations such as mental depression, soreness and cold waist and knees are typical manifestations of kidney yang deficiency. Guifu Dihuang Wan and Yougui Wan are both common medicines to nourish kidney yang.
What kind of thinking is the way of distinguishing the things studied into yin and yang, and what are the benefits? This is the need to see the essence of things clearly. When things do not distinguish yin and yang, it is like a primitive and chaotic state. You are prone to fall into the things themselves and have no way to distinguish and analyze them. Only by distinguishing yin and yang can you jump out of the things themselves and understand and analyze problems from an objective standpoint.
For example, if a person does not have the concepts of loyalty, treason, good and evil, right and wrong, merit and demerit, it is difficult to make an evaluation. Loyalty and treason, good and evil, right and wrong, merit and demerit are actually a changing division of yin and yang. With yin and yang, it is equivalent to having a ruler, loyalty and treason can be divided, and good and evil can be distinguished.
Yin and yang are like the two ends of a balance, and the balance point in the center is the most harmonious state of yin and yang. In real life, it is difficult to maintain a balance between yin and yang. Either yin is strong or yang is weak or yang is strong or yin is weak. It may be difficult for a hundred people to encounter one of them truly harmonize yin and yang. Therefore, in the view of traditional Chinese medicine, there are very few healthy people who truly harmonize the five internal organs, and people are always in the various yin and yang imbalances of the internal organs. Under various yin and yang imbalances, diseases can be divided into two categories, one is called "too much" and the other is called "insufficient".
What is too much or too little? Take liver qi as an example. The liver is responsible for ascending and prolonging, and if the liver qi is raised, it will form a syndrome of hyperactivity of liver yang (string and hard pulse, which is more common in patients with hypertension). If the liver qi is not raised, it will form a syndrome of liver qi stagnation (thin and stringy pulse, which is more common in patients with depression); the same is true for heart qi. Tachocardia is too much, and bradycardia is not too bad, which is all pathological, only the heart is not rushing to harmonize. If it is not slow, it is a healthy state; the same is true for lung qi. If it is too much, it will cause excessive phlegm and saliva, and if it is not too much, it will cause shortness of breath... The functions of all parts of the body are the same. If the digestive function is too excessive, it is called Xiaogu and Hunger, which is insufficient in digestive function. If it is used in traditional Chinese medicine, it is called Xiaogu and Hunger. Xiaogu and Hunger are both pathological; if the intestinal water is too much, it will cause constipation. Loose stools and constipation are reflected in the disorder of yin and yang in the human body, which is not normal. There is also the problem of too much and too little fluid distribution. If the nasal mucosa is secreted too much, it will cause continuous runny nose, and if the nasal mucosa is not secreted too much, it will cause dryness and discomfort; if the oral saliva is secreted too much, it will easily drool (also called slohazi in the north), and if the oral saliva is insufficient, it will cause dry mouth and throat.
From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, if it is too strong, it is too weak, and if it is too weak, it is the most harmonious and healthiest state of impartiality. We extend this way of understanding things to nature, society, and human thinking, and the same result is. Take rainfall as an example in nature. If the rainfall is too high, floods will occur, and drought will occur. Floods and droughts will not be friendly to humans to crops. Only when the precipitation is moderate and unbiased can it be called good weather. The same is true in temperature. Too much temperature is equivalent to a high temperature, and insufficient temperature is equivalent to a low temperature. The temperature is not comfortable for people. Only when the temperature is not high or low is the most comfortable state for people.Let me give you two examples at the social level. Take driving on a highway for example. There are maximum speed limits and minimum speed limits. If a vehicle exceeds the maximum speed limit, it is too much, which can easily escape from the driver's control and increase the risk of car accidents. If a vehicle fails to reach the minimum speed limit, it is too much, and it is easy to form congestion. Only by driving between the maximum speed limit and the minimum speed limit is the most harmonious driving state; politically, a country is too tough, it is often bullied by a weak country, and it is often bullied by a strong country. Only in an impartial state can it be the most harmonious for the people of the country and the people of the world. At the level of human thought, left-leaning is radical adventurism, which belongs to tooth, and right-leaning is conservatism and surrenderism, which belongs to tooth, and neither left nor right is the way to deal with things harmoniously; conceit and inferiority are also tooth and inferior, while self-confidence is an impartial middle position...
Traditional medicine has three advantages in understanding diseases (things) and there are three disadvantages! Here are listed one by one:
Advantages 1: According to the destructive characteristics of the body's yin and yang balance, complex diseases can be attributed to several limited types of symptoms. Whether it is external evil or internal injury disease, traditional Chinese medicine only studies the deviation of this disease on the body's yin and yang balance, so treat it according to this result. Therefore, no matter in the face of SARS, the new crown, or other new diseases, it will not escape the situation of yin and yang imbalance, and it will naturally not affect the issuance of the treatment plan.
Advantage 2: If the treatment is strictly followed in traditional Chinese medicine theory, the root cause can be cured. The human body is the most sophisticated "instrument" in nature. It has the function of self-healing. When the yin and yang states of all aspects of the body are in a perfect state, the resistance is the strongest and the ability to self-heal the strongest. In the strict sense of traditional Chinese medicine's anti-evil or positive treatment is not to cure diseases, but to regulate and correct biases, so that the yin and yang imbalance that the body is destroyed by diseases can be corrected to normal order. The wood, fire, earth, metal and water in the five elements correspond to the human body's liver, heart, spleen, lungs and kidneys (the five internal organs transformed into qi, not the five internal organs presented in imaging). According to the relationship between the five elements of generation and restraint, the liver (on the left, the five elements belong to wood) and the lungs (on the right, the five elements belong to metal,) the heart (on the upper, the five elements belong to fire) and the kidney (on the lower, the five elements belong to water), just constructing a square, while the spleen (on the middle, the five elements belong to earth) is the foundation of acquired nature, and it absorbs the essence of water and grain through digestion and absorption, nourishing itself and the other four internal organs. When the human body is in a state of disease, the pattern of this square is broken. The "prescription" prescribed by traditional Chinese medicine doctors is nothing more than the organic combination of the five flavors and four qi of the medicine (five flavors are sour, bitter, sweet, spicy, salty, and warm, and cold and cool). The balance relationship of the square is re-established, so that all the functions of the body are in the most harmonious state and thus achieve self-healing. Also, because this kind of recovery is based on the body's self-repair, it does not rely on biochemical preparations such as antibiotics and hormones to achieve the entire process of destroying the body's yin and yang balance from disease - traditional Chinese medicine syndrome differentiation - traditional Chinese medicine to correct deviations and restore the yin and yang balance - body self-repair - restoring health, so the root cause can be cured.
Advantage 3: Prevent problems before they happen. The issuance of Western medicine's diagnosis and treatment plans is roughly necessary to draw conclusions based on imaging examinations (B-ultrasound, CT, X-ray, nuclear magnetic resonance, etc.) and laboratory examinations (hematological examinations, urine examinations, cerebrospinal fluid examinations, etc.). Whether it is a functional disease or an organic disease, it has developed into a real disease at this time. Traditional Chinese medicine is preventive medicine, and its definition of disease can be early to the initial deviation of yin and yang. For example, a person initially develops from kidney yin deficiency to liver yang hypertension (mostly seen in hypertension), and finally suffers from hemorrhagic stroke (called cerebral hemorrhage in Western medicine), which takes about ten, twenty years, or even longer.If it is the simple stage of kidney yin deficiency in traditional Chinese medicine, there may be no imaging changes or laboratory abnormalities in physical examinations at this time. In Western medicine, everything is normal, but in traditional Chinese medicine, due to the tilt of kidney yin towards "deficiency", yin and yang have deviated, which is already pathological. Generally, according to the principle of supplementing deficiency, some traditional Chinese medicines such as rehmannia, yam, and wolfberry that nourishes kidney yin will be corrected to restore the yin-yang balance relationship, which can effectively prevent and avoid the occurrence of major diseases in the future.
disadvantage 1: Too extensive and not refined enough. , as mentioned in Advantage 1, complex diseases can ultimately be attributed to several limited symptoms and treated. The disadvantages exposed in this way are also obvious, which is that they are too extensive and not refined enough. Many years ago, a patient with lung cancer and bone metastasis asked me a question like this. Because bone metastasis is very painful, I often take painkillers. He once asked me what level of pain can be reduced to if his disease is treated with traditional Chinese medicine, but I couldn't answer for a while. Although traditional Chinese medicine is very rigorous in the compatibility, preparation and portion size of medicinal materials, such as the Eighteenth Anti-Anti-Nineteenth Anti-Year, how many taels should be used for specific prescriptions in Chinese herbal materials, etc. However, in terms of understanding the disease system, the evaluation of symptoms and efficacy is very extensive in quantification. It can also be seen in this epidemic that in order to evaluate the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine in fighting the epidemic, methods that can only be used to compare with pure Western medicine treatment. At this point, Western medicine has done a very good job. Taking kidney disease as an example, routine urine tests can determine whether the properties of protein are positive or negative. The 24-hour urine protein quantification can determine how many grams of protein is lost from the urine every day, as well as daily weight and urine volume records, which constitute the criteria for evaluating the efficacy of the disease diagnosis and treatment. However, every medicine has its own shortcomings. The shortcomings of Western medicine lie in the symptomatic treatment with the help of external forces (some biochemical drugs) rather than treatment. Therefore, many diseases including hypertension and diabetes require lifelong medication. The defect of traditional Chinese medicine in understanding things is inherent and determined by the way they understand things, so it cannot be compensated.
Disadvantage 2: Use subjective feelings to judge objective reality . The patient's pulse condition exists objectively. To understand the rise and fall between the internal organs, doctors need to diagnose and check the pulse condition. Many pulse conditions (such as micro pulses, moist pulses, thin pulses, and weak pulses) have subtle differences, and the doctor's subjective feelings are easily disturbed by all kinds of interference, and sometimes it is difficult to make a correct judgment. At this point, Western medicine basically provides diagnostic basis through relatively objective imaging examinations and laboratory examinations. If there is no problem with the instrument and equipment, the conclusions generally come to be relatively accurate. It is precisely based on this point that traditional Chinese medicine basically does not treat itself, and it is difficult to treat people close to you, because when facing oneself or relatives, the fluctuations in subjective feelings will be greater, and it is even more difficult to determine the degree when using prescriptions and medications. To reverse this disadvantage, we can only improve the psychological quality of the doctor as much as possible.
Disadvantages three: one person, one side. How can individualized treatment of per person and one prescription become a disadvantage? This is because the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine syndrome differentiation and treatment determine that even a good Chinese medicine doctor will benefit extremely limited patients. The same pathogenic factor acts on different human bodies. Due to the different parts of the disease invasion, the different physical constitutions of the patients, the different confrontations in the body, etc., the state of yin and yang imbalance caused by various factors, and the internal organs involved are completely different, so one person can only treat the diagnosis and treatment. To reverse this disadvantage, we need to realize that everyone understands medicine and the whole people are all medical. This is consistent with the concept of "studying every family and learning by Sun Simiao proposed by the Tang Dynasty "King of Medicine" , "everyone learns by himself and everyone knows by himself" that the whole people are medical.
The above is whether talking about traditional Chinese medicine or talking about the world from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, it adopts a brand new perspective. This angle not only breaks out of traditional Chinese medicine itself, but also looks down on traditional Chinese medicine from an objective philosophical perspective and overlooks the world. This uses yin and yang to understand the characteristics and charm of things.
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