Is traditional Chinese medicine really that powerful? Can it cure everything? It’s common to hear promotions about using traditional Chinese medicine for preventing diseases!

It can only be said that it has its unique advantages; especially during this pandemic, traditional Chinese medicine has received widespread recognition. As for some unrealistic claims, they are mostly a form of extremism.

Traditional Chinese medicine has been ruined by those quacks and frauds who exaggerate its miraculous effects, as well as by health experts. Compared to modern medicine, traditional Chinese medicine remains at a mystical stage; it is truly sad that it cannot make full use of the achievements of modern science for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation.

Could it be that traditional Chinese medicine is too profound and complex, and our understanding of it is extremely superficial, which leads to the current situation?

This post was last edited by qugd on 2020-7-5 20:14. Science has its own ways of description, and modern medicine should be able to advance by making use of the methods and achievements of modern science. Any form of medicine that, after more than 2,000 years of development, still relies on simplistic materialistic or even idealistic ways of understanding, cannot truly be considered profound or sophisticated; such a situation is nothing but misleading, or even deceptive, or a form of self-deception. I personally don’t think there is a distinction between Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine; I simply believe that science, including medicine, is in a constant state of development, and during this process it is necessary to draw on existing knowledge, reject certain ideas, and embrace new ones. It is undeniable that there are some traditional Chinese medicine practitioners who possess a high level of skill, such as those in Chen’s bone-setting technique; however, I believe that this is no longer considered true traditional Chinese medicine. Additionally, traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes treating symptoms specifically, but if one cannot properly understand the root causes of those symptoms, then treatment is nothing more than trying to figure things out by feel, like a blind man trying to touch an elephant ； Another example is that in traditional Chinese medicine’s holistic approach to treating certain diseases (such as hepatitis), it is rare to find statistical data on the pharmacological effects of specific drugs. When such statistical evidence is not available, treatment is based on individual case studies, and this itself is not a scientific approach or method. I am not opposed to traditional Chinese medicine, but I strongly object to blind superstition and uncritical promotion of it. I am even more disgusted by the claim a few days ago that criticizing traditional Chinese medicine could lead to legal consequences under civil and criminal laws. You should know that hundreds of years ago, Copernicus was executed for saying that the Earth orbits the Sun. This approach of using methods that go against science and are even illegal to protect traditional Chinese medicine is the best way to accelerate its demise.

From a pharmacological perspective alone, traditional Chinese medicine involves boiling a bunch of leaves and roots in a clay pot to produce one bowl of liquid from three bowls of water, which is a much less efficient method compared to the chemical-based drug production and injection therapies used in Western medicine. Western medicine can use instruments such as MRI, CT, and X-rays to digitize the process of diagnosis, which represents a revolution compared to the less efficient digital methods used in traditional Chinese medicine. If traditional Chinese medicine fails to integrate with digital technologies, it will eventually face extinction. Modern young people no longer believe in Chinese martial arts, and in time, even fewer people will believe in traditional Chinese medicine

Indeed, medicine that refuses to pursue development or change is, at best, a combination of mysticism and superstition. I recall what Feng Yu Xiu said in the world of martial arts: martial arts are skills for killing people. Turning to the medical field, medicine is the art of saving lives. To ensure that those who save lives understand this, as well as those who are saved, it is necessary to rely on modern science, and progress requires a process of self-reflection and denial.

The modern quality control system no longer focuses solely on the results (the quality of medical care); what is more important is the process. The operating procedures and their implementation are well defined, and tests such as blood tests, temperature measurements, ECGs, and CT scans enable accurate recording of important information from the patient’s admission to discharge. This makes it possible to trace things back logically in the event of any medical disputes. In traditional Chinese medicine, if diagnosis relies solely on the doctor palpating the pulse and examining the tongue, with no objective data from manual recordings to back it up, the quality control is ineffective. Quality resulting from uncontrollable processes is not accepted