3-1b Listening - Contrasts Between Chinese and Western Medicine

We'll be continuing today with our discussion of Chinese and Western medicine. Previously, we talked about diagnosis and how these two systems differed in very general ways. I want to stress that we're talking about these types of medicine in very general terms and we're not trying to make absolute statements about how they work. All right. With diagnosis, we saw that the Chinese system tends to be much more holistic. That is, doctors look at the whole body when patients are sick and believe that the body itself as a whole must have some type of imbalance. In contrast to this, there's the Western system that tends to analyze the specific cause and location of an illness. One uses personal observation more and the other scientific instrumentation. Okay. Now we'll move on to the next step of the process, which is the treatment of the illness and what doctors actually do after diagnosis has been made. First, we'll talk about the medicine that is used under each system and we'll see again this contrast between natural and scientific we touched on before. Then we'll get into the bigger picture of what the goal of the treatment is, what effect each system hopes to have, and what they hope to achieve through their treatment. So medicine, if you look way back through history and prehistory, comes from nature. The plants around us, especially in certain areas of the world like in the Amazon, for example, still contain many of the drugs and remedies that we need. As you can imagine, Chinese medicine with its approach to illness prizes herbal medicine, which is made from a natural plant and not overly processed, manufactured, or refined. Go to a Chinese pharmacy and you'll find many treatments in the form of tea just dried out from specific plants and mixed together. Of course, each patient would get a different prescription of this medicine as they would each get a personalized diagnosis. Keeping with the idea that the body is an intricately connected system, these herbal drugs are thought to treat the whole body, not just a specific area that is ailing. Also, using the whole plant means it has retained all of the nutrition it originally had and the belief is that all parts of the plant interact to heal a patient, not just a single extracted chemical. There are other distinct properties of this type of medicine. One is that Chinese medicines tend to be slow-acting because the active ingredients inside them are diluted because the whole plant is used. Being slow-acting has some benefits in that there tend to be very few, if any, side effects from taking this type of medicine. Beyond herbal medicine, Chinese doctors will also focus on the lifestyle of the patient and will prescribe non-medical activities such as maintaining a healthy diet and habits as well as getting more specific types of exercise. As we said, culture influences these medical systems quite a lot and so in this way we can see how Western medicine differs, especially in its production. Using its more industrialized techniques, Western society takes the natural ingredients that contain the medicine, the plants we talked about, and puts them under the microscope to extract the specific chemicals that actively attacks and helps heal a given illness. The whole plant is not used and unnecessary parts are simply discarded once the essential drug is distilled and bottled. So opposed to being natural, Western drugs are artificial, synthetic. And are manufactured in a laboratory. The active ingredients are isolated and concentrated most often in pill or injection form so there is nothing extra or unwanted in them. Because of this high concentration, Western drugs can act very, very quickly and help alleviate symptoms more rapidly than Chinese medicine can. Contrary to the ideas of Chinese medicine, the rest of the body tends to be ignored in this process and the idea of holistic healing doesn't really apply as these drugs target specific areas. The downside of getting the quick results is that because drugs are more concentrated and not diluted with other potentially helpful ingredients, there is a much greater risk of side effects. For example, chemotherapy and radiotherapy may help target cancer and help eradicate it, but the consequences can be quite extreme. Both types of medicine can be effective in different situations for the same illness, but obviously each has a positive and negative side.

In addition to having many differences when it comes to treatment, Chinese and Western medical practices have varied stances when it comes to the overall goals or what they hope to achieve.

We've seen how in Chinese medicine, doctors really get to know their patients well. Not just learn about their ailment, but more about how they are living their lives, because that is, when following this system, connected to the illness, which is part of the holistic view of health.

Well, this extends into the long-term view that Chinese doctors have, which believes that the goal of their treatment isn't just about solving or repairing an immediate problem. It should be true healing, and therefore long-lasting, by eliminating the real cause.

This is where the idea of diagnosis of lifestyle is extremely effective, because patients' bad habits may, in fact, be causing the illness in the first place.

Treatment is designed to balance the whole body, so all functions should be brought into alignment. It is the Chinese doctor's job to assist the patient to stay well.

Now, here's an interesting idea. Traditionally, if patients are not cured, or if they become ill again, the doctor will not be paid. How's that for incentive? I think doctors will try a bit harder to keep sick people well over the long term, not just give them a quick fix, if they know that there'll be no payment as a result.

The goal is also prevention of illness, not just treatment. Medicine will be prescribed to patients even before they become ill, in order to ensure that it doesn't happen.

Overall, Chinese medicine's goal is to achieve not only physical, but also emotional and spiritual health, going back to the idea of harmony among all parts of the body.

Now, when we look at Western medicine and its goals, it comes as no surprise that they are not as much about healing over an extended period of time, but fixing an immediate problem to alleviate symptoms of illness.

As Western medicine tends to be more impersonal, there may not be the same investigation of patients' lifestyles, and problems may persist or cause illness again.

Doctors and psychiatrists, those who focus more on mental health, may work totally separately from each other, and thereby miss a mind-body connection at the root of the illness.

Still, Western medicine proves effective at the immediate removal of pain and quick healing.

Of course, unlike Chinese doctors, Western ones don't need to worry about being paid. Regardless of whether patients are healthy or become sick again, the money comes in.