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Real Reality
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2004 1:48 pm Post subject: What Do You Think of Eastern Medicine? |
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Court Medical Ruling Sparks Row Between East and West
The medical world is strongly protesting a court decision that legally permits doctors of Eastern medicine to use Computed Tomography Imaging (CT).
The court ruled that existing medical law did not forbid doctors of Eastern medicine from using CT scans to make diagnoses, and declared the shutdown illegal. In a statement announced Wednesday, the KMA said, "For the bench to recognize radiology as the territory of Eastern medicine doctors, citing how there were radiology classes at Eastern medicine schools, is a misunderstanding of medicine.
"This is the same as saying you'll become an English teacher because you took an English class in college."
The Korean Medical Association (KMA) revealed its intention to push plans to include Eastern medicine as a major course in medical schools and teach Eastern medicine, including acupuncture, to practicing doctors through additional training. By doing so, it would expand its scope of treatment into territory that had up till now been reserved for Eastern medicine practitioners.
by Kim Dong-seop, Chosun Ilbo (December 22, 2004)
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200412/200412220027.html |
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tomato
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.
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| Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2004 3:05 pm Post subject: |
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Hello, Real Reality!
A research team visited a Chinese hospital which practiced Eastern medicine. The hospital personnel showed the team the various methods of treatment which were being employed at the hospital. For every method of treatment, the personnel gave an anecdote about one patient who underwent the treatment and was cured. However, the personnel could not tell of any carefully controlled experiments, using an experimental group and a control group.
This visit was recounted in an article in the Skeptical Inquirer, a monthly magazine published by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of the Paranormal:
http://www.csicop.org/ |
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fondasoape
Joined: 02 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2004 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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Eastern medicine is more or less voodoo.
That being said, just because it's crackpot pseudoscience doesn't mean it doesn't work sometimes. The human mind can do amazing things. |
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The Bobster
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 11:05 am Post subject: |
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| fondasoape wrote: |
Eastern medicine is more or less voodoo.
That being said, just because it's crackpot pseudoscience doesn't mean it doesn't work sometimes. The human mind can do amazing things. |
Don't knock voodoo.
I once asked my doctor what the mechanism is that allows aspirin to make a headache go away. He said we have no idea at all why you should even have a headache at all, since the neurons inside your head are completely different from the ones throughout your body that have pain-registering functions. When I asked him it it wasn't maybe irresponsible to recommend it to people if we don't know how it works, he said it would be irresponsible NOT to recommend something that clearly DOES work just because we're not exactly sure why ...
Sometimes people who have cancer and are well on the way to death with no hope at all from medical science, just suddenly ... get better. It's called "spontaneous remission," but having a name for it doesn't mean we have a clue what's going on.
I think it's good that medical schools are teaching some aspects of Eatsern Medicine. Korea (China, too) spent most of the last century throwing out their cultural heritage with no concern at all, keeping only some of the worst aspects, the ones we usually complain about here. |
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John Henry
Joined: 24 Sep 2004
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| Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 12:40 pm Post subject: |
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| All i know is that when I listen to Depak Chopra, he seems to make a lot of sense to me. |
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Merlyn
Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
When I asked him it it wasn't maybe irresponsible to recommend it to people if we don't know how it works, he said it would be irresponsible NOT to recommend something that clearly DOES work just because we're not exactly sure why ...
I think it's good that medical schools are teaching some aspects of Eatsern Medicine. Korea (China, too) spent most of the last century throwing out their cultural heritage with no concern at all, keeping only some of the worst aspects, the ones we usually complain about here.
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Doctors recommend aspirin to people because studies show that people who take aspirin, under similar headache conditions, have their headaches relieved. The human sciences are not like the natural sciences but strong correlations can still be made. This is where Eastern medicine and Western medicine part their separate ways. No such correlations can be made in Eastern medicine. Basically no correlations can be made at all. Ten people with back problems can have acupuncture and say they feel better, ten other people can have the same problems, have acupunture and say there was no improvement at all. In some cases, Eastern medicine can even be dangerous. A student of mine two years ago went to and Eastern Doctor, drank their potion, because she wasn't feeling well and got terribly sick. She went to a Doctor of Western medicine shortly their after, and was told the medicine that she took had almost killed her and he gave her something immediately that started the healing process. |
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turtlepi1
Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE
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| Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 4:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Merlyn wrote: |
| Quote: |
When I asked him it it wasn't maybe irresponsible to recommend it to people if we don't know how it works, he said it would be irresponsible NOT to recommend something that clearly DOES work just because we're not exactly sure why ...
I think it's good that medical schools are teaching some aspects of Eatsern Medicine. Korea (China, too) spent most of the last century throwing out their cultural heritage with no concern at all, keeping only some of the worst aspects, the ones we usually complain about here.
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Doctors recommend aspirin to people because studies show that people who take aspirin, under similar headache conditions, have their headaches relieved. The human sciences are not like the natural sciences but strong correlations can still be made. This is where Eastern medicine and Western medicine part their separate ways. No such correlations can be made in Eastern medicine. Basically no correlations can be made at all. Ten people with back problems can have acupuncture and say they feel better, ten other people can have the same problems, have acupunture and say there was no improvement at all. In some cases, Eastern medicine can even be dangerous. A student of mine two years ago went to and Eastern Doctor, drank their potion, because she wasn't feeling well and got terribly sick. She went to a Doctor of Western medicine shortly their after, and was told the medicine that she took had almost killed her and he gave her something immediately that started the healing process. |
First there are quacks in every profession. Wanna see the stories of Western doctors screwing up? So the story of your student while sad really has little bearing.
As for your assertion about correlations there are many people that have to use other medications for headaches because aspirin does little to affect the headache. Using your example we would have to say that aspirin shows no correlation and in some cases is dangerous...
What do I think about Eastern medicine...I'm not sure...I think there are probably aspects that are valuable to people and I think there are aspects that are probably not. I also think the same of Western medicine. Many Western doctors are studying Eastern medicine and a doctor well versed in both would be my choice.
Also, while belief alone may not be curative, it goes a long way in the healing process. The mind is a powerful tool that we have only scratched the surface of. |
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thorin
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 5:15 pm Post subject: |
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5,000 years and they haven't come up with a single thing that gets me high.  |
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funplanet
Joined: 20 Jun 2003
Location: The new Bucheon!
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| Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 6:10 pm Post subject: |
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Eastern medicine is better at prevention than Western medicine...in the West they wait until you get sick and then throw everything at you whilst presenting you or your health insurance with a massive bill...
Eastern medicine has the right idea focusing on staying healthy, if nothing else... |
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Merlyn
Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
First there are quacks in every profession. Wanna see the stories of Western doctors screwing up? So the story of your student while sad really has little bearing.
As for your assertion about correlations there are many people that have to use other medications for headaches because aspirin does little to affect the headache. Using your example we would have to say that aspirin shows no correlation and in some cases is dangerous...
What do I think about Eastern medicine...I'm not sure...I think there are probably aspects that are valuable to people and I think there are aspects that are probably not. I also think the same of Western medicine. Many Western doctors are studying Eastern medicine and a doctor well versed in both would be my choice.
Also, while belief alone may not be curative, it goes a long way in the healing process. The mind is a powerful tool that we have only scratched the surface of. |
Western doctors may may mistakes, just like the Korean doctor I mentioned, but let's not confuse the two like they stand on equal ground. When the western doctor makes a mistake and causes harm to someone, he will be punished for it, and not only will he be punished, tests will be performed to see what exactly the doctor did so the mistake won't be repeated. If it is a problem with scientific medicine it will be fixed. If it was a procedural problem, that will be fixed as well. When this asian doctor made his mistake, do you think he performed any cross-checks to see how he made his miscalculation. Do you think he even knows what causes what, even by correlation? Very unlikely.
Last edited by Merlyn on Thu Dec 23, 2004 7:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Merlyn
Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 7:02 pm Post subject: |
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Eastern medicine is better at prevention than Western medicine...in the West they wait until you get sick and then throw everything at you whilst presenting you or your health insurance with a massive bill...
Eastern medicine has the right idea focusing on staying healthy, if nothing else... |
I don't know of any information at all that shows the Eastern people are better protected from illness because of Eastern medicine. If this were true there would be a lot less people in the hospitals, and sick in the schools, which just isn't the case. |
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