Acid reflux and lung damage

[Guest guest]

Some time ago there was an article in the news about a boy dying of damage to

his lungs caused by untreated acid reflux from the stomach. The boy. This

problem went untreated for some time. The boy was having breathing problems that

were worse when he laid down and he had stomach problems. But because the usual

asthma tests were negative or unusual in their results and because the doctors

were unaware that acid reflux can cause breathing problems, the problem went

undiagnosed and untreated. It seems like cost cutting on the part of the

parents' health plan also played a role. When the usual test results for asthma

were unusual, the doctors decided that the problem was psychological if it

existed at all. By the time the real cause was diagnosed, the boy's lungs were

damaged so much that he was dying. The thing is the treatments for acid reflux

are not all that expensive. Besides the usual prescription drug treatments for

acid reflux, there are things like elevating the head of the bed.

 

The main factor is that the boy's doctors were unaware that acid reflux can

cause breathing problems and if left untreated for a long period of time, can

cause damage to the lungs. Things like this do not happen in TCM as often as

they happen in Western medicine. Why? Because TCM is geared towards identifying

and treating root imbalances. It wouldn't matter if a TCM healer knew or didn't

know about acid reflux being linked to some cases of breathing problems and

damage to the lungs. Any competent TCM healer is able to identify Liver Invading

Stomach and/or Stomach Qi rebelling and treat these conditions. In identifying

and properly treating root imbalances, the healer automatically takes care of

all possible manifestations of the problem regardless if the healer knows what

all the possible manifestations are or not.

 

This is only one example of TCM being able to treat conditions where the cause

is not known from a Western standpoint. I do want to stress that TCM can't cure

or treat everything. There are some things that Western medicine does a better

job at, and some things where a combination of the two does the best job. But

because TCM is not dependent on the healer knowing every possible manifestation

of a TCM syndrome in order to identify and treat the root, a lot of stuff gets

cleared up or at least improved without the healer being aware of the exact

etiology.

 

I also want to stress that healing and diagnosis abilities within TCM differ

among individual TCM healers just like they do among Western-trained doctors.

Some healers are better at diagnosis and treatment than others. And, there are

quacks in TCM who don't care about patients, are incompetent, and who are just

in it for the money just like there are quacks among MDs and DOs who don't care

about patients, are incompetent in Western medicine, and who are just in it for

the money and power. But, there are certain philosophical differences that do

guard somewhat against some incompetency in TCM that the current way of teaching

Western medicine actually encourages. For one thing, it's understood in TCM that

you listen to the patient and that not everything can be revealed by objective

tests. Also, TCM healers are trained to use and trust their powers of

observation far more than Western doctors are. Western doctors are taught that

even their observations don't count for much and the tests are everything. And,

TCM healers cannot fall back on " it's psychological " for any and everything that

they don't understand and are too lazy to try to figure out.

 

This does not mean that all TCM healers are going to be ideal healers or do

things the way TCM encourages them to be done. Greedy and incompetent

individuals can show up in any school of medicine. It means on the average, you

encounter these problems less in TCM than from Western doctors. Again I want to

stress that TCM cannot heal everything and there are some things that Western

medicine does better or a combination of Chinese and Western medicine does best.

It also means that there are some things and people that TCM can help when

Western medicine is offering little or no help. There are people suffering and

even dying from some conditions for which there is TCM help.

 

Victoria

 

 

 

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