TCM syndromes & Western-defined medical conditions

[Guest guest]

I want to stress again that Western-defined medical conditions rarely

correspond to TCM syndromes. The common cold (Wind Chill and in some cases

Wind Heat) and most cases of arthritis and rheumatism (Painful Obstruction

Syndrome or Bi Pain) are among the few that do. In most cases

Western-defined medical conditions do NOT correspond to a TCM syndrome.

Asthma is a classic example. The breathing problems that the West calls

asthma can be a manifestation of several very different TCM syndromes. What

works to correct one TCM imbalance and clear up a variety of manifestations,

including the breathing problems, may do nothing to help breathing problems

with a different underlying Root and may even aggravate breathing problems

due to another Root.

 

So why do I list possible TCM Roots that can underlie Western-defined

medical conditions (when I can find this information)? It can be a great

confidence-building tool (as well as teaching tool) for the MDs, DOs,

chiropractors, nurses, and others who have training in Western medicine

and/or physiology.

 

In an ideal world, every MD, DO, chiropractor, nurse, herbalist, or any

other person who wanted to learn TCM could go off to a good TCM college in

the U.S. or in the country they live in or in China, and for a while be

immersed in the study of TCM, building their TCM skills and confidence in

their TCM skills that way. But, in the real world, this seldom is possible.

People have other resposibilities, lack money and/or time, etc., and these

things prevent them from taking this route. In some cases, having the

information on what possible TCM syndromes typically will be found in people

suffering from a specific Western-defined condition can boost healers'

confidence in their developing TCM knowledge and abilities.

 

Say for example that a doctor is just beginning to learn TCM with the hope

of finding something that will add to his/her healing knowledge. As anyone

on this list can tell you, TCM can seem overwhelming at first to Westerners.

It's so different from anything the person usually has encountered to

date. There's so much to learn! Plus, keep in mind that doctors are put

through some very rigorous training in order to accumulate not only the

knowledge they need to be good doctors but the confidence in their abilities

to heal. And they've been watched and tested carefully over the course of

their training in Western medicine. They know perfectly well that reading a

few TCM books is not going to make them experts in TCM. Many ask themselves

how can they be sure they're understanding the TCM information and can start

to apply it without being in a formal school situation with teachers

monitoring what they do? Knowing the probable TCM imbalances that can be

present in an individual who presents with a certain Western-defined medical

condition can be a way of the doctor developing confidence in his or her

ability to analyze from a TCM standpoint.

 

Let's say for example that a doctor who is just starting to learn TCM on his

or her own, doesn't yet know for sure that TCM is valid, and doesn't know if

s/he can learn TCM enough to use it effectively and without causing harm,

examines a person with the following symptoms from a TCM standpoint: The

person complains of being cold a lot, having trouble warming up, moves and

talks slowly, produces a lot of clear urine, has incontinence problems, has

lower backache frequently, has constipation characterized by mushy bowel

movements (or has colonic inertia), and rarely feels thirsty and prefers hot

soups or hot liquids when the person does feel thirsty. This person also has

breathing problems, and questioning reveals that the person has more trouble

with inhalation than with exahalation. The doctor knows from his/her

rigourous Western medical training and from tests that this person has

asthma. What this new TCM student is unsure of is what TCM syndrome this

person may have. S/he thinks to her/himself, " Except for the constipation

in the list of TCM symptoms, it appears this person is Yang Deficient, in

particular Kidney Yang Deficient, but what do I know about TCM? " Upon

learning that Kidneys Refusing to Grasp Qi (a form of Kidney Yang

Deficiency) is one of the possible TCM imbalances in people with asthma, the

doctor gains confidence in his/her ability to understand and use TCM.

Later, upon learning that although Yang Deficiency typically is

characterized by diarrhea but that some cases of Yang Deficiency can

manifest as constipation or colonic inertia characterized by mushy bowel

movements (in contrast to hard, dry stools which characterize most cases of

constipation and which are due to Heat), the doctor gains even more

confidence in her/his TCM abilities.

 

A second reason why a consideration of which TCM imbalances typically can be

found in people with certain Western-defined conditions can be advantagous

is the person will start to ask questions and consider possibilities that

s/he never considered before. Let me give you an analogy. I live in an

area in which I am surrounded by a lot of very beautiful scenary. Day after

day, I've seen this view. Certain things in the view automatically catch my

attention every morning when I open the blinds or curtains or step out on

the porch. But when someone visits who has never seen this view before,

they frequently spot things that I've never noticed because my outlook has

become so automatic, so rigid. Thanks to them, I start to notice more

beautiful things, things I never noticed before. These things always were

there, I just didn't notice them until someone with a different perspective

pointed them out.

 

Something like this occurs in healing (or in any other discipline). When

people whose first training was in TCM start to learn Western medicine, they

start to ask questions and consider possibilities in Western medicine that

not only never occured to those trained first in Western medicine, they

start to ask questions and consider possibilities in TCM that never occured

to them before their exposure to Western medicine. The ancient Chinese were

not running electrical current through acupuncture needles for increased

efficiency of treatment, but the modern Chinese are. Likewise, when a person

trained first in Western medicine and/or physiology learns TCM, the person

starts to ask questions and consider new possibilities not only in TCM but

in Western medicine.

 

Let's go back to the example of the doctor who is beginning to learn TCM.

After gaining a certain amount of confidence in both TCM and in his/her

abilities in TCM, many doctors start to ask questions they wouldn't have

thought to ask before or notice things they never noticed before. For

example, the doctor may start to wonder if a certain Western asthma

medication is more effective in asthmatics who have certain TCM syndromes

than in asthmatics who have other TCM symdromes. Is a certain asthma

medication ineffective in asthmatics who have a particular TCM syndrome?

Can certain asthma medications actually aggravate the asthma in asthmatics

with another TCM syndrome? Do the results of breathing tests differ among

asthmatics with different TCM syndromes?

 

I want to stress that people trained solely in TCM do NOT diagnose

Western-defined medical conditions. They do not have the training to do

this, and it is illegal. What people trained in TCM analyze and treat are

TCM imbalances. People trained just in Western medicine diagnose and treat

Western-defined medical conditions. If they do not have training in TCM,

they are unable to analyze and treat from a TCM standpoint.

 

Knowing what TCM syndromes frequently appear in conjunction with certain

Western-defined medical conditions can be a good tool. But eventually, in

order to get the most out of TCM, a healer needs to learn to do a TCM

analysis. This can be the difference between being a good healer who helps

a lot of people by using some TCM and being a great healer who helps even

more people who otherwise would not be helped.

 

The book The Web That Has No Weaver gives some information on how certain

TCM syndromes will appear with frequency in conjunction with certain

Western-defined medical conditions. I want to caution readers that just

because x number of TCM syndromes are identified over and over and over in

people with a particular Western-defined medical problem, this does not mean

that only one or more of these x number of TCM syndromes always will be the

TCM imbalance. For example, let's say that 6 TCM syndromes appear

reapeatedly in conjunction with say peptic ulcers. Let's say that in a

study involving 10,000 people with peptic ulcers, one or more of these 6

possible TCM syndromes appear over and over and over. Even though it's

probable that anyone with a peptic ulcer will have one or more of these 6

TCM syndromes, this does not mean that occasionally someone will not have

another TCM syndrome besides one of the 6 which is manifesting as peptic

ulcer or which has to be addressed first or at the same time as one of the 6

identified TCM syndromes associated with peptic ulcers before treatment can

be effective. This is why it's so important to know how to do a TCM

analysis. The wild card could be missed if one is just counting on one or

more of the 6 probables being the culprit, and treatment will be

ineffective. Phlegm often is a wild card. Also, the longer a problem has

gone on, the more complicated it's become, the more likely there may be an

imbalance other than one of the probables which have been identified as

occuring with a certain Western-defined medical condition.

 

Victoria

 

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