Digest Number 324

January 12, 2004

There are a number of good points being brought up

here.

I believe that semantics are important - as in the

choice to say “alternative” or “complementary”

medicine - one promotes a divide and conquer attitude

and the other promotes a willingness to work together.

Words carry explicit and implicit meaning. Even when

people are not cognizant of the implicit meaning - the

tone of the underlying message is heard and absorbed.

It is a reality that the pharmaceutical industry is

one of the most lucrative industries in this country,

possibly the world – to say that acknowledging their

power is giving them control is naive. IMHO, they

already have it. They are well backed by the medical

profession, medical schools, research institutes etc.

and they are VERY well organized. TCM practitioners

are not well organized and don’t have the financial

backing that allopathic medicine does.

Let’s face it, people are lazy and many would rather

just pop a pill and get that instant gratification.

WM is making an attempt to differentiate their

diagnosis with psychopharmaceuticals now – it is not

one pill fits all – the so-called “designer” drugs

seem to be an attempt at that. Granted, it is still

denatured but there seems to be more awareness that

one drug does not fit all.

It takes time to heal the body in a more natural way

and, to educate patients how to live a healthful

life.... put the burden of health maintenance back on

the patient. That is one of the most difficult and

most rewarding in things in Chinese medicine.

As a profession we seem to be very scattered and

disorganized. We do need to become organized, have

clarity about our own profession, and be willing to

participate in that organization. In doing so, we need

to facilitate clarity about the language that we use,

be clear about the goals we are aiming for and be

capable of communicating that in a manner that those

that are not familiar with Chinese medicine will

understand. As for myself, I still struggle with the

semantics of our medicine. It is difficult to

articulate to someone who has never been exposed or

minimally exposed to these ideas. For myself, I know

that my inability to grasp the essence of the native

chinese language hinders my ability to do this.

If you really want to see changes, get involved ... it

is up to you! Well there is my 2 + cents

Karen Donahue, M.Ac.

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January 13, 2004

Thanks, Karen.

That was clearly stated. It's nice now and then to see a balanced

perspective on this list. ;-)

Emmanuel Segmen

> It takes time to heal the body in a more natural way

> and, to educate patients how to live a healthful

> life.... put the burden of health maintenance back on

> the patient. That is one of the most difficult and

> most rewarding in things in Chinese medicine.

>

> Karen Donahue, M.Ac.

January 13, 2004

..... put the burden of health maintenance back on> the patient.

I agree almost completely, except for the fact that we are contributing to each others premature demise by virtue of the way society 'functions' these days.

There are little advertisements on the busses that have a picture of a little kid and a fish and lake. And the caption reads' "Clean water begins and ends with you." This could not be further from the truth. Industry is responsible for by far most polution and wasteage. Even the most well intentioned person is forced to operate within the framework of their society. I guess in a decade a resposible practitioner will inform their paying clients to

drink bottled water And bottled air, because increasingly in many parts of the planet, the oxygen concentration in urban areas often drops well below 10%. Who is to blame for that? Everybody that is aware, I guess. One could relocate, or try to change they way it is person by person. If that is what you mean by .... put the burden of health maintenance back on the patient, then I do agree.

nuel Segmen <susegmen wrote:

Thanks, Karen.That was clearly stated. It's nice now and then to see a balancedperspective on this list. ;-)Emmanuel Segmen> It takes time to heal the body in a more natural way> and, to educate patients how to live a healthful> life.... put the burden of health maintenance back on> the patient. That is one of the most difficult and> most rewarding in things in Chinese medicine.>>> Karen Donahue, M.Ac.Membership requires that you do not post any commerical, swear, religious, spam messages,flame another member or swear. To change your email settings, i.e. individually, daily digest or none, visit the groups’ homepage: Chinese Medicine/ click ‘edit my membership' on the right hand side and adjust accordingly. To send an email to<Chinese Medicine- > from the email account you joined with. You will be removed automatically but will still recieve messages for a few days.