Was: Strategies in the Medical War? Now: CM's long past and long future

[Guest guest]

Hi Attilio,

 

I'm so glad you are in China at a hospital to see for yourself what's going on.

I hope you make many English-speaking friends to see also that some research

happens on behalf of CM clinical practice as well as agronomy research on herbs.

Dr. Kang, where I work here, gets a 25 kg box per month of clinical journals and

reads every evening after dinner. That's the life of a dedicated clinician. He

used to be the chief of TCM at the Shanghai Hospital #1 for 16 years. Dr. Liu,

my agronomist in Shandong, similarly reads and tells us of a great deal of

research in each province at TCM colleges and universities as well as at

agronomy PhD programs. There's a kind of an agricultural university in Jilin

Province with PhD programs that look at herbs from each province. The

candidates are usually culled from each province and sent back to each province

to work with growers. Dr. Liang (Dr. Kang's wife) and my boss at Asia Natural

is guided to growers in different parts of China through the graduate school

classmates of our Shandong agronomist Dr. Liu as well as our Lanzhou factory

contacts.

 

The bottom line is that you are right about money for research. It's all about

China catching up and competing with America and Europe for authenticity in

Western medicine. Rey Tequia I believe correctly notes that the Chinese are

fascinated by " scientism. " Dr. Chiang (pres. of Min Tong Herbs) once noted

something similar to your thoughts below as far as integration catching up in

the distant future. As a biochemist relatively new to Chinese medical thought,

I asked Dr. Chiang how long he felt it would take Western science to evaluate

Chinese medicine. As a PhD in pharmacology from University of Tokyo, I think he

felt comfortable talking with me. On this occasion he smiled one of his kind of

dreamy smiles. He said it took billions of people 3,000 years to come this far

in CM. Why would it take any shorter a period of time in Western science lab

hours? It struck me as a remarkably obvious answer to my question. That

conversation and many more like it over the past two decades have given me an

understanding of time with regard to " integration " .

 

Thanks, Attilio, for sharing your ongoing impressions.

 

In gratitude,

Emmanuel Segmen

 

 

 

I was speaking to a doctor in Beijing and he stated the same

problems. There's very little money being directed into TCM research in China

with the majority of it going to WM. I think China as a whole, instead of

concentrating on their own strengthens, are trying to tackle the West head on at

their own game. Hence the advancement of WM research in China.

 

Of course this is all swings and roundabouts. A balance will come eventually

with TCM and WM research and integration, but it will take some years. Until

then, secret formula, quality of herbs and the Western powers blinded vision

will play a major role in TCM's future. Perhaps a fund should be set-up, run by

TCM associations, to support and fund the development of research into TCM. The

money could be raised by various methods, through subscription, fund

raising, sponsorship, etc.

 

Attilio