Digest Number 912

[Guest guest]

>

 

Actually, the problem I see are the graduating exams. The schools need to have

the highest possible percentages of board success to attract students. Ergo: the

graduating exams are as close to the boards as possible. However the teachers

don't like to teach out of CAM, Giovanni

and to a lesser extent Bensky. So the students get outraged when the graduation

material was " never taught: " . I know that when I taught my syllabus had to

explicitedly say that the materials were from pages in CAM thus avoiding future

fights between the administration and a

potentially litigious student. I think that was a smart idea.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, It's all about economics.

 

I think the idea of a professor's having hours is great, no if we can just get

the projectors and other a/v equipment out of the faculty lounge. ;-)

 

 

> I certainly don't have a " board -o-centric " approach to teaching. I

> try to be aware of what is on state boards and national exams, but I

> don't consider it my responsibility to simply prepare students for an

> exam. While a student who passes a state exam exhibits 'minimum

> competency' (and even that is debatable, given the erratic quality of

> the California exam), passing that exam doesn't guarantee that they will

> be able to handle the demands of a clinical practice.

>

> I agree with Ken, we need to teach the medicine as best we can, and

> encourage students to continue to study on their own. . . .forever.

>

>

[Guest guest]

Does anyone know the properties of muscle relaxants? I have one patient

who was told to not take aspirin while taking her medication. It made me

hesitant in giving her my blood moving patent formula.

 

>

> Do you and others reading this feel that blood movers are absolutely

> prohibited when a patient is on coumadin. Or if you would use a blood

> mover, which one. It seems Hong Hua, Chuan Xiong, and Ji Xue Teng

are

> relatively mild, followed by Tao Ren. Where does Wu Li Zi fit in.

 

[Guest guest]

Does anyone know the properties of muscle relaxants? I have one patient who was told to not take aspirin while taking her medication.

>>>>>I am not aware of any interaction between any muscle relaxant and aspirin. I think something else is going on

Alon

[Guest guest]

, " jramholz " <jramholz> wrote:

> Colleen:

>

> If you put together an herbal formula based on the chemical

> constituents of the herbs in order to " directly affect " a patient's

> hormones, then it's not really CM medicine so much as it is a way of

> using herbs to deliver a drug or a chemical.

 

>I am not sure that is what Colleen is saying.

 

Thank you Todd. You are correct, that is not what I was trying to say I

could not have made my case more eloquently.

 

Colleen

 

 

>From my perspective, the Chinese description of drug and herb action

does not demonstrate an alternate mode of action distinct from modern

physiology and pharamcology. I think it is merely the difference

between looking at

the action from either an organiusmic (TCM) or molecular (WM) level.

But both modes of action are involved in any use of herbs regardless of

which description one relies upon. So while CM does not make dx on a

molecular level, there is no doubt that whatever else herbs may be

doing from the perspective of complexity theory or systems biology,

they are also always affecting molecular changes. In fact, the

molecular changes have been amply demonstrated in volumes of research,

while the organismic actions are barely yet understood. In addition,

if one removes the pharmacological constituents from an herb, the herb

will have no action of any kind. I know some people will say, " what

about homeopathy? " I direct people again to ITM where subhuti did a

meta analysis of studies that purportedly demonstrate some measurable

action from homeopathics. You may find the results surprising.

 

[Guest guest]

, " Colleen Morris " <colleen@d...>

>You are correct, that is not what I was trying to say I could not

have made my case more eloquently.

 

Colleen:

 

I realize you were bringing up a point of information; that there is

a physiological effect due to chemistry is not disputed. I just

wanted to expand on your point to openly consider if we create or

rationalize herbal formulas based on Western chemistry? Some

practitioners might want to---I think ITM does (correct me if I'm

wrong). But in doing so, it raises the question about how much of

the chemistry about the herbs should you know?

 

Interestingly, in another post, someone said herbs used to be put in

formulas because of their tastes and qi induction to certain

meridians [the Shan Han Lun is probably the best example]. I haven't

heard anyone talk that way about herbs in a long time; most often it

is need to address a symptom. Since people don't seem to work with 5-

Phases or 6-Qi much, I don't think it's implied either. Perhaps

clinical expediency creates the necessity to think that way.

 

 

Jim Ramholz

[Guest guest]

Here's my gift for this, our birthday weekend. Maybe it takes an outsider to

see what some of us take for granted...

 

10 things to celebrate

Why I'm an anti-anti-American

 

Dinesh D'Souza Sunday, June 29, 2003

 

----------

America is under attack as never before -- not only from terrorists but also

from people who provide a justification for terrorism. Islamic

fundamentalists

declare America the Great Satan. Europeans rail against American capitalism

and American culture. South American activists denounce the United States

for

" neocolonialism " and oppression.

 

Anti-Americanism from abroad would not be such a problem if Americans were

united in standing up for their own country. But in this country itself,

there

are those who blame America for most of the evils in the world. On the

political left, many fault the United States for a history of slavery, and

for

continuing inequality and racism. Even on the right, traditionally the home

of

patriotism, we hear influential figures say that America has become so

decadent that

we are " slouching towards Gomorrah. "

 

If these critics are right, then America should be destroyed. And who can

dispute some of their particulars? This country did have a history of

slavery and

racism continues to exist. There is much in our culture that is vulgar and

decadent. But the critics are wrong about America, because they are missing

the

big picture. In their indignation over the sins of America, they ignore what

is unique and good about American civilization.

 

As an immigrant who has chosen to become an American citizen, I feel

especially qualified to say what is special about America. Having grown up

in a

different society -- in my case, Bombay, India -- I am not only able to

identify

aspects of America that are invisible to the natives, but I am acutely

conscious

of the daily blessings that I enjoy in America. Here, then, is my list of

the

10 great things about America.

 

-- America provides an amazingly good life for the ordinary guy. Rich people

live well everywhere. But what distinguishes America is that it provides an

impressively high standard of living for the " common man. " We now live in a

country where construction workers regularly pay $4 for a nonfat latte,

where

maids drive nice cars and where plumbers take their families on vacation to

Europe.

 

Indeed, newcomers to the United States are struck by the amenities enjoyed

by

" poor " people. This fact was dramatized in the 1980s when CBS television

broadcast a documentary, " People Like Us, " intended to show the miseries of

the

poor during an ongoing recession. The Soviet Union also broadcast the

documentary, with a view to embarrassing the Reagan administration. But by

the testimony

of former Soviet leaders, it had the opposite effect. Ordinary people across

the Soviet Union saw that the poorest Americans have TV sets, microwave

ovens

and cars. They arrived at the same perception that I witnessed in an

acquaintance of mine from Bombay who has been unsuccessfully trying to move

to the

United States. I asked him, " Why are you so eager to come to America? " He

replied,

" I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat. "

 

-- America offers more opportunity and social mobility than any other

country, including the countries of Europe. America is the only country that

has

created a population of " self-made tycoons. " Only in America could Pierre

Omidyar,

whose parents are Iranian and who grew up in Paris, have started a company

like eBay. Only in America could Vinod Khosla, the son of an Indian army

officer, become a leading venture capitalist, the shaper of the technology

industry,

and a billionaire to boot. Admittedly tycoons are not typical, but no

country

has created a better ladder than America for people to ascend from modest

circumstances to success.

 

-- Work and trade are respectable in America. Historically most cultures

have

despised the merchant and the laborer, regarding the former as vile and

corrupt and the latter as degraded and vulgar. Some cultures, such as that

of

ancient Greece and medieval Islam, even held that it is better to acquire

things

through plunder than through trade or contract labor. But the American

founders

altered this moral hierarchy. They established a society in which the life

of

the businessman, and of the people who worked for him, would be a noble

calling. In the American view, there is nothing vile or degraded about

serving your

customers either as a CEO or as a waiter. The ordinary life of production

and

supporting a family is more highly valued in the United States than in any

other country. America is the only country in the world where we call the

waiter

" sir, " as if he were a knight.

 

-- America has achieved greater social equality than any other society.

True,

there are large inequalities of income and wealth in America. In purely

economic terms, Europe is more egalitarian. But Americans are socially more

equal

than any other people, and this is unaffected by economic disparities.

Alexis

de Tocqueville noticed this egalitarianism a century and a half ago and it

is,

if anything, more prevalent today. For all his riches, Bill Gates could not

approach the typical American and say, " Here's a $100 bill. I'll give it to

you

if you kiss my feet. " Most likely, the person would tell Gates to go to

hell!

The American view is that the rich guy may have more money, but he isn't in

any fundamental sense better than anyone else.

 

-- People live longer, fuller lives in America. Although protesters rail

against the American version of technological capitalism at trade meetings

around

the world, in reality the American system has given citizens many more years

of life, and the means to live more intensely and actively. In 1900, the

life

expectancy in America was around 50 years; today, it is more than 75 years.

Advances in medicine and agriculture are mainly responsible for the change.

This

extension of the life span means more years to enjoy life, more free time to

devote to a good cause, and more occasions to do things with the

grandchildren.

In many countries, people who are old seem to have nothing to do: they just

wait to die. In America the old are incredibly vigorous, and people in their

seventies pursue the pleasures of life, including remarriage and sexual

gratification, with a zeal that I find unnerving.

 

-- In America the destiny of the young is not given to them, but created by

them. Not long ago, I asked myself, " What would my life have been like if I

had

never come to the United States? " If I had remained in India, I would

probably have lived my whole life within a five-mile radius of where I was

born. I

would undoubtedly have married a woman of my identical religious and

socioeconomic background. I would almost certainly have become a medical

doctor, or an

engineer, or a computer programmer. I would have socialized entirely within

my

ethic community. I would have a whole set of opinions that could be

predicted

in advance; indeed, they would not be very different from what my father

believed, or his father before him. In sum, my destiny would to a large

degree have

been given to me.

 

In America, I have seen my life take a radically different course. In

college

I became interested in literature and politics, and I resolved to make a

career as a writer. I married a woman whose ancestry is English, French,

Scotch-Irish, German and American Indian. In my twenties I found myself

working as a

policy analyst in the White House, even though I was not an American

citizen. No

other country, I am sure, would have permitted a foreigner to work in its

inner citadel of government.

 

In most countries in the world, your fate and your identity are handed to

you; in America, you determine them for yourself. America is a country where

you

get to write the script of your own life. Your life is like a blank sheet of

paper, and you are the artist. This notion of being the architect of your

own

destiny is the incredibly powerful idea that is behind the worldwide appeal

of

America. Young people especially find irresistible the prospect of authoring

the narrative of their own lives.

 

-- America has gone further than any other society in establishing equality

of rights. There is nothing distinctively American about slavery or bigotry.

Slavery has existed in virtually every culture, and xenophobia, prejudice

and

discrimination are worldwide phenomena. Western civilization is the only

civilization to mount a principled campaign against slavery; no country

expended more

treasure and blood to get rid of slavery than the United States. While

racism

remains a problem, this country has made strenuous efforts to eradicate

discrimination, even to the extent of enacting policies that give legal

preference

in university admissions, jobs, and government contracts to members of

minority groups. Such policies remain controversial, but the point is that

it is

extremely unlikely that a racist society would have permitted such policies

in the

first place. And surely African Americans like Jesse Jackson are vastly

better off living in America than they would be if they were to live in,

say,

Ethiopia or Somalia.

 

-- America has found a solution to the problem of religious and ethnic

conflict that continues to divide and terrorize much of the world. Visitors

to

places like New York are amazed to see the way in which Serbs and Croatians,

Sikhs

and Hindus, Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants, Jews and Palestinians,

 

all seem to work and live together in harmony. How is this possible when

these same groups are spearing each other and burning each other's homes in

so

many places in the world?

 

The American answer is twofold. First, separate the spheres of religion and

government so that no religion is given official preference but all are free

to

practice their faith as they wish. Second, do not extend rights to racial or

ethnic groups but only to individuals; in this way, all are equal in the

eyes

of the law, opportunity is open to anyone who can take advantage of it, and

everybody who embraces the American way of life can " become American. "

 

Of course there are exceptions to these core principles, even in America.

Racial preferences are one such exception, which explains why they are

controversial. But in general, America is the only country in the world that

extends

full membership to outsiders. The typical American could come to India,

 

live for 40 years, and take Indian citizenship. But he could not " become

Indian. " He wouldn't see himself that way, nor would most Indians see him

that

way. In America, by contrast, hundreds of millions have come from far-flung

shores and over time they, or at least their children, have in a profound

and full

sense " become American. "

 

-- America has the kindest, gentlest foreign policy of any great power in

world history. Critics of the United States are likely to react to this

truth

with sputtering outrage. They will point to long-standing American support

for a

Latin or Middle Eastern despot, or the unjust internment of the Japanese

during World War II, or America's reluctance to impose sanctions on South

Africa's

apartheid regime. However one feels about these particular cases, let us

concede to the critics the point that America is not always in the right.

 

What the critics leave out is the other side of the ledger. Twice in the

20th

century, the United States saved the world -- first from the Nazi threat,

then from Soviet totalitarianism. What would have been the world's fate if

America had not existed? After destroying Germany and Japan in World War II,

the

United States proceeded to rebuild both countries, and today they are

American

allies. Now we are doing the same thing in Afghanistan and Iraq. Consider,

too,

how magnanimous the United States has been to the former Soviet Union after

its victory in the Cold War. For the most part America is an abstaining

superpower; it shows no real interest in conquering and subjugating the rest

of the

world. (Imagine how the Soviets would have acted if they had won the Cold

War.)

On occasion the United States intervenes to overthrow a tyrannical regime or

to halt massive human rights abuses in another country, but it never stays

to

rule that country. In Grenada, Haiti and Bosnia, the United States got in

and

then it got out. Moreover, when America does get into a war, as in Iraq, its

troops are supremely careful to avoid targeting civilians and to minimize

collateral damage. Even as America bombed the Taliban infrastructure and

hideouts,

U.S. planes dropped food to avert hardship and starvation of Afghan

civilians.

What other country does these things?

 

-- America, the freest nation on Earth, is also the most virtuous nation on

Earth. This point seems counterintuitive, given the amount of conspicuous

vulgarity, vice and immorality in America. Some Islamic fundamentalists

argue that

their regimes are morally superior to the United States because they seek to

foster virtue among the citizens. Virtue, these fundamentalists argue, is a

higher principle than liberty.

 

Indeed it is. And let us admit that in a free society, freedom will

frequently be used badly. Freedom, by definition, includes the freedom to do

good or

evil, to act nobly or basely. But if freedom brings out the worst in people,

it

also brings out the best. The millions of Americans who live decent,

 

praiseworthy lives desire our highest admiration because they have opted for

the good when the good is not the only available option. Even amid the

temptations of a rich and free society, they have remained on the straight

path.

Their virtue has special luster because it is freely chosen.

 

By contrast, the societies that many Islamic fundamentalists seek would

eliminate the possibility of virtue. If the supply of virtue is insufficient

in a

free society like America, it is almost nonexistent in an unfree society

like

Iran's. The reason is that coerced virtues are not virtues at all. Consider

the

woman who is required to wear a veil. There is no modesty in this,

 

because she is being compelled. Compulsion cannot produce virtue, it can

only

produce the outward semblance of virtue. Thus a free society like America's

is not merely more prosperous, more varied, more peaceful, and more tolerant

--

it is also morally superior to the theocratic and authoritarian regimes that

America's enemies advocate.

 

" To make us love our country, " Edmund Burke once said, " our country ought to

be lovely. " Burke's point is that we should love our country not just

because

it is ours, but also because it is good. America is far from perfect, and

there is lots of room for improvement. In spite of its flaws, however,

American

life as it is lived today is the best life that our world has to offer.

Ultimately America is worthy of our love and sacrifice because, more than

any other

society, it makes possible the good life, and the life that is good.

 

Dinesh D'Souza's " What's So Great About America " has just been published in

paperback by Penguin Books. He is the Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover

Institution at Stanford University. E-mail: thedsouzas.