Comments on: A Quick and Simple Guide to Traditional Chinese Medicine

By: nofj2

nofj2 — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:45:47 +0000

Western medicine is like a sniper, it directly points to the damaged part. So it’s more efficient. Traditional Chinese medicine usually works to the whole system, so it takes more time. Personally I prefer western medicine, cause you can clearly know the way it works and the side effects. On the other hand, sometimes the Chinese medicine really works well, but you never know how it works. And it’s not that the traditional Chinese medicine has no side effect, it’s just you don’t know it. This really bothers me a lot. So western medicine is always my first choice.

By: IAMZERG

IAMZERG — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:37:04 +0000

We’re talking about two very different mindsets here… traditional medicine offers a holistic approach. Traditional medicine focuses on the whole person, and will more often than not help the body fight disease or infection instead of trying to cure it directly. You will also notice that traditional medicine has little side-effects. That’s because it is based on precisely balanced formulas so that side-effects are minimized (e.g. if you wanted the anti-bacterial effects of cinnamon without the blood-thinning properties, you would add licorice, which has a blood thickening affect). Granted, it uses a different method of thinking, but it’s still based on empirical analysis.

Western medicine can be more effective because it uses medicines that attack the symptoms, not the problem as a whole. For viruses, colds, etc. you have fever reducers and anti-biotics. In addition to “pills,” western medicine has made leaps forward in surgical technology, which is something the ancients only had elementary knowledge in.

By: PortWine

PortWine — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:03:30 +0000

It depends greatly on the condition. I know that chronic musculoskeletal problems usually respond much better to alternative therapies than what MD prescribe and the surgeries they do. But, physical therapy can be just as important as alternative therapies are.

By: mommy_coop

mommy_coop — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:20:29 +0000

I have actually studied this and the reason is that because Western medicine is more to the point. It comes with a more instant and specific result. Eastern medicine is meant to and does, in my belief, treat a whole person to achieve an overall better state of physical and emotional health over time.

Now in the East, where acupuncture and the things you mentioned are used almost exclusively, they are used throughout a person’s entire life. They live in a different way entirely. And they are proactive with their medicine.

Here in the West, we have a symptom or an illness before seeking treatment. Acupuncture will not cure cancer or even arthritis. But it can be effectively used here in conjunction with traditional medicine.

In short, unless you use Eastern medicine as Easterners do, you will always have better results with Western medicine, which seems more effective for us due to our point of view, our expectations, our comparison of the two. They are not to be used in the same way and when an American tries an Eastern technique and doesn’t get instant results, the technique gets a bad rap.

By: Scott H

Scott H — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:37:03 +0000

western medicine is made in the lab and carefeully researched, traditional chinese medicine is based on herbal treatments and magical pathways and such, it is just a bunch of stuff that has been passed down from generation to generation.

By: jep5680jep

jep5680jep — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:29:28 +0000

The answer is science. Western medicine is based on facts not myths or tradtion. though some herbs are the base of modern medicine.