HOLISTIC MEDICINE

VALDEMIR MOTA DE MENEZES

1. Holistic Medicine and Holistic Treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine
2. There are major differences between Western and Chinese medicine.
3. In addition to using different tools for treatment,
4. and different theoretical approaches,
5. the most significant difference is the fact that
6. Chinese medicine takes a holistic approach to human health.
7. Western medicine takes off from anatomy.
8. Medical students dissect corpses and analyze each organ,
9. which provides the evidence for pathology and diagnosis,
10. and leads to specialization. Opthamologists treat eyes, not ears.
11. Dentists stay away from noses.
12. Internists don’t use scalpels.
13. Chinese medicine follows a different path.
14. Chinese doctors train with live people, not corpses.
15. In addressing illness,
16. Chinese doctors concentrate on the relationship
17. between organs and their functions,
18. examining the cause and effect of internal
19. and external phenomenon.
20. If you go to a Chinese doctor, he or she will first take pulse,
21. not only to determine the heartbeat,
22. but rather to understand the nature and source of your problem,
23. and then make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment.
24. Some of the theories of TCM may seem strange at first, but they actually make sense.
25. For example, “Treat an ‘upper’ illness ‘below.’”
26. In cases of migraine headaches,
27. Chinese doctors don’t treat the head,
28. because the root of the illness lies elsewhere.
29. To treat migraine,
30. Chinese doctors insert acupuncture needles in two points in the foot.
31. Another theory is “Treat a ‘lower’ illness ‘above.”
32. A twitching in the leg muscles is often treated at
33. two acupuncture points behind the ears.
34. “Treat internal maladies externally” is another example.
35. Western-style surgery is extremely rare in TCM.
36. The parasitic disease ascariasis can be horribly painful for children,
37. especially when the worms enter the biliary tract.
38. A Western-trained doctor would perform surgery to remove the worms,
39. while a TCM doctor would perform bloodletting at
40. an acupuncture point on the hand to relieve the pain.
41. Yet another example is “Treat external maladies internally.”
42. If a patient has a severe skin itch,
43. a Western doctor will apply an anti-inflammatory medicine
44. at the site to alleviate the condition,
45. while a TCM doctor will look for the cause of the itching in the lungs,
46. and prescribe a medicine that expels the heat in the lungs,
47. which will stop the itching.
48. These approaches characterize the way
49. in which TCM addresses illness holistically.