Page 8 RAIN May/June 1984 treat patients whose condition Western medicine considers terminal. (A contributing factor to the healing power of Chinese medicine is the use of herbs. Chinese herbs are even less known than acupuncture in the West, and yet many practitioners believe that herbal medicine is by far stronger than acupuncture. Herbs, like acupuncture, work to restore the body to balance, and are generally taken as tea in combinations suited to each patient.) The Chinese system looks for the break in the pattern, whereas the Western system looks for the broken part. Western science's study of acupuncture has revealed some interesting things. Researchers at a Toronto hospital have identified acupuncture points by measuring the electrical resistance of the skin. In double-blind experiments, the apparatus has identified the classical acupoints. Reportedly, Russian holographers have also stumbled upon acupuncture points while undertaking holographic studies of the human body. (Curiously, in the mid-1800s A. Weihe, a homeopathic physician from Stuttgart, independently discovered 195 points on the body that showed excessive sensitivity to pain when pressure was applied. About two-thirds of these coincide with Chinese acu-points.) The Chinese system of relating points along channels to a specific internal organ has some basis or parallel in modern Western medicine. Often, a malfunction or infection in an internal organ is manifested as pain near the surface of the body—not necessarily near that internal organ. Patients with heart disease, for example, show a consistent pattern of "trigger points," areas in the shoulder or chest where pressure can intensify pain. Points like these are so reliable that atlases of pain patterns exist. Researchers are studying the neurophysiological and neurochemical effects of acupuncture as well. Interest in acupuncture and Chinese medicine is growing at a time when faith in Western medicine is declining. Western medicine's stronger drugs and more sophisticated instruments are leading to more iatrogenic diseases and worse health, on the whole. Metaphoricah ly, the Chinese system looks for the break in the pattern, whereas the Western system looks for the broken part. Ted Kaptchuk (see access) foresees a synthesis of the two approaches, wherein the spirit of interrelatedness of Chinese medicine will inform the Western approach to create "a more exact paradigm of biological medicine," and the Western techniques will "move the methods of Chinese medicine to new heights of precision and efficiency." □ □ © 1984 Tanya Kucak Modern Western Medicine vs. Traditional Chinese Medicine events linear (A causes B) analysis: look for causal links interrelated, part ofa pattern synthesis: piece symptoms together until picture of whole person appears / , treatment centered on disease centered on person mind and body dichotomy continuum lifestyle emphasizes competition and confrontation emphasizes harmony attitudes towards disease diseases are due to causes that can he killed, cut out, or contained: treatment unsuccessful if this fails ideal of health is a positive, harmonious feeling of wellness disease viewed as disorder in the body; treatment directed toward properly ordering or "harmonizing" the body; can treat many debilitating and chronic conditions function vs. form great deal .ofemphasis on body's structure and how it changes during course ofa disease: physiology and pathology are linked with structure: function is a result of structure: disease is described by what it does to tissues involved emphasis placed almost entirely on function: the organs are the functions, and no mechanism explicable on a structural or morphological level is necessary; what happens is considered more important than what something looks like measurement precision of measurement and conceptualization is the ideal affinity for vagueness, due to an appreciation that in nature things are rarely cut and dried, but instead are blurred; empirical: theory can nei'er be divorced from practice Compiled from: Acupuncture: A Comprehensive Text (Introduction by O'Connor and Bensky)
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