7 Ways Chinese medicine is changing the world (for the better)

I’m on vacation - soaking in the five elements on the Oregon coast. Here’s something quick to tide my loyal readers over. No pun intended.

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I’ll admit it, I’m concerned about the state of our planet and our people. I’m not a fatalist, I’m not a Doomsday prophecist. I don’t want to recommend that everyone move out into the woods and start tanning hides. I don’t think buying a shirt at Nordstrom rack is the pinnacle of evil. But, I do worry about global warming. I do wonder what kind of natural environment my daughter will be experiencing when she’s my age. I do think commercialization of our society has gone too far. When I decided to get involved in Chinese medicine I did so because I believed and still believe that it is a vital piece of the solution for many of the problems facing our world today. Here’s 7 reasons why I believe this and why you should, too.

1. Low-tech medicine reduces the impact on the planet. Chinese medicine requires few machines in most of its forms. It uses only simple medicines gleaned from the bounty of the Earth, stainless steel needles and the body of the practitioner. No elaborate high-tech production facilities dumping chemical laden sludge into the rivers and streams. No radioactive materials used in diagnostics. This is important given the rapidly deteriorating nature of our planet’s vital life-support systems. To be sure, there are also environmental challenges in the medicine - mostly related to the harvesting and processing of sensitive plants and animals. Further, the increasing popularity of our medicine has created a “race to the bottom” when it comes to the production of all herbs. This is beginning to be addressed and all practitioners must do everything in their power to put pressure on producers to create an ethical commercial environment.

2. Heals the whole person. Because CM theory regards the person as an integrated whole it inevitably treats the whole. So even though you may be coming in with a complaint of stomach pain, your doctor is likely to be treating a diverse range of imbalances with the aim of relieving your acute symptoms but also preventing their eventual return. If you maintain a relationship with your practitioner, you will inevitably uncover symptoms that you had forgotten about or simply learned to live with - these will be compassionately revealed and dealt with. Eventually, you will emerge as a healthy being on all levels - body, mind and spirit. A whole person interacts with the world in an integral way - and we need integral beings interacting with one another authentically if we hope to continue our evolution as a species.

3. Not involved in a race for progress. Classical Chinese medicine is rooted in ancient soil. It grows and thrives in this soil. To a large extent, progress in our medicine only means delving as far back as we can - absorbing all the wisdom from those amazing human beings who, for whatever reason, had a unique and incredibly accurate understanding of people and their ailments. We do learn from what is going on today, and various practitioners have learned to integrate the understandings of modern medical traditions into the body of the medicine. But there is no obsession with the Next Big Thing. There is no delving too quickly and with too little information into areas of understanding that have potentially disastrous consequences. I count this as a good thing, I believe you can see why.

4. Lends itself well to service for disadvantaged people. The gap between rich and poor is as large now as it has ever been. In the United States, many people live without insurance. The working poor have no recourse either from government programs that won’t help them because they are working or from the world of commerce that won’t help them because they are not affluent enough. People all over the Earth suffer in numbers that cry out in urgent need of assistance. Because Chinese medicine is highly portable and doesn’t require inordinate amounts of time for basic treatment - programs like Acupuncturists Without Borders and Working Class Acupuncture find fertile ground from which to grow. My school, National College of Natural Medicine runs clinics for disadvantaged people and many other schools do the same. I believe this is a field that will only grow as time goes on.

5. As an integral part of the healing process - patient as active participant. Many people have complained that contemporary Western medicine leaves them feeling disenfranchised in their own healing process. People who do not feel in control of their bodies and their fates are inevitably going to act like victims. People who act like victims are unlikely to be working for change, even if they believe it is important for things to change. Chinese medicine creates a space in which people can get to know their bodies and their bodies’ reactions to the environment. A good CM practitioner will encourage the person to be an active participant in their own healing process, extending the therapy at home and simply becoming more aware of their whole self.

6. The philosophical underpinnings of the medicine are what the world needs today. If I had to boil Chinese medical philosophy down to one word it would be “respect.” Respect for your body and mind, respect for balance, respect for nature, respect for other people. As a student, as I delve deeper into the Confucian, Buddhist and Daoist roots of my medicine my feeling of deep gratitude for others and the Universe at large grows exponentially. I believe I pass this on to others as I teach them about the medicine. Given what I said in #5 about patients being, essentially, students as they walk their healing path - each patient is going to learn something about the deep philosophical roots of the medicine they are using. So, practitioners and patients will both be impacted and hopefully deeply affected by the tradition of respect and balance that lies behind everything we do. Hopefully this will have a fractal effect throughout the world.

7. Increased international awareness an important by-product of its dissemination into the West. Particularly in the United States, awareness of other people is not a strong point of the culture. I’m sure you’ve all heard of the terrible studies where US citizens, young and old, couldn’t even say where some of the largest countries in the world are located. This isolationism and lack of interest in places outside of the US is having a range of negative effects on our culture. It’s hard to have compassion for people you don’t even know exist. When a person has a positive treatment from a CM doctor, they tend to have an interest in the philosophy behind the medicine. Sometimes this leads to a broader interest in Chinese culture in general. I know it did for me. I think just this simple process can have a profound impact on people - opening their eyes to the diversity of cultures on our planet. Surely a good thing.

Eric

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July 16, 2007 · Filed Under Character, Ethics, The profession

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