Comparison between Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine
Comparison between Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine
The Traditional Chinese Medicine has a long history which can date back to thousands of years ago while the western medicine only has considerably developed in the recent several hundred years. With the development of anatomy, for a particular period of time, people tend to doubt the effectiveness of the Traditional Chinese Medicine, and there are repeated debates about whether Traditional Chinese Medicine is a real science or just some superstitions under the cover of the long history. Fortunately, nowadays people gradually realize the systematic and philosophical theories of the Traditional Chinese Medicine, and it has been worldwide recognized as an important position in the medicine science. “The landmark success of herbal expert Tu Youyou, the first Chinese woman national to win a Nobel prize in science, has aroused an intense sense of national pride and hopes for the future of traditional Chinese medicine”(Sohu News). There are many differences between the Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Western Medicine, which may mainly fall into three categories: the perspectives, the diagnostic method, and the treatment.
The perspective difference is microscope vs. macroscope. Traditional Chinese Medicine regards the human body as a whole while the Western Medicine look at a particular organ or material of a structure. If a patient has a stomachache, with western medicine, the patient may need to do a gastroscopy first to check what is wrong inside the stomach, and after validation a prescription with a particular effect on the stomach will be given. However, with the perspective of the human as a total system, Traditional Chinese medicine doesn’t just look into the stomach; it may regard the pain as a syndrome caused by the unbalance of the Yin-yang system, and find the root cause of the pain may not relate with the stomach, but some other organs. “An excellent example of how we can look at the same body with two perspectives is diabetes. Diabetes happens when sugar (glucose) is unable to pass through the wall of cells. When the glucose doesn’t get into the cell, the amount of glucose in the bloodstream increases, and this is what causes the problems associated with diabetes…while Western medicine says that the cell can’t absorb glucose, leading to a dry cell. Chinese medicine says that the cell is unable to absorb fluids, and that is why it isn’t absorbing glucose at the same time” (Al Stone, L.Ac., DAOM).
Traditional Chinese Medicine has its particular diagnostic method which mainly depends on the practitioner’s experience while doctors of Western Medicine rely greatly on a variety of machine testing or laboratory examinations. Simple tools such as a stethoscope, blood pressure monitor, and thermometer are used during the inquiry process before the doctors of western medicine can diagnose the patient’s disease. In western medicine, if a patient has flu and fever, the laboratory test of his or her blood is a must for the doctor to know what kind of flu it is, because the flu caused by bacteria and the flu caused by virus needs different diagnose. For diarrhea patients, the excretions also need be examined. For complicated diseases, sophisticated therapeutic methods have to be applied, including medical X-ray imaging, computer tomography technology (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations. However, Traditional Chinese Medicine does not have such technology assistances. The diagnostic process is basically composed of four steps: inspection (observing the patient’s expression and physical condition), olfaction (listening to the voice of the patient, respiration, coughing ect.), inquiry (asking relevant information about the patient and the disease), and pulse-checking. A simple but famous example is checking of pregnancy. The Western Medicine needs the ultrasonic imaging or blood test to confirm a pregnancy yet in old times China with pulse-checking the women can be decided if having a baby or not. .
The treatment of Traditional Chinese Medicine is quite different with Western Medicine. Western medicine regards bacteria and virus as the pathogenic factors which result in diseases, so antibacterial or antiviral drugs are frequently used in treatment. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the main treatment ways are acupuncture and moxibustion, massage, surface therapeutic method (such as gua-sha, cupping, and unguent), and herbs. Western Medicine considers the illness is within an individual organ or structure, so the treatment is focused on the particular part and side-effect is not avoidable. That’s why every western pill has a clear statement of side-effects on the explanation letter. For Traditional Chinese Medicine, the treatment is usually with less or no side-effects. Because the treatment is given particularly to the individual patient, with a perfectly-fit dose, the treatment is helping to balance the Yin and Yang of the body, and let the human body go back to harmony. It is the basis theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine that a body reaching in the harmony of Yin and Yang is healthy and will not have any disease.
Both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine are great sciences which play a vital role in the history of human development. It is impossible to have a comprehensive comparison between them with such a short article. The most important thing is people should take the advantages of both and unite together to cure the diseases of humankind. They have many differences, but a common goal is for the goodness of human beings and helping to get rid of diseases. After all, there is a long way to go to reach that objective for all nations.