----------Introduction Acupuncture in the West Medicine, Culture, and Physics Qi Qong and Chinese Herbal Medicine Conclusion

Introduction

This article highlights the fact that Chinese medicine is a form of medicine that is based on a perception of the reality of health and disease that is fundamentally distinct from modern allopathic (conventional Western) medicine. Further, the science of this perception has only recently been integrated into the Western world view, which in part explains why Chinese medicine, though previously introduced to the Western medical profession, was not accepted heretofore. Chinese medicine's unique way of approaching health and disease is further examined with respect to Qi Qong and Chinese herbal medicine.

One of the fundamental cornerstones that separates Chinese medicine from modern allopathic medicine is the concept of Qi (pronounced chi). Qi is the animating life energy. In the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, published in the Third Century B.C., the minister Po counsels that Qi was fundamentally not material, but could condense to give rise to the various manifestations of life energy. Thus, you have air Qi, food Qi, liver Qi, etc., ad infinitum. Fundamental to this line of thinking is the notion that the world of energy matter comprises the same fundamental essence. I call this ancient New Age thinking. This way of thinking bridges energy and matter, bioenergetics and biomechanism, mind and body. What's more, it leads to an approach to health and human suffering which is very distinct and unique.

In the new millennium, Chinese medicine is no stranger to the American public. In cities throughout the U.S., one can find acupuncturists in the yellow pages. Hospitals and HMOs are hiring acupuncturists and insurance companies are offering plans that cover acupuncture. A recent issue of the National Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Alliance lists 27 certified schools of Chinese medicine in the U.S., with California leading the pack. It is hard to believe that 28 years have passed since the nation witnessed William Reston, a reporter covering Nixon's historic visit to China, undergoing an appendectomy with acupuncture anesthesia. This event occurred around the time of the martial arts film explosion in this country, and it signaled the beginning of Chinese Medicine's reintroduction to the American public.

Acupuncture in the West

Acupuncture has long been part of the Western medical terrain, and there has been documentation of acupuncture practices in the Middle East going as far back as the early days of the modern Christian era. During the 1800s, acupuncture was practiced throughout Europe and there were several famous clinics in France. Sir William Osler, the father of modern Western medicine, was a convert at the beginning of the last century, and used acupuncture needles that were "thrust into the seat of pain" for problems related to the lower back. The French had a heavy infusion of acupuncture because of the work of Soulier de Morant, France's counsel general to China in the early 1900s. He took a great interest in Chinese medicine and helped transplant this medical art to France. With France's involvement in Vietnam in the 50s and 60s, several famous Vietnamese acupuncturists ended up in France and taught another generation of French acupuncturists, including my first instructor's teacher, Dr. Wexu, from Montreal, Canada.

Medicine, Culture, and Physics

In pre-antibiotic Western medicine, one might wonder how such a powerful modality as acupuncture could be, despite repeated introductions to the Western medical world, so overlooked to the point of still being a novelty on American TV. The reason is that Chinese medicine and Western medicine represent two different and unique trains of thought. Western medicine has developed out of classical physics' ability to dissect the material world, giving rise to the clinical sciences such as biochemistry, physiology, pathology. Important figures in the development of Western medicine—Laplace, Harvey, Lavoisier, and Boyle—all had backgrounds in classical Western physics. Unfortunately, Western medicine, while deep into molecular mechanism, has not shifted from a classical physics “matter-is-everything"framework to embrace the physics of the 20th Century. On the other hand, acupuncture, and the whole of Chinese medicine, is rooted in a conception of the universe that emphasizes balance and symmetry with energy and matter just representing different forms of the same substance. As far as the architects of modern medicine were concerned, acupuncture had no “scientific"footing to stand on.

It was not until the 1940s that a German doctor, Reinhold Voll, and a Japanese doctor, Yoshio Nakatani, began doing electro-metric point measurements on the body and documented that acupuncture points represent points of least resistance on the body's surface. This was the beginning of acupuncture's acceptance in the West. Much research followed this initial work, verifying the existence of acupuncture meridians and exposing a gaping hole in Western medical science.

Qi Qong and Chinese Herbal Medicine

While much of the above has focused on acupuncture, the same kind of thinking has been observed in other aspects of Chinese medicine, particularly Chinese herbal medicine and Qi Qong. In a sense, herbal medicine and Qi Qong represent opposite polarities. Chinese herbal medicine places emphasis on the introduction of material substances to affect a change in the Qi, blood, shen (spirit), or jing (genetic potential) of a person to ward off pathogenic influences such as cold, damp, heat, dryness, and wind. Qi Qong uses consciousness, through the power of thought, to move Qi in and out of the body. A seasoned Qi Qong master can diagnosis and treat from a distance, by sensing a person's energy through different points on their own bodies. They then use the universal Qi flowing through their own bodies to either disperse or enhance the energy of the patient.

Healing power of Qi My office manager injured the lateral meniscus of one of her knees, and after we had stabilized her through osteopathic manipulation and acupuncture, she reinjured herself during a misstep and could barely walk. She agreed to be seen at the office of a Qi Qong master, Master Wu, with whom I was studying. She was injured so badly, she had to walk sideways up the two flights of stairs to his office. After an hour's treatment, where Master Wu never touched her, but focused Qi on her leg from about three feet away, she was able to get up and properly walk down the stairs. She was completely cured of her knee problem after a couple of more treatments. An amazing tale, you might think, but only if your belief system is locked into pre-20th Century constructs of energy and matter. Modern physics has been forced to acknowledge the existence of subtle energy fields that can be manipulated by thought and intention. Imagine spending ten years learning how to manipulate Qi in place of studying pre-med, medical school, and post-graduate studies! Or how about doing both?

It is interesting to note that in the Yellow Emperor's Classic, the emperor queries his minister,

"I have heard that the ancients treated disease only by transporting their Qi. Incantation was sufficient. In recent times to treat disease, poisonous medicines are used for the interior and needles and stones for the exterior. The patient may or may not get better. How can this be?"

Chinese herbal medicine, or Chinese internal medicine, is also taking hold in this country. In Chinese medical thinking, it is understood that natural law operates on the cosmos, human body, and the connection between them. Disease processes are understood as metaphors for the pathologic influence of natural forces on a person's energy matter organization. For instance, the concept of wind speaks to the idea that there is movement where there is not supposed to be movement. So external wind can refer to itching skin or a runny nose, while internal wind can refer to a convulsion.

Disease states will represent a confluence of different forces acting in conjunction to produce illness. For example, damp heat in the lower burner, which represents the pelvic area and its contents, describes a clinical picture that could represent prostatitis, a urinary tract infection, vaginitis, etc. The heat implies inflammation and the dampness implies morbid products of infected tissues such as discharges. The treatment would combine herbs that clear heat, drain and dry the dampness, and direct the other herbs to the tissues needing help. This procedure is akin to a person with a common cold buying an over-the-counter formulation that has an analgesic for his/her headache, a decongestant for the sinuses, and an antitussive for cough. However, the concept of polypharmacy is limited to the allopathic approach which utilizes pharmaceutical classifications. Chinese medicine moves in the idiom of natural forces and elements. The synchronous correspondences that a practitioner has to choose from to aid in the understanding of the problem, as well as the therapeutic solution, are limitless. A concept such as dampness can refer to damp weather; thick, murky body secretions; fried, greasy food; a heavy, dull state of mind; or warty growths. Herbal formulas, acupuncture points, diet, exercises, and Qi Qong techniques that help to counteract dampness can all be brought into play. For a thinking practitioner, this open-ended system of classification offers many possibilities in the evaluation, approach and treatment of the patient.

Conclusion

I predict that Chinese medicine, more appropriately called Asian or Oriental medicine, given the contributions of the Japanese, Vietnamese, Koreans, etc., will become the prevailing paradigm for clinical medicine in this century. It includes and acknowledges the allopathic perspective on health and disease, but it has a broader scope and is more inclusive of the bioenergetic realities that can greatly contribute to the health of people on the planet. Moreover, its approach to understanding the raw materials of the earth, including plants and animals (such as snake skins, sea horses, various organ parts, etc.) and its ability to assimilate these as therapeutic substances within the idiom of Chinese medical thinking give the planet a vast and relatively inexpensive source of medicinals. It’s a way of thinking whose time has come. Chinese medicine is here to stay.
　　
　　(From HealthWorld Online)