Different theories drive practitioners
　　
　　In the clinical practice of Chinese medi-cine, when a patient has a headache the doctor often puts an acupuncture needle into his finger. This sort of thing leaves doctors of Western medicine shaking their heads in amazement. Sometimes, too, a doctor of Chinese medicine diagnoses a patient as having "excessive liver-fire." But when a Western doctor tests the patient's liver, he finds nothing out of the ordinary, leading to a different kind of head-shaking.

The obstacles to exchanges between Chinese and Western medicine aren't merely those resulting from the differences between the Chinese and English languages. Instead, the problems derive from the radically different theoretical bases the two systems operate from. What common points of understanding can be found upon which to base communication?

Acupuncture is the earliest form of Chinese medical treatment. It is also the form most respected in the West. In the monumental Science and Civilization in China, Professor Joseph Needham of Cambridge University discusses several books on acupuncture. He further mentions a Frenchman who studied acupuncture in China in 1901. According to Needham, his return to France 30 years later to promote the technique brought acupuncture to Europe.

"The event that most amazed the West occurred during former US President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to mainland China. While there, a reporter in the president's entourage underwent emergency surgery for acute appendicitis. Acupuncture was used as a post-operative analgesic. To the doctors who accompanied him on the trip, this was an earth-shattering experience. As a result, word began to spread about acupuncture [in the West]," says Julia Tsuei, general secretary of the Foundation for East-West Medicine, an organization dedicated to the integration of Chinese and Western medical practices. Tsuei says that not only have many doctors begun to study acupuncture, but over the last 29 years some countries, including the US, Germany and Spain, have gradually established acupuncture courses and colleges. In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) has made acupuncture one of its research foci, carrying out research on techniques, translating classics, setting international standards for the names of acupuncture points and holding global academic conferences.

"The problem is that Chinese medicine's theoretical underpinnings are relatively abstract. This makes it difficult to understand for students of modern medicine, used to the concrete nature of anatomy and physiology. And this is especially true of the meridian system, which is their biggest headache," says Tsuei.

What is the meridian system? China's earliest medical text, The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine, says at its outset that the meridian system is the most fundamental system of the body. The jingmai are the vertical meridians (channels) through the body. There are 12 regular meridians in addition to a horizontal network which runs from the jingmai throughout the body. These horizontal meridians are collectively known as the collaterals.

In The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine, it states that the meridian system transports the blood, the chi and nutrition, communicating with the organs and systems of the body. If there is a problem with the body or an illness, treatment is administered via the meridian system. Chinese acupuncture and herbal pharmacology both treat the meridians. All acupuncture points, for example, are distributed along the meridians.

(From the Taiwan Government Web site)