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The
Need for a New Medical Paradigm
Curing
sickness and curing people
Modern medical science both in the Occident and in the Orient
looks at patients as if they were all similar objects; that is,
it treats them equally regardless of their individual
differences. So in the case of an illness, it doesn't matter who
is ill, the only thing that matters, is which illness does the
person have. So the modern medical system consists of the
process of solving such questions as what is the cause of the
illness, how did it arrive, and how to cure it.
Modern
medical practice first finds a name for the illness through
various diagnostics and then plans a cure. Oriental
medical practice isn't different, except that it understands
illness mainly by the included symptoms of the illness instead
of by its name, and then plans a cure. Therefore we define
oriental medical science as that which distinguishes symptoms
and signs.
So
it is said that the essence of the oriental medical system is
the analysis and identifying of symptoms according to eight
principal syndromes: yin, yang, outside, inside, cold, warm,
weak and strong, and by the theory of the six meridians of Zhang
Zhongjing. Up till now, the medical systems in the Orient and
the Occident are the same in that they both look at the illness
as being more important than the ill person in curing people.
In other words, they are systems that take illnesses as
objects of curing, rather than people.
We
must ask, though, can the modern medical systems that uniformly
treat primarily illnesses, ignoring the ill person, really save
people from all kinds of illness? Even the modern medical
science, strikingly evolved through the advances of cutting-edge
science, still can't completely save people from the trap of
illness. This is an undeniable reality.
No
matter how many prisons are built, crime doesn't decrease.
Likewise, it is not possible to save humanity from illness
through the paradigm of modern medical systems, Oriental or
Occidental, which separate the person who is ill from the
illness, and take only the illness as the object to be
conquered.
It
is time for the medical paradigm to shift, to take the ill
person as primary, rather than the illness. It should
treat not only illness, but also give more attention to the
person suffering from the illness. A new paradigm is
needed, that doesn't treat all people the same, but recognizes
and accepts individual differences in each person. For
that, it is necessary to study the human being.
If
that's true, we can begin with these questions. Is every
person the same from birth? If they're different, what is
the difference? If there is an individual difference, what
is its essence? In order to understand these questions,
let's first look at some concrete examples easily found around
us.
Even
though a group of people equally expose themselves to cold winds
in a frozen environment, some of them easily catch cold, but
others don't. Of course, we can think that the difference
is caused by the state of health and bodily strength of each
individual. But even among those who caught a cold, some
complain of a cough and runny nose, others of a swollen throat
and tonsils. One has a stocky build, looks very strong and
has a big appetite, yet catches cold more easily than others.
Another is small and looks weak, but seldom catches cold,
but nevertheless habitually suffers from bad digestion.
This
indicates that there really is a difference between individuals,
not explainable only by the bodily strength and resistance that
every person has. That kind of example is all around us,
but usually overlooked.
If
all people had the same bodily conditions from birth, it would
be true that this kind of individual difference should not be.
If people expose themselves equally to cold winds, they
should all catch colds equally. If people overeat equally,
it would be true that they should suffer identical cases of
indigestion. If this isn't the case, if there is a
difference between individuals, that means that each person was
born with a different bodily condition.
People
are different according to their face, looks, character,
temperament, hobbies, talent, intelligence, emotion, taste,
capabilities, and other characteristics. These differences
can't be denied. Besides those, people are different also
by their internal organs. Some have stronger lungs, others
stronger digestion and can tolerate even overeating. Having
equally overdrunk, some can handle it, but others not.
There
was a television comedy program that showed an interesting
experiment. A group of students each drank two liters of
beer, and competed to see who could hold out the longest without
having to urinate. Someone went to the toilet after only
half an hour, while others held out for more than four or five
hours. There was quite a variety in the results. That
is an example that shows a difference between individuals even
in their bladder capacities.
In
the same way, people are not born with the same bodily
conditions: people's bodies are different from birth. This
is the viewpoint of the constitutional theory and medical
practice. The dictionary defines constitution as the
combination of the basic bodily temperaments. Constitutional
medical theory, therefore, is defined as the theory by which the
differences in people's forms and functions are researched and
divided into various subgroups.
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Introduction
