Chinese Medicine

I don’t go in for even the idea of ‘alternative medicine’, but traditional Chinese medicine, with its multi-thousand year history, has a certain credibility in my mind that makes it very different to non-Western-scientific medicine.

I have never tried it, though, and am wondering how you lot perceive it, and whether or not you think it deserves to be taken seriously by anyone.

has a certain credibility in my mind that makes it very different to non-Western-scientific medicine.

multi-thousand year history

Blood letting was established practice for multiple thousands of years, shall I fetch the lancet?

Western medication is like a mechanic repairing a car.

Chinese medication is like tuning the car with computer.

Blood letting was established practice for multiple thousands of years, shall I fetch the lancet?

only if you have hemochromatosis 😉

I’ve tried it a few times and ime it is foul and disgusting and I invariably came to the conclusion that I’d rather be ill than drink the vile concoctions.

Acupuncture is a much better alternative imo.

Yeah tigers and rhinos love it…

No Chinese medicine is like picking up a hammer and hitting parts of your car randomly to see whether it fixes it or not and then if whatever is going wrong does stop it must be because you hit it with a hammer, except the hammer isn’t actually a hammer but a piece of useless string.

Late 20th century to early 21st century medicine has all the subtlety of getting rid of a hornets nest by dropping napalm on it, except that it actually works.

Chinese medication is like tuning the car with computer.

…that’s not connected to the car and can’t measure anything or make any actual changes to the engine.

It always seems to work but you always end up feeling bad again a few hours later.

only if you have hemochromatosis

Bah… close enough!

A marvellous justification for chopping the knobs off endangered animals.
Yey Chinese medicine!

Wikipedia describes it as a ‘pseudoscience, with no valid mechanism of action for the majority of its treatments.[10]’

ernie,

Proper Chinese medication is very bitter. You boil many different kinds of herbs then drink it. You also need the knowledge for the preparation and not simple boil it to death. Taking Chinese medication takes time and it is not a quick fix.

Acupuncture is only effective for certain ailments but not a quick cure.

🙂

kayak23 – Member

A marvellous justification for chopping the knobs off endangered animals.
Yey Chinese medicine!

You can select those that do not require chopping the knobs off animals. In fact, there are so many different kind of herbs that a good Chinese doctor can prescribe rather than the so called knobs medication.

Whats Chinese for gullible.

Whats Chinese for gullible.

Good question, I’ve checked and it’s not in the Chinese dictionary.

lemonysam – Member

Proper Chinese medication is very bitter

That’s good enough for me.

Actually extremely bitter.

😆

Why is science described as western? Science is just observing how stuff is…the Greeks, arabs and Chinese have all been doing that for thousands of years. Ask a Dr in a Chinese hospital if he’d rather have antibiotics or a powdered badgers gall bladder.

What was life expectancy like in China 1000 yrs ago…..

kayak23 – Member
A marvellous justification for chopping the knobs off endangered animals.
Yey Chinese medicine!

Bit sweary:

ernie_lynch – Member

Whats Chinese for gullible.

Good question, I’ve checked and it’s not in the Chinese dictionary.

It is called ??? 🙄

Some Chinese medications have been reported to be contaminated with all sorts of potentially harmful stuff so I would treat it with caution.

I’m not sure why the references to ‘knobs off endangered animals’ and ‘powdered badgers gall bladder’, the only traditional Chinese medicine I’ve experienced other than acupuncture has been herbal infusions. And I’m fairly sure that is the only available traditional Chinese medicine in the UK.

It is perfectly feasible imo that various herbs if drank as a infusion might have a physical effect, after all drinking a cup of coffee can do.

A Chinese work colleague of mine gets Night Nurse sent over from the USA as it apparently contains more alcohol than the UK stuff.

vickypea – Member

Some Chinese medications have been reported to be contaminated with all sorts of potentially harmful stuff so I would treat it with caution.

Ya, absolutely. When certain ingredients cost so much you get cowboys trying to mass produce them using whatever ways they can. So we tend to look for the cheapest, least monetary value, ingredients we can find because those are not profitable for the cowboys.

ernie_lynch – Member

And I’m fairly sure that is the only available traditional Chinese medicine in the UK.

It is perfectly feasible imo that various herbs if drank as a infusion might have a physical effect, after all drinking a cup of coffee can do.

I am not familiar with British Chinese doctors but as far as we know a good Chinese doctor is like gold dust if you can find one. My question is if they are that good there would be no need for them to set up a practice in the West. They would have enough patients at home.

IanMunro – Member

A Chinese work colleague of mine gets Night Nurse sent over from the USA as it apparently contains more alcohol than the UK stuff.

I wouldn’t trust any of the Chinese Western medication i.e. those that make to look like western medication in capsule or in any other form. I am only taking proper Chinese herbs with NO animal parts.

Anyway, if you want a hard knob there are plenty of herbs available some are even use for cooking but nobody knows it is meant for man hood.

Given that traditional Chinese medicine is based largely on naturally occurring materials I reckon that anything that was proven to be effective would have been adopted, marketed and sold by one of the large western drugs companies for a tidy markup. The fact that it hasn’t to any large degree suggests to me that it doesn’t work beyond a placebo.

muppetWrangler – Member
The fact that it hasn’t to any large degree suggests to me that it doesn’t work beyond a placebo.

Proper Chinese medication is not one size fits all so even if you get the ingredients they will not work properly for all. The aspect of diagnosing is very important as the herbs prescribe will have to custom for that particular patient only. If others take it the effect will either be too strong or not effective.

🙂

I am not familiar with British Chinese doctors but as far as we know a good Chinese doctor is like gold dust if you can find one. My question is if they are that good there would be no need for them to set up a practice in the West. They would have enough patients at home.

So you came to the UK because you are crap at your job chewkw ?

ernie_lynch – Member 
I’m not sure why the references to ‘knobs off endangered animals’ and ‘powdered badgers gall bladder’

Huffington post article, just one of many….

There is no scientific basis of the claim that tiger penis (or testicles), seal penis, deer penis, or elephant penis have aphrodisiac capacity. Yet, the effectiveness of Viagra has been demonstrated in clinical trials and in use. The myth of tiger penis being a powerful manhood enhancer has been sustained by the TCM believers. It is only understandable that some desperate impotent males would choose to believe in anything that potentially work.”

It is perfectly feasible imo that various herbs if drank as a infusion might have a physical effect, after all drinking a cup of coffee can do.

Yup, and in ancient western medicine (it’s like the Chinese version, but carries less cachet at Guardian infused dinnerparties) they used willow bark as a painkiller.

In modern medicine we figured out that it contained asprin, and now just make and take that.

That’s the advantage of this modern medicine, it’d got the advantage of thousands of years of development, rather than freezing it in time a few thousand years ago and ignoring any developments since then.

The aspect of diagnosing is very important

Tell me more. Is it just a case of getting the dosage right (the same as clinically trialled medicines), or can totally different medicines work for totally different symptoms on two different people?

Tom_W1987 – Member

No Chinese medicine is like picking up a hammer and hitting parts of your car randomly to see whether it fixes it or not and then if whatever is going wrong does stop it must be because you hit it with a hammer, except the hammer isn’t actually a hammer but a piece of useless string.

That’s exactly how I maintain my car tbh.

corticosteroids[/url] have been found in high levels in some chinese ‘herbal’ remedies – think id stick to the properly tested and measure varieties of medicine rather than risk higher doses of unsafe versions of the drugs your trying to avoid

Not that it applies to all – but hey its stw and its late so forgive my sweeping generalisation 😉

ernie_lynch – Member
So you came to the UK because you are crap at your job chewkw ?

Yes, in a way.

I was crapped at being a docile employee while working in the far east with far eastern companies. Can’t compete with the zombie maggots over there …

Besides, I was paid peanuts by those zombie maggots over there … I mean if I were to work for zombie maggots why not work for another zombie maggot that could pay me better like those in the West? So I decided to pack my bag and got myself a low ranking bureaucratic job in the UK.

I did not swim across the channel nor did I arrive at the back of a van.

kayak23 – Member

Huffington post article, just one of many….

There is no scientific basis of the claim that tiger penis (or testicles), seal penis, deer penis, or elephant penis have aphrodisiac capacity.

Absolutely. A proper ethical Chinese doctor will Not go anyway near animal parts. In fact there is no need to as there are so many herbs available that can be aphrodisiac.

muppetWrangler – Member

Tell me more. Is it just a case of getting the dosage right (the same as clinically trialled medicines), or can totally different medicines work for totally different symptoms on two different people?

Yes, getting the dosage right is a bit like clinical trials but Chinese do this via thousands years of hand down experience and No one Chinese doctor master them all. Some are family secret that can only hand down from one generation to another. Also, the good doctor will track your “chi” for suitable dosage.

As far as I know the dosage is customised to one person only if you get an experience doctor, otherwise they would apply the ancient herbs formula that they consider suitable for the ailments. Then adjust the dosage accordingly after sometimes.

Wikipedia describes it as a ‘pseudoscience, with no valid mechanism of action for the majority of its treatments.[10]’

There is a valid mechanism – a lot of the herbal remedies sold in the uk have been mixed with butt-loads of steroids 🙂

If you had copied and pasted my whole quote kayak23, instead of an edited version, you would see the point I was making.

Here is the full quote with the bit you left out in bold :

I’m not sure why the references to ‘knobs off endangered animals’ and ‘powdered badgers gall bladder’, the only traditional Chinese medicine I’ve experienced other than acupuncture has been herbal infusions. And I’m fairly sure that is the only available traditional Chinese medicine in the UK.

Your link does not refer to anything happening in the UK.

Wifes on it all the time, personally, I don’t think it does anything at all.

This is to help you poop, you boil it up and drink the soup, the resulting soup looks, and smells, worse than what gets left in the pan.

Wifes on it all the time, personally, I don’t think it does anything at all.

Was that a birds nest?

By the way you’re going to be in the doghouse for sharing your wives constipation woes with the internet. 🙂

By the way you’re going to be in the doghouse for sharing your wives constipation woes with the internet.

Trust me, in this society its perfectly normal to talk about ailments, they don’t have our reserves….and if you eat rice everyday you would get clogged up too.