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Merged Slate magazine debunks Chinese medicine/Chairman Mao

bobledrew

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Amazing (to me, at least) to see this detailed and seemingly very credible dissection of "traditional Chinese medicine" in the online magazine Slate.

..."exporting Chinese medicine presented a formidable task, not least because there was no such thing as “Chinese medicine.” For thousands of years, healing practices in China had been highly idiosyncratic. Attempts at institutionalizing medical education were largely unsuccessful, and most practitioners drew at will on a mixture of demonology, astrology, yin-yang five phases theory, classic texts, folk wisdom, and personal experience."

I don't have privileges of posting URLs yet, but if you go to the Slate front page (slate dot com) the article can be found there.

Read and enjoy!
 
During the cultural revolution, a lot of medical care was provided o a village level by semi-skilled practioners.

They were given a quite comprehensive manual which dealt with a very wide range of treatments and condition.

The manual ALWAYS recommended what we would recognise as the conventional medical treatment as the first resort- only recommending "Traditional" remedies when modern medicine was not available (which was often the case).

When new-agers translated the manual, they left out the conventional cures- the ones the Chinese themselves recommended- and left in the "Traditional" cures.
 
Thanks for the welcome - I've been lurking for a while but waiting until I found something worth posting to dive in.
 
I have been saying for years: if "traditional Chinese medicine" is so effective and cheap, why would a Communist government spend so much money on highly-trained doctors and nurses and modern hospitals?

The myth of the super-effective "old ways" was fostered by Mao, precisely to avoid having to splash out on such things.
 
RossFW said:
During the cultural revolution, a lot of medical care was provided o a village level by semi-skilled practioners.

They were given a quite comprehensive manual which dealt with a very wide range of treatments and condition.

The manual ALWAYS recommended what we would recognise as the conventional medical treatment as the first resort- only recommending "Traditional" remedies when modern medicine was not available (which was often the case).

When new-agers translated the manual, they left out the conventional cures- the ones the Chinese themselves recommended- and left in the "Traditional" cures.
Click to expand...
A Barefoot Doctor's Manual. The US "translation" (which dropped 60% of the original) was covered by Skeptoid in a fascinating 'cast.
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4259
 
Big Al said:
I have been saying for years: if "traditional Chinese medicine" is so effective and cheap, why would a Communist government spend so much money on highly-trained doctors and nurses and modern hospitals?

The myth of the super-effective "old ways" was fostered by Mao, precisely to avoid having to splash out on such things.
Click to expand...

Mao was also trying to show some illusory superiority over Western medicine. The purge of the intellectuals left China with little else. One of the first acts post Mao was sending doctors and scientists abroad to start catching up. The myth of traditional Chinese medicine is mainly a Western one.
 
Years ago, a friend recommended a book by a traditional Chinese medicine authority. The guy had some decent ideas, and some very strange ones. He was a "bonesetter", which in Asian cultures is about equivalent to a chiropractor here.

He felt that home-baked bread was a wonderful health food... Good for the body and the spirit...
Also, that Americans drank too much water. "your urine should be the color of beer", he said. That's specific... What, Coors light? Guiness? Lemme tell ya, if your urine is looking like Stout, you're in trouble.
He was fond of "plasters" too; had recipes for making them up from various herbs and sticking them on various body parts for different conditions.
 
Bikewer said:
Years ago, a friend recommended a book by a traditional Chinese medicine authority. The guy had some decent ideas, and some very strange ones. He was a "bonesetter", which in Asian cultures is about equivalent to a chiropractor here.

He felt that home-baked bread was a wonderful health food... Good for the body and the spirit...
Also, that Americans drank too much water. "your urine should be the color of beer", he said. That's specific... What, Coors light? Guiness? Lemme tell ya, if your urine is looking like Stout, you're in trouble.
He was fond of "plasters" too; had recipes for making them up from various herbs and sticking them on various body parts for different conditions.
Click to expand...

What were the decent ideas, Bikewer?
 
Chairman Mao Invented Traditional Chinese Medicine

I just came across this article and found it fascinating. Proof that there are few things more effective for changing attitudes or creating beliefs than really good propoganda.

I doubt many here will be surprised to find that ancient Chinese medicine is largely useless. Most of us knew that already, but most of us probably didn't know how and why it became thought of throughout the west as being effective.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/10/traditional_chinese_medicine_origins_mao_invented_it_but_didn_t_believe.html
 
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I might quibble a bit - I would say that the Communists "revived" or "mainstreamed" TCM rather than literally "invented" it.

I actually have Dr. Beyerstein's copy of the Barefoot Doctor Handbook that he was given on the CSICOP expedition to China back in the 1980s.

Skeptical Inquirer did a multi-issue report on their findings at the time and published a compiled special report. Probably available in the archives.


25 years before that, the NSDAP did the same thing with German folk healing (Volksheilkunde) and homeopathy in particular, and for similar reasons (the medical profession became resource-strained by the 1933 restriction against Jews practicing medicine). As a matter of interest, Dachau was an homeopathic herb plantation.

None of this is 'new' information. Everything is available on the Internet. It makes no difference to the public's demand for these products. The takeaway is that marketing is more powerful than facts, unfortunately.
 
RossFW said:
During the cultural revolution, a lot of medical care was provided o a village level by semi-skilled practioners.

They were given a quite comprehensive manual which dealt with a very wide range of treatments and condition.

The manual ALWAYS recommended what we would recognise as the conventional medical treatment as the first resort- only recommending "Traditional" remedies when modern medicine was not available (which was often the case).

When new-agers translated the manual, they left out the conventional cures- the ones the Chinese themselves recommended- and left in the "Traditional" cures.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if this is an accurate description - China exported an English translation version - there was no need for new-agers to produce a new version that I'm aware of. I have seen similar books in newage stores, but they don't pretend to be official translations. eg: "The American Barefoot Doctor Manual" - the author says it was "inspired by" the Chinese book.

Each entry has 3 treatment sections. There is a scientific treatment, an herbal treatment, and an acupuncture treatment - the doctor is to use his judgement depending on the patient's condition and available resources.

So, for example, they are trained in setting broken bones through conventional methods, but would probably also use herbs to prevent infection and acupuncture to address pain. This is the premise of "one medicine"
 
In the 60's and 70's anything Eastern and pre-modern was in vogue with the credulous and, by extension, those who prey on them. The Beatles had more to do with that than Chairman Mao, but even they were following an existing fad. It was all part of the "alternative lifestyle" pick-and-mix. Ask your parents about it; those were fun times.

ETA : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_Cola. Not available in a head-shop near you.
 
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Slate: Chairman Mao Invented Traditional Chinese Medicine

I liked this article a lot.

From http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/10/traditional_chinese_medicine_origins_mao_invented_it_but_didn_t_believe.single.html

In 1923, Lu Xun, China’s most famous man of letters, reflected critically on his father’s visits to a Chinese doctor, visits that bankrupted the family and failed to produce results. “I still remember the doctor’s discussion and prescription,” Lu wrote, “and if I compare them with my knowledge now, I slowly realize that Chinese doctors are no more than a type of swindler, either intentional or unintentional, and I sympathize with deceived sick people and their families.”

There are those who would blame Lu’s skepticism on the Western-style medical education he received in Japan. Rightfully wary of ethnocentrism, some scholars have suggested that negative judgments about Chinese medicine result from the misapplication of “Western” criticisms to “Eastern” thought. In the words of anthropologist Judith Farquhar: “The standards of argument by which we judge our own most rigorous explanations cannot be applied to Chinese medicine.”

But this produces an absurd picture of China as a mysterious place where logic doesn’t—and shouldn’t—apply. In truth, skepticism, empiricism, and logic are not uniquely Western, and we should feel free to apply them to Chinese medicine.
Click to expand...

Mao understood he needed to deal with criticisms like those of Lu Xun, Wang Qingren, and Wang Chong in order for Chinese medicine to be taken seriously, both domestically and internationally. His solution was a two-pronged approach. First, inconsistent texts and idiosyncratic practices had to be standardized. Textbooks were written that portrayed Chinese medicine as a theoretical and practical whole, and they were taught in newly founded academies of so-called “traditional Chinese medicine,” a term that first appeared in English, not Chinese. Needless to say, the academies were anything but traditional, striving valiantly to “scientify” the teachings of classics that often contradicted one another and themselves. Terms such as “holism” (zhengtiguan) and “preventative care” (yufangxing) were used to provide the new system with appealing foundational principles, principles that are now standard fare in arguments about the benefits of alternative medicine.

[...]

The second part of Mao’s project was to provide Westerners with sensational evidence of Chinese medicine’s efficacy, particularly of acupuncture analgesia. The watershed moment was in 1971, when New York Times editor James Reston wrote an article entitled “Now, Let Me Tell You About My Appendectomy in Peking.” In it, he recounted how Wu Weiran of the Anti-Imperialist Hospital had administered “a standard injection of Xylocain and Bensocain” before removing his appendix. Later, while Reston recovered, acupuncture was used to relieve pain from post-operative gas. Eager to believe in mystical Eastern miracle workers, credulous Westerners misreported the story, claiming that acupuncture had been used as an anesthetic during Reston’s appendectomy, a falsehood that still has currency. Fascination with acupuncture exploded, allowing the Chinese Communist Party to put together a media blitz touting its extraordinary powers, complete with what appear to have been intentionally faked surgeries.
Click to expand...
 
Big Al said:
I have been saying for years: if "traditional Chinese medicine" is so effective and cheap, why would a Communist government spend so much money on highly-trained doctors and nurses and modern hospitals?
Click to expand...

If "traditional Chinese medicine" is so effective, why was the lifespan of a Chinese farmer, living in a rural community (most likely to be using TCM) in the 1920s only 25 years? The farmer's wife average lifespan was only 24 years (they were dying in childbirth).

Lifespans didn't improve until they brought actual medicine into the mix.
 
"Traditional Chinese medicine" IS highly effective. It reduces costs and demand for western medicine by an enormous amount. Plus keeps the peasants happy.
 
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