Merged Slate magazine debunks Chinese medicine/Chairman Mao

[CapelDodger]

Lifespans didn't improve until they brought actual medicine into the mix.

And took Maoism out of it.

 

[rjh01]

Please note in my post above I did not say it cures any disease. That is not my claim.

 

[catsmate]

If anyone's interested there's a PDF scan of the original (1974, 972 page) translation of TBDM on Scribd here. It's OK quality, from fiche, with reasonable OCR and is ~65MB in size.

 

[catsmate]

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"

Here is an example, from the scanned I copy I linked to.

Beriberi
Beriberi is called "jan-chiao ping" [soft (weak) leg's disease] by the
local populace. It is caused by a vitamin Bl deficiency which results in a
weakness in the lower extremities and difficulty of movement.
Symptoms seen in the early stage are poor appetite, indigestion, weight
loss, insomnia, general weakness, muscular pains, and a weighted feeling in
the legs. Among infants, the signs are regurgitation of milk, night fretfululness, weak efforts at nursing, weak crying, scanty urine etc. Clinically, when accompanied by edema of lower foot, the condition is damp (shih) beriberi; without edema, the condition is dry (kan) beriberi. During the course of illness, when symptoms such as palpitation, dyspnea, nausea, and thirst appear, it it said that beriberi has involved the heart (chiao-ch'i ch'ung hsin).

Prevention
1. An improved diet for the patient or wet nurse, to include food stuffs
high in vitamin Bl, such as unpolished rice, rice gruel, red beans, soybeans,
peanuts, fresh vegetables etc. Do not eat highly polished white rice.
2. Active measures taken to prevent and treat other ailments, among
which diarrhea is the most important. During course of illness, give patient
a supplement of several vitamins.

Treatment
1. New acupuncture therapy. Apply medium stimulation to needles inserted
once daily into the "tsu-San-li," "yang-1ing ch'uan," and "chieh-hsi"
points.

2. Chinese herbs
a. For damp beriberi, treatment should open up the "lo" passageways
and promote moisture removal, with remedies such as the
following:
<snipped due to poor formatting from the OCR but several alternatives listing multiple herbs and what I assume are weights/amounts>

3. Western medicines
a. Vitamin Bl' 5 - 10 mg each time, by mouth, 3 times a day.
For seriously ill patients, intramuscular injections may be given.
b. Yeast tablets, l-3 gm by mouth each time, 3 times a day.

 

[pakeha]

http://www.slate.com/articles/healt...igins_mao_invented_it_but_didn_t_believe.html
Interesting read. Welcome to the JREF Forums!

Thirded!

 

[blutoski]

Here is an example, from the scanned I copy I linked to.

Beriberi
Beriberi is called "jan-chiao ping" [soft (weak) leg's disease] by the
local populace. It is caused by a vitamin Bl deficiency which results in a
weakness in the lower extremities and difficulty of movement.
Symptoms seen in the early stage are poor appetite, indigestion, weight
loss, insomnia, general weakness, muscular pains, and a weighted feeling in
the legs. Among infants, the signs are regurgitation of milk, night fretfululness, weak efforts at nursing, weak crying, scanty urine etc. Clinically, when accompanied by edema of lower foot, the condition is damp (shih) beriberi; without edema, the condition is dry (kan) beriberi. During the course of illness, when symptoms such as palpitation, dyspnea, nausea, and thirst appear, it it said that beriberi has involved the heart (chiao-ch'i ch'ung hsin).

Prevention
1. An improved diet for the patient or wet nurse, to include food stuffs
high in vitamin Bl, such as unpolished rice, rice gruel, red beans, soybeans,
peanuts, fresh vegetables etc. Do not eat highly polished white rice.
2. Active measures taken to prevent and treat other ailments, among
which diarrhea is the most important. During course of illness, give patient
a supplement of several vitamins.

Treatment
1. New acupuncture therapy. Apply medium stimulation to needles inserted
once daily into the "tsu-San-li," "yang-1ing ch'uan," and "chieh-hsi"
points.

2. Chinese herbs
a. For damp beriberi, treatment should open up the "lo" passageways
and promote moisture removal, with remedies such as the
following:
<snipped due to poor formatting from the OCR but several alternatives listing multiple herbs and what I assume are weights/amounts>

3. Western medicines
a. Vitamin Bl' 5 - 10 mg each time, by mouth, 3 times a day.
For seriously ill patients, intramuscular injections may be given.
b. Yeast tablets, l-3 gm by mouth each time, 3 times a day.

Yes, this is consistent with my copies of 1970s and 1980s English translations. I'm not sure where anybody got the impression that the scientific treatments had been deleted. I speculate the claimants picked up an an independently authored booklet with a similar name and just assumed it was the real thing. It would be interesting to determine number of copies sold to compare the potential impact to American culture.

A lot of the newage books I could find on Amazon with similar names (such as American Barefoot Doctor Manual) are not even very Chinese-ish. Most are a mishmash of Asian philosophies, blending Chi and Chakras, random herbal remedies, acupuncture and homeopathy. Basically an altmed mush. Unfortunately, there's limited preview visibility in Amazon so probably not enough information to completely categorize the offerings in that segment.

 

[iamcanjim]

I think the standardisation is what made it much more palatable to westerners. If they went to China and found opposing treatments for the same ailment in different villages (which was the case originally) then the whole idea of TCM is not really believable. Mao standardized it (most likely randomly) making it seem like the treatments were consistent.