@algancao – on TCM as Pseudoscience

@chigurh is TCM pseudoscience? Only when we’re trying to explain it in the West. Many feel the need to try and speak in biomedical terms.

TCM and pseudoscience: I think that our expectations of anything called “medicine” must be “scientific”. That’s a modern prejudice.

TCM (herbalism) is more like cooking than pharmacology. Different chefs include variant ingredients for the same dish, such as pasta sauce.

While science excels at measuring stuff, its rigor also arises from clinical outcomes and peer review. TCM is big in both of these areas.

Many Chinese medicine herbs have not withstood the test of time or clinical outcomes, Eg. hangman’s noose as a medicinal herb. (gasp!)

Many Chinese medicine herbs foretold biomedical discoveries such as antibiotic huang lian (coptis) for h-Pylori infection causing heartburn.

People get all bent outta shape for Chinese medicine using leeches (for reducing blood clots), but biomedicine is researching it now too.

Last modified: January 21, 2010  Tags: , ,  ยท  Posted in: Tweetz