Medical Systems
Naturopaths and Chinese Medicine practitioners often get asked "what can you treat?" The same question would not normally be asked of a Western Medical doctor. Why, because they unconsciously understand that Western Medicine is a "medical system" , they expect it to treat all conditions. However they may not know that Naturopathy and Chinese Medicine are also "medical systems", that is to say they are broad systems that include diagnostic and treatment protocols for all types of human disease conditions. A more relevant question is , how well can they treat a particular health problem? Western Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Naturopathy are three of a number of medical systems. Many other medical systems exist, often indigenous to a particular culture. Some examples of these systems include Ayurveda, Kempo, Native American Medicine, Traditional Hawaiian Medicine, Unani, Latin American folk systems and Australian Aboriginal medicine.
In fact Western Medicine is not necessarily the most dominant of the systems. It has been estimated that two-thirds of the world’s population seek health care from sources other than conventional biomedicine (western medicine) (Huffard et al., 1992).
Medical Systems can vary significantly in how they describe health and illness and in how they remedy problems. They all however have certain things in common.
They all have an internal integrity of their own. They don't rely on other systems for their existence.
They employ diagnostic methods that produce information relevant to their system but not necessarily to other systems.
Their treatments bear a direct relationship to their underlying theoretical base and may exhibit no logic when viewed by other systems.
In order to illustrate this let's have a closer look at Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM.) Based on the historical work of professional medical practitioners from Asia , and in particular China. It has a documented history of nearly 5000 years. Theories and practices have evolved and been tested throughout this time. Those that have proved consistent and relevant to the health of the population have been described, documented and passed on to the practitioners of today.
Central to the theoretical basis of TCM is the concept of Qi. Qi is considered to flow through paths in the body that have become known in the West as Acupuncture Meridians. To date science has not developed any understanding of what Qi is nor of the existence of the meridians. From the view point of Western Medical Science acupuncture as treatment based on these meridians , can not work. From the view point of a TCM practitioner that science is unable explain these only shows the limits of science. They know that they are drawing on thousands of years of experience, during which billions of treatments have been done. People are generally pragmatic. If there is no benefit from using TCM they would stop. Instead more people use it today than at any time in history. Though I am sure that practitioners would like to have more scientific knowledge of it's operation , they do not need it to use it successfully.
The point is that TCM shows a theoretical and experiential basis that is independent of Western Medicine, it has diagnostic systems and treatment methods that are logical and consistent within it's own theoretical base.
Sometimes you can understand something better by looking at what it is not. For example , Physiotherapy is a significant and well developed system but it would not be considered as a “medical system” , only as a part of one. In this case physiotherapy is really a part of Western Medicine. It depends on Western Medicine for the foundation of it's theoretical base. And while it can treat many conditions it would not be appropriate for treating infectious disease or hormonal problems. Which any true medical system should have substantial capacity to treat.
In short “medical systems” are primary contact, broad diagnosis and treatment systems. They utilize a variety of approaches and are applicable to most health conditions. For example modern Western Medicine is a system , as is Traditional Chinese Medicine. While Acupuncture, Surgery and massage are treatment techniques/systems but not complete “medical systems”.
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