During the best doctor visit I ever had, the physician told me I had a mental illness and was a hypochondriac who was imagining things. She was quite rude about it too. The insurance companies have not managed to eliminate all good doctors!
Why was that the best visit? Well, as I knew statistically, except for first aid, the average "medical intervention" has a negative result. You can improve your health by avoiding physicians. It took the good doctor's hints to apply this knowledge to my own life.
A body is not a machine that you can fix. It is a part of yourself. What type of food causes your bladder to object?
It would be interesting to do a survey in various countries to see where doctors most like to hide behind this 'mental illness' pseudo-diagnosis. I think we can guess that China is not the only country where this is popular.
I don't however understand why you write that the body is not a machine which can be fixed.
I'm not sure how relevant this to the subject of the post, but for what it's worth, human bodies require inputs: proteins, fats, fiber, carbs, vitamins, sunlight, oxygen and so on. Some would even say that bodies need electrons from the earth. If they lack any of these, all sorts of malfunctions may crop up. If we take a car as a sample machine, they are no different. They require not only petrol, but also motor oil, coolant and transmission fluid, to cite a few examples. And their filters need occasional cleaning and/or replacement. Can we drive with insufficient motor oil? For a while yes, but at the cost of potential damage to the vehicle. Why are the two not analogous?
Thank you for your article. Hello to Thinking Turtle.
I may have some clue to answer your question. Can a car experiment placebo or nocebo effect? Can a car's engine change after having heard a very bad news?...
I have been working five years in an hospital dedicated to cancer (Centre Léon Bérard in Lyon) in a third /fourth stage service. This has led me to many questions. As I told you already, I have a keto diet and greatly enjoy it and it improved my life, but I am not a car.
The "Invisible Rainbow" by Arthur Firstenberg is also a must read if one wants to understand more about the reasons we have been more and more sick since the end of the nineteenth century. Cars are not sensitive to electricity or microwaves.
It may be because of my intervention on your comment section, but I have just discovered that interesting show which might be relevant at that point. I send it to you since I know your french is very good:
Thanks for the answer. I didn't mean to occupy space on your blog. If you want to share about that most interesting subject, I will ask a friend how to use Telegram with my PC. While the 'unexplained healings' are statistically irrelevant for the Western science, the fact that they exist is nonetheless most interesting.
just like any other profession, some in the industry are just collecting a paycheck and making safe middle-of-the-road decisions from a standard list - they probably figure they are not getting paid enough to actually "think about it". i had an experience similar to this in USA as well - when a cardiologist did not do what he promised to do when i went to the hospital. i confronted him on this fact afterwards and he basically showed me the door and indicated there were lots of other doctors out there - no thinking here apparently! $90,000 out the window and on to the next "patient". can't wait for Dr. AI - at least he will make better guesses.
My daughter is trying to make telegram work on my PC so we might chat about the "car" analogy (if you want.
Anyway, I have a relevant comment for your interesting article.
I have an official degree in qi gong that allows me to teach and of course I have been initiated in TCM in the Institut Européen de Qi gong and during my school years in biodynamic farming with a French doctor who had been graduated in China. I have also studied Yi Chuan/Da chen Chuan with Chinese master before moving to Systema which also consider the Chinese traditional vision (especially my Korean master DK YOO).
MTC is based on a vision of reality which has nothing to do with the Western medecine, which indeed postulate that the human body is a machine, a materialistic view.
To sum up very briefly for the readers, life is an ever changing process, including Yin/yang. The body work with a circadian clock where all organs a resting or are active according to the moment of the day for instance and work in precession like the gut precede the lungs for instance.
Diagnosis is very specific in genuine MTC and it has nothing to do whatsoever with what the Chinese doctors you interacted with did. It is a long process. In Lyon, there is a Chinese doctor (very respected) who takes at least one hour to make a diagnostic for instance. One of my best friend has studied 5 years to have her degree in MTC and she respects the traditional protocol before prescribing.
It is mind boggling that the doctors you met gave you herbal remedies without doing the traditional process. What you describe appears to be a degenerate form of traditional Chines medecine which doesn't consider Taoism as the underlying vision for understanding human health and thus the diagnostic process.
As an aside, my mother has very recently gave me the letters I sent them while a student in Yonsei University in Seoul in 1991 and it happens that I had written about what I had experimented then while sick (everybody was sick anyway because of the unbelievable pollution we experimented then). I went to an luxury hotel, told them briefly about my problem and was given a very costly plastic bags filled with colored pills which I had never tried since I couldn't know what molecule they contained.
It is good you could diagnose yourself with a leaky gut syndrome and have found the solution.
The inherent problem with doctors worldwide is that they are selected for ability to memorize a large amount of data and not for curiosity or creative problem solving.
Unless your problem is exactly something they are used to treating and within their specialty all I can say is good luck. Add in Mark Twain's observation that for a man with a hammer, all problems resemble a nail.
I have found the hard way to do a lot of research myself then find a doctor with some interest in what I have to say. Unfortunately I find that it doesn't take much research to go beyond the interest and knowledge levels of most doctors.
Indeed. The assembly line (one size fits all) mentality when it comes to treating patients seems to be standard practice in many countries. What was your experience with the medical profession in China, and how did it differ from what you experienced elsewhere?
Fortunately I didn't have to use the medical, except for dental, but I did hear stories consistently of medical misadventures from Chinese and expats that made me glad I missed that opportunity.
The general impression was that there were a few themes cutting through all the stories:
Like everything else in China, the number of doctors grew at a staggering rate with the spread of Western medicine. Seemed to be quantity over quality.
Chinese are a very proud culture and don't have much doubt that their way is right. There is a lot of arrogance with doctors everywhere but like with most things, China put it on steroids. For example, Chinese doctors were convinced that cold drinks are bad and all foreigners drink only cold liquids. So every foreigner I met who went to a doctor with stomach problems was told it was because of drinking cold liquids. If they told the doc they didn't, the doctor would correct them with "foreigners drink cold liquids!"
During the best doctor visit I ever had, the physician told me I had a mental illness and was a hypochondriac who was imagining things. She was quite rude about it too. The insurance companies have not managed to eliminate all good doctors!
Why was that the best visit? Well, as I knew statistically, except for first aid, the average "medical intervention" has a negative result. You can improve your health by avoiding physicians. It took the good doctor's hints to apply this knowledge to my own life.
A body is not a machine that you can fix. It is a part of yourself. What type of food causes your bladder to object?
It would be interesting to do a survey in various countries to see where doctors most like to hide behind this 'mental illness' pseudo-diagnosis. I think we can guess that China is not the only country where this is popular.
I don't however understand why you write that the body is not a machine which can be fixed.
Attempts to repair the body as if it were a machine produce bad results. Surgeries and medicine have long lists of side effects.
We can only help the body heal itself.
I'm not sure how relevant this to the subject of the post, but for what it's worth, human bodies require inputs: proteins, fats, fiber, carbs, vitamins, sunlight, oxygen and so on. Some would even say that bodies need electrons from the earth. If they lack any of these, all sorts of malfunctions may crop up. If we take a car as a sample machine, they are no different. They require not only petrol, but also motor oil, coolant and transmission fluid, to cite a few examples. And their filters need occasional cleaning and/or replacement. Can we drive with insufficient motor oil? For a while yes, but at the cost of potential damage to the vehicle. Why are the two not analogous?
Thank you for your article. Hello to Thinking Turtle.
I may have some clue to answer your question. Can a car experiment placebo or nocebo effect? Can a car's engine change after having heard a very bad news?...
Respect
it does run better after you wash it however :)
You made my day man!
Respect
If you cut your skin, your skin will repair itself. If you feel bad, your body is likely to fall ill. Your body can reproduce.
What you say about food, air and sun feels right to me. It's medicine and surgery that I question.
A couple of hours after having written my short comment, I discovered that show. Since I know your French is excellent, you might be interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDXuTjWY_4Y
"unexplained healings"
I have been working five years in an hospital dedicated to cancer (Centre Léon Bérard in Lyon) in a third /fourth stage service. This has led me to many questions. As I told you already, I have a keto diet and greatly enjoy it and it improved my life, but I am not a car.
The "Invisible Rainbow" by Arthur Firstenberg is also a must read if one wants to understand more about the reasons we have been more and more sick since the end of the nineteenth century. Cars are not sensitive to electricity or microwaves.
Respect
Austrian China.
It may be because of my intervention on your comment section, but I have just discovered that interesting show which might be relevant at that point. I send it to you since I know your french is very good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDXuTjWY_4Y
Les guérisons inexpliqués
I have been working decades ago in an hospital for cancer (Centre Léon Bérard in Lyon)
Respect
For topics not related to the post, you might want to consider sharing via Telegram @austrianchina.
Thanks for the answer. I didn't mean to occupy space on your blog. If you want to share about that most interesting subject, I will ask a friend how to use Telegram with my PC. While the 'unexplained healings' are statistically irrelevant for the Western science, the fact that they exist is nonetheless most interesting.
Take care and keep on the good job.
just like any other profession, some in the industry are just collecting a paycheck and making safe middle-of-the-road decisions from a standard list - they probably figure they are not getting paid enough to actually "think about it". i had an experience similar to this in USA as well - when a cardiologist did not do what he promised to do when i went to the hospital. i confronted him on this fact afterwards and he basically showed me the door and indicated there were lots of other doctors out there - no thinking here apparently! $90,000 out the window and on to the next "patient". can't wait for Dr. AI - at least he will make better guesses.
Hey Austrian China,
My daughter is trying to make telegram work on my PC so we might chat about the "car" analogy (if you want.
Anyway, I have a relevant comment for your interesting article.
I have an official degree in qi gong that allows me to teach and of course I have been initiated in TCM in the Institut Européen de Qi gong and during my school years in biodynamic farming with a French doctor who had been graduated in China. I have also studied Yi Chuan/Da chen Chuan with Chinese master before moving to Systema which also consider the Chinese traditional vision (especially my Korean master DK YOO).
MTC is based on a vision of reality which has nothing to do with the Western medecine, which indeed postulate that the human body is a machine, a materialistic view.
To sum up very briefly for the readers, life is an ever changing process, including Yin/yang. The body work with a circadian clock where all organs a resting or are active according to the moment of the day for instance and work in precession like the gut precede the lungs for instance.
Diagnosis is very specific in genuine MTC and it has nothing to do whatsoever with what the Chinese doctors you interacted with did. It is a long process. In Lyon, there is a Chinese doctor (very respected) who takes at least one hour to make a diagnostic for instance. One of my best friend has studied 5 years to have her degree in MTC and she respects the traditional protocol before prescribing.
It is mind boggling that the doctors you met gave you herbal remedies without doing the traditional process. What you describe appears to be a degenerate form of traditional Chines medecine which doesn't consider Taoism as the underlying vision for understanding human health and thus the diagnostic process.
As an aside, my mother has very recently gave me the letters I sent them while a student in Yonsei University in Seoul in 1991 and it happens that I had written about what I had experimented then while sick (everybody was sick anyway because of the unbelievable pollution we experimented then). I went to an luxury hotel, told them briefly about my problem and was given a very costly plastic bags filled with colored pills which I had never tried since I couldn't know what molecule they contained.
It is good you could diagnose yourself with a leaky gut syndrome and have found the solution.
Respectfully
The inherent problem with doctors worldwide is that they are selected for ability to memorize a large amount of data and not for curiosity or creative problem solving.
Unless your problem is exactly something they are used to treating and within their specialty all I can say is good luck. Add in Mark Twain's observation that for a man with a hammer, all problems resemble a nail.
I have found the hard way to do a lot of research myself then find a doctor with some interest in what I have to say. Unfortunately I find that it doesn't take much research to go beyond the interest and knowledge levels of most doctors.
Indeed. The assembly line (one size fits all) mentality when it comes to treating patients seems to be standard practice in many countries. What was your experience with the medical profession in China, and how did it differ from what you experienced elsewhere?
Fortunately I didn't have to use the medical, except for dental, but I did hear stories consistently of medical misadventures from Chinese and expats that made me glad I missed that opportunity.
The general impression was that there were a few themes cutting through all the stories:
Like everything else in China, the number of doctors grew at a staggering rate with the spread of Western medicine. Seemed to be quantity over quality.
Chinese are a very proud culture and don't have much doubt that their way is right. There is a lot of arrogance with doctors everywhere but like with most things, China put it on steroids. For example, Chinese doctors were convinced that cold drinks are bad and all foreigners drink only cold liquids. So every foreigner I met who went to a doctor with stomach problems was told it was because of drinking cold liquids. If they told the doc they didn't, the doctor would correct them with "foreigners drink cold liquids!"