The Need of Collaboration between Western medicine and Chinese medicine
Despite the increasing number of Western-Eastern cooperative hospitals that recognize the benefits of their collaboration, the ongoing debate regarding Western medicine and Chinese medicine exists. The validity of Chinese medicine is the main problem since Chinese medicines are not scientifically proven yet. Some experts in Western medicine insist that unnecessary substances contained in Chinese medicine can result in side effects. Some Chinese medicine practitioners say that Western medicine focuses too much on deductive science and undermines the harmony between human individuals and nature. However, I believe that the most promising solution to this debate is to combine Western and Chinese medicine in order to improve medical conditions and treatment methods.
Mure Dickie, a Western medicine practitioner, stated in Financial Times, a newspaper about international business and politics, that Chinese medicine is mostly based on anecdotal evidence and that its development continues to be handicapped by a lack of hard evidence demonstrating its efficacy (Dickie). Some practitioners like Dr. Dickie view Chinese medicine as “dangerous” and practically inferior to Western medicine because it was not originally based on science.
On the contrary, Chinese medicine practitioners claim that its method of treatment considers the energy flow around patients’ bodies and their spiritual condition, therefore striving for the harmony between patients and nature. Western medicine only focuses on scientific evidence and does not consider patients’ mental condition. In addition, side effects are actually not deleterious because the medicines are made mostly of plants or some substances from animals, which come from nature. Even though a plant contains a toxin, side effects are not as severe as those resulted from Western medicine because the toxin is not specially processed to target a specific cell. Also, recent experiments using modern technology proved that some Chinese medicines are scientifically effective (Cho).
These two methodologies have their own reasoning and they both have positive sides and negative sides, such as side effects. However, the collaboration of Western and Chinese complement each other and patients show faster and more effective improvement in their symptoms. They can cooperate by using both acupuncture and modern surgical operation or by prescribing both Chinese and Western medicine, depending on patients’ diseases. My grandfather experienced both medicines when he was suffering from lung cancer ten years ago. When he found out about his illness, his lungs were already severely destroyed by cancer cells and the Western medicine doctor concluded that he would be able to live for three or four months more. My grandfather started receiving radiation treatment and other chemical pills in a Western style hospital. Along with that, he regularly ate herbal medicines with mushrooms and raw potatoes, foods that are known to be helpful in preventing the growth of cancer cells. Miraculously, he lived another eight months instead of three months.
Another example that bolsters my assertion, is that of anti-cancer medicine. According to Dr. In Souk Cho, a medical practitioner in South Korea, a patient suffering from cancer can consume only a certain amount of anti-cancer medicine because its consumption results in a decrease in the number of leucocytes. Leucocytes, also called white blood cells, are involved in fighting other disease-causing cells (“Dictionary”). The decrease in the number of leucocytes disables the normal function of immune system; therefore, patients are prone to get sick easily. In this case, moxibustion, the burning of moxa or other substances on the skin to treat disease, prevents the sudden decrease of leucocytes, thus enabling continuous treatment using anti-cancer medicines (Cho).
These two examples strongly suggest that the collaboration of Western and Chinese medicine better improved patients’ symptoms caused by diseases that could not be improved by using only one treatment. Ping Chung Leung, one of the authors of “Herbal and Traditional medicine” said that the holistic concept of Chinese medicine could keep the modern scientists from being overenthusiastic about deductive science, which tends to ignore humans as individuals. He also added that the collaboration of two methodologies would avoid negligence of human need and be more sensitive to comprehensive service, taking the mental condition and the nature of surroundings into consideration (Leung 49).
Many experts in Chinese and Western medical fields realize the importance of collaboration of those two methods and some hospitals that combine East and West methodologies such as East-West Neo Medical Center of Kyung Hee University in South Korea, are emerging in order to pursue more effective methods of curing diseases and improving patients’ health. This would increase the possibility of treating diseases that were incurable in the past.
Patients show more effective and responsive improvement when both Chinese and Western medicine are applied as shown in the two examples. Their collaboration opens up a new window to discover a way to treat diseases. East-West cooperative hospitals demonstrate that working together to treat illnesses not only save doctors and patients’ time, but more importantly better medical conditions and patients heaths.




Works Cited

Cho, In Souk. E-mail Interview. 22 Mar 2008.
Dickie, Mure. “Chinese traditional medicine gets a dose of modernization” Financial Times. 28 Mar 2008

Dictionary. Dictionary.com 25 Apr 2008

Packer, Lester, Choon Nam Ong, and Barry Halliwell. Herbal and Traditional Medicine.
New York: Marcel Dekker. 2004