Posts Tagged ‘TCM’

Medical fusion of West and East

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Western and Eastern medicine are based on different principles.

The Western view is basically to heal illnesses as they occur and many treatments are available, mainly in the form of drugs or surgery. The phase before the illness is not for the doctors. The basis is scientific.

The Eastern view is of a more holistic nature with a set of treatments that differ clearly from the Western methods. For many Westerners it has a mystic character with non-scientific (seemingly) theory, it is about first correcting body dynamics, using acupuncture, pressure, herbs. The basis is experience over several thousand years.

Chinese medicine is very old – 3000 years, some even say 5000 years.

The foundation is the philosophy of Tao where the concepts of Qi, Yin and Yang and the 5 steps are important, including dark and light and the balancing of the life forces. The aim of therapy is to balance Yin and Yang.

Acupunture, herbs and other natural substances are important to achieve this balance.

The results are very good – it is spreading to the West – the Chinese are coming!

At the same time a new era of medicine seems to be starting: the body-mind-spirit thinking is developing or finding its form, with a fusion of the two sets of thinking. The new medicine has also been called Energy or Energetic Medicine due to the realization that the body has to do with energy and psychic forces as well as physics and chemistry.

Traditional Chinese Medicine TCM, Indian, Korean, Japanese have all had concepts of vital forces that drives all life. It seems clear that energy thinking is vital, and this forces Western medicine to consider a development in this direction.

From the website of the University of Tromsø: “In 1999 Norway and China agreed to a Letter of Intent regarding cooperation within the field of health and medicine. The National Research Center in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NAFKAM) is organized as a center at the Faculty of Medicine, the University of Tromsø, Norway, and it is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services. WHO Collaborating Centre: NAFKAM was designated as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Traditional Medicine in 2008. NIFAB: In 2007 a national complementary and alternative medicine CAM bank has been established to provide unbiased research based information.”

Tomorrow’s medicine is coming! Is this happening in other countries as well? We will follow up on this one!

See link: The National Research Center in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NAFKAM) Search for NAFKAM