My Medical Philosophy: Conclusion to the General Introduction

Having written this far, the general introduction of this book has run to 36,000 characters, and it is time to bring it to a close.

I believe that, once readers have mastered these key ideas of the general introduction, they will have a comprehensive understanding of the whole approach I advocate—treating disease with large, multi-component, multi-target formulas.

In the chapters that follow, drawing on my knowledge of both TCM and Western medicine and on my own clinical experience, I will organize the discussion by specific symptoms and disease categories. I will discuss TCM solutions for various symptoms and disease types and set out corresponding formula-composition strategies using large, multi-component, multi-target formulas.

The second part of this book will be organized by symptom; chapters may be titled after pain, fever, vomiting, jaundice, constipation, ascites, and so on, exploring one by one the TCM formulas, commonly used medicinals, and formula-composition ideas that relieve each symptom. The third part will be organized by disease category; chapters may be titled after gastric cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, stroke sequelae, and so on, exploring the commonly used formulas, medicinals, and composition strategies for treating various refractory diseases.

In writing each chapter I will cite relevant cases and, through concrete cases, analyze the reasoning behind composing and dosing large, multi-component, multi-target formulas.

From the time I began planning this book until now, I have reached agreement in principle on animal-experiment collaboration with two Class-A tertiary hospitals. One of them, in Shanghai, has already begun mouse experiments. On the day this article is published, I will travel to another tertiary hospital somewhere in Henan to negotiate an animal-experiment collaboration.

The writing of this book will proceed in step with the animal experiments designed according to its theory. As a researcher who has studied both TCM and Western medicine, I hope to investigate this treatment approach with an integrated method, seeking dosing regimens that can be verified in animal experiments and that can reproduce their effect across different patients.

Because I must return to school on August 30 to register and begin the new academic year, and because next summer I will enter a hospital for Western-medicine internship, I will have roughly two years without a long vacation. The pace of later writing will inevitably slow, which is fine because the animal experiments also need time to be completed.

Medical research is a long process. I understand that some readers hope I will write faster, but merely pursuing speed without pursuing the quality of the research is of little value. Real, scientific experimental data will make this research of mine more meaningful.

So I ask readers to be patient. In fact, most of the many articles I have written over the previous eleven years were already oriented toward this research direction. They total over 5.3 million characters. Those interested in my research can read my past articles to gain a deeper understanding of my medical philosophy and clinical approach.