Preface to My Medical Philosophy: Complex Problems Cannot Be Solved by Simple Thinking

The reason refractory diseases are hard to treat is that their causes and pathology are intricate; they cannot be grasped by simple thinking or treated by simple methods. Unfortunately, human medicine today still largely operates with simple-minded approaches to disease. That is why, when treating cancer, diabetes, and neurological disorders, we always end up robbing Peter to pay Paul, and outcomes are rarely satisfactory.

Many of our drugs and treatment methods are designed to target a single aspect of a problem. Some drugs inhibit angiogenesis, others kill mutated cells, and still others boost the patient's immunity. We hope that a unilateral action will control the condition. But the human body is an organic whole, and many of its functions remain connected in ways we do not yet understand.

This is why truly curative outcomes for refractory diseases like cancer, diabetes, and neurological disorders are so hard to achieve. These diseases are not only etiologically complex but pathologically complex as well. They simultaneously involve tissue necrosis, organ dysfunction, inflammatory responses, immune reactions, circulatory disturbances, and neurological impairment; the affected cells and intercellular matrix undergo a whole series of changes.

If we could design a treatment that simultaneously addresses all the pathological reactions of such a disease, we would in theory be on the way to far better clinical results—even to curing the patient.

With our current level of medical knowledge, we cannot yet fully identify the causes of refractory diseases. But after millennia of trial and error, humankind has found many ways to relieve pathological symptoms and keep the body in a basically functional state.

It is on this basis that I have tried to build an evidence-based diagnostic and treatment system grounded in holism, in order to improve outcomes in refractory disease. Such a system requires us first to regard the human body as a whole and to treat disease as a holistic problem rather than as an isolated pathological phenomenon.

This idea derives from the holism of ancient TCM, but traditional TCM's results in refractory disease are also very limited. We therefore need to build on the efforts of our predecessors, raising the bar further, taking their strengths and compensating for their weaknesses.

Medicine's progress is obvious: we have defeated smallpox and tuberculosis. In oncology, diabetes, and neurological disease, despite many remaining problems, we have also made great strides. All of these advances should be incorporated into one systematic diagnostic and therapeutic framework.

But medicine's limitations are equally real. To this day, we still lack effective means for many symptoms. On the other hand, some traditional methods can relieve symptoms and even reverse certain pathological phenomena, yet we cannot yet explain their mechanism in scientific terms.

So for now, the most practical approach is to value actual clinical efficacy, set aside for the moment the parts that cannot yet be explained scientifically, and leave them to future researchers to work out and explain.

This choice is practical because disease waits for no one; many patients need treatment now, and they have no time to wait.

I first set this research direction more than a decade ago during clinical practice. Later, on May 24, 2019, I summarized years of clinical experience in an article titled "An Account of My Practical Experience Using Large Chinese Herbal Multi-Target Broad-Spectrum Anticancer Formulas" (this article has been removed from my WeChat official account but remains on my website, www.zhouzhiyuan.com; I removed it because I felt it needed major revision), in which I sketched out this line of thinking.

Since then, in clinical practice, I have continued to apply this TCM large-formula multi-target special therapy to refractory diseases such as COVID-19, post-COVID syndrome, stroke sequelae, senile dementia, and intractable insomnia, obtaining surprisingly good results.

Using this approach, I have helped some advanced cancer patients eliminate tumors, extend survival, and improve quality of life; I have helped stroke-sequelae patients achieve successful rehabilitation; and I have treated early senile dementia with good results. During the pandemic, several empirical formulas I created on this basis also performed well against COVID-19 and its aftereffects.

In 2025, at the age of 46, I retook the national college entrance exam as an independent candidate and was admitted to the clinical medicine program at a public medical school, studying Western medicine full-time on campus and going home only on weekends and holidays.

While studying Western medicine, I kept reflecting on this TCM large-formula multi-target special therapy that I had worked out in practice. Combined with the Western medical knowledge I was learning at university, a logically coherent theoretical framework gradually took shape in my mind. I decided to write it down and share it with colleagues, for exchange and discussion.

In summer 2026, when I came home on break, I had a more generous block of time and began to organize my medical thinking. At the same time, a Western-medicine PhD from Fudan University is collaborating with me to run animal experiments of this TCM large-formula multi-target special therapy in his hospital. This is a great help. I very much hope to use medical experiments to verify the effectiveness of the method I developed, further clarify its scientific mechanism, and promote it.

Medical research is a long process; we have only taken the first step. Much work lies ahead to refine this line of research. I used to think I would wait until I had a more perfect result before writing this book, but time presses. I am nearing fifty; if an accident interrupted the work, later researchers would be unable to build on my groundwork, and that would be a great loss.

So, without false modesty, I have begun writing while the research is still underway. I know that at my current level this attempt is bound to have many flaws. But I want to cast a brick to attract jade; perhaps I will gain valuable feedback from colleagues, giving me the chance to refine this medical thinking during my lifetime.

This research also needs the participation of more colleagues interested in this direction. I ask readers to point out my errors without reservation, and I hope to work hand in hand with more medical colleagues in this direction. If you are interested, please contact me through my official account.