Tear Down the Walls and the World Opens Wide; Keep Pace with the Times, Hold No Outdated Rules
How difficult diseases are to treat is probably known only to clinicians. Many medical theories sound exciting but have little practical use in clinical practice, which most beginners and amateur learners do not realize. So I often meet overheated fans of TCM who mistakenly believe that, following the TCM doctrines of yin-yang and the five phases, they can solve everything, and that modern medicine is worthless. To such people I personally suggest they first study history rather than TCM - look at how long the emperors of successive dynasties and their children lived, and how many died of illness at a young age.
A patient once came to me for treatment who had been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma as a freshman. During treatment the tumor did shrink, but he and his family were not very satisfied with the results, and my skills were only mediocre; I could not bring them a big surprise or make the tumor vanish completely. So they listened to various rumors and first went to a folk TCM practitioner of external treatment; after applying external medicines, the tumor grew rapidly. Then they listened to a TCM fan who ran a moxibustion wellness shop, who claimed that a yang-warming method could dissolve the tumor. So, on his advice, the patient drank large amounts of ginger soup and underwent moxibustion. Tragically, while receiving moxibustion at the shop, the patient suffered massive hemorrhage and died despite emergency hospital treatment.
While the patient was receiving therapy at that moxibustion shop, he had enthusiastically recommended my official account and WeChat ID to the shop owner. After the patient died, the frightened shop owner came to me, asking whether the patient's sudden massive hematemesis might have had another cause and whether the failed rescue was due to improper hospital measures.
I told him on the spot that I could give him no answer, because I truly did not know the cause of the hemorrhage; after he changed his treatment plan, he had not communicated his condition to me for several months. Even now I do not know what factors contributed to his hemorrhage, nor can I judge whether it was related to moxibustion and ginger soup.
Shaken by the incident, the moxibustion shop owner thought about temporarily becoming a monk and asked me where he could do so; I did not know. Frankly, I had no wish to be drawn into such matters, so I advised him to communicate directly with the patient's family about the follow-up arrangements, and then deleted him.
Over the past ten-plus years I have seen more than one such incident. The lesson they teach me is that in studying and practicing medicine one must never be dogmatic, still less instill dogmatic views in patients. Now some TCM self-media outlets wildly exaggerate and promote certain TCM therapies while disparaging modern medicine, claiming that traditional medicine makes modern medicine worthless. I cannot endorse this approach, but I cannot change the situation either.
Among the patients who consult me, many have been influenced by these irresponsible self-media and hold prejudices against modern medicine. When I have time I may talk with them a bit more, asking them not to hold such prejudices. But I am also busy, spending large amounts of time every day studying and working; I cannot possibly talk with everyone. And most of the time such conversations end in failure, because once people have formed their prejudgments they are unwilling to accept different opinions.
People often tell me they disdain Western medicine and reject common knowledge of modern medicine. They will not even accept that WHO classifies tobacco, alcohol, and pickled foods as carcinogens. When I meet such people, I fall silent. These are deeply stubborn people; only after paying a cruel price will they realize how ignorant their stubbornness is.
The deeper a person's partisan prejudices, the poorer his inner spiritual world. A physician must not promote dogmatic views for personal gain, because doing so may cause people to die; it is indirect killing. Some self-media, for marketing effect, disregard readers' lives and entirely ignore that readers lacking judgment may, after listening to their highly misleading remarks, abandon standard treatment and die. Such conduct is highly unethical and may even be illegal.
Now some widely followed self-media operating under the banner of TCM are simply talking nonsense against their consciences. I do not know whether these authors are themselves too shallow in learning and experience, or deliberately do it for traffic. I cannot stop these people; their influence is far greater than mine, and most audiences trust them more, so there is nothing I can do. I can only write articles to remind readers who are fated to read them to be more rational and not to believe over-dogmatic remarks.
The power of medicine is very limited; neither modern nor traditional medicine is a god. My personal life experience tells me that nothing miraculous in this world is trustworthy. The real world is imperfect. When we study physics, we often note that physical models do not exist in the objective world, and that various theories and hypotheses await verification. This is precisely the endearing quality of modern science: it honestly admits its own problems. TCM and religion have some less endearing aspects - infinite deification and exaggeration.
I personally work hard to study TCM, modern medicine, and biology. Although my natural talent is limited and my level in all three is mediocre, I have nonetheless gained some benefit from them. Each has its merits; the ideal is to贯通 them together and raise the accuracy and safety of clinical practice. It is wrong to artificially label the three with prejudiced tags.
We know that Aristotle once held that in free fall, a heavier object reaches the ground before a lighter one. Only over a thousand years after his death did Galileo overturn this view through experiment. Einstein said Galileo opened the door to modern physics; in fact, Galileo opened more than the door to modern physics - he opened the door to all of modern science. Whether any theory or view is right or wrong must be verified by experiment and supported by reliable data. Otherwise we will be kidnapped by false "intuition" and become slaves to fallacy.
Every field of the life sciences has much to offer. If one aspires to study medicine and save lives, one should keep pace with the times, not hold to outdated rules, and treat every branch of the life sciences with an impartial attitude. In daily work one should cultivate scientific habits and spirit, valuing evidence and statistical data. With such an attitude toward study and work, our world opens far wider; we can offer patients more help, make fewer mistakes, and work with a clearer conscience. Human life is supremely precious, weightier than a thousand pieces of gold; if our prejudice and misguidance cause some patients to die prematurely, would that not be a sin?