Western Medicine ⁽¹⁶⁾

An elderly Western-medicine specialist, after developing malignant lymphoma, resolutely chose TCM treatment. An elderly TCM specialist, after developing esophageal cancer, resolutely abandoned TCM and chose Western medicine. These two old specialists—one was my patient, the other was the father of an online acquaintance. Having practiced…

When we face darkness, only we ourselves can rub our eyes bright and find the light. — Epigraph Having stayed long in cancer circles, I have gradually seen more long-surviving patients. These patients are fortunate, having lived on after cancer. Among them, certain regularities in…

I rarely involve myself in the dispute between Chinese and Western medicine, because that dispute, like disputes of faith, is unlikely through all the arguing to produce any result that changes either side's position. In other words, after all the back-and-forth, one finds one has…

Patients seeing Western doctors assume that one disease has one drug, and that taking it faithfully to the end will cure them; they assume TCM works the same way. If treating disease were this simple in TCM, it would be ideal. Unfortunately, it is not:…

Before I came to understand medicine deeply, I liked criticizing physicians' professional skill, like most people. After studying medicine for a while, I gradually realized those earlier comments were naive and ignorant. As of today, although human medicine appears advanced, in fact, compared with the…

In Chinese society, whenever someone with a stubborn illness is treated successfully, people like to call the doctor a “divine healer” (shenyi). The title is meant as praise, but for a serious physician it is actually a warning. A real doctor does not rely on…