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Compare And Contrast Western Medicine And Chinese Medicine

Decent Essays

It is important to grasp that one cannot understand Traditional Chinese Medicine by trying to explain it in Western scientific or medical terms. The ancient Chinese physicians developed a system of medicine that has survived for over three thousand years. Chinese medicine is complete within itself but that it is based on physiological concepts, theories regarding cause of disease, methods of diagnosis, and principles of treatment that are completely different from the western way of viewing the body.
One way to understand how two medical systems can view the body differently without one system being “right” and the other system being “wrong” is to use the analogy of a map. For example, compare a road map and a topographical map of the city of Waco. Both maps represent the same area, but they do so in very different ways. As long as both maps are based on accurate information, serve as useful tools for their intended purposes, and have been created with self-consistent logic, …show more content…

Western medicine is like the road map. Depending on the size and scale of the map, a road map can offer very detailed representation of countries, states, counties, cities, neighborhoods, and even individual buildings. If you were using a map to select the shortest route to an appointment across town, you would choose one with quite a small scale and then you would disregard parts of the map that did not pertain the roads and highways that you plan to use. This is similar to the way that Western medicine views the body – as a collection of distinct parts (organs, tissues, cells) that can be taken apart and considered in isolation. Diagnosis and treatment of disease in Western medicine involves using signs, symptoms, and various diagnostic tests to pinpoint the disordered part(s) of the body and then counteract these signs and symptoms with medications, surgery, or other

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