| Western Medicine has the ability to work with the body in
ways that are both life saving and enhancing. It is best for crisis
intervention and the last few months of life. It is sickness care
more than wellness care.
Traditional Oriental Medicine has a proven track record of dealing with issues of health and aging as well as quality of life. It is wellness care as it focuses on the quality of life and the preservation of the health that we have. While each is complete in its self, the combination benefits the health of individuals in ways that neither could do alone. Both are necessary in today's modern society. One of the issues involved in the debate of Oriental Medicine verses Western Medicine is that of language. Western Medicine has classified diseases and disorders using a nomenclature of greek and latin word describing the body's structure. Oriental Medicine uses words to describe the characteristics of the systems in the body and their disorders and disharmonies. Meteorological terminology is used to describe conditions and pathogens. While it would be nice to use a common terminology, it will need to arise as both system work side by side. For example, what Western Medicine calls bronchitis, Oriental Medicine divides into at least two major divisions according to the perception of heat by the person and the physical symptoms that they exhibit. For example, Damp Heat in the Lungs has the symptoms of difficult expectoration, feelings of heat even if no fever is present, possible sweating, yellow colored phlegm as well as several other signs. Phlegm accumulation in the lungs has the symptoms of copious, clear, foamy phlegm, feelings of coldness, chills, difficulty in keeping warm, condition exacerbated by coldness. Western Medicine does not make such a distinction and would treat both with similar medications. Oriental Medicine would treat each according to the symptoms, warming the cold phlegm to dry it out as well as warming the person to make them more comfortable and cooling and thinning the hot phlegm to enable expectoration as well as cooling the person. Another point of difference is that of cultural sensitivity. Several
years ago in Orange county California, some school officials saw what they
thought was child abuse in some of the Vietnamese students. They
rightfully called the authorities and started a discovery process that
changed Orange county and California. The parents were using Gua-Sha
on their children to help them with colds. Cultural healing may be
different and is not necessarily dependent on the culture. While
some people believe that Oriental Medicine is useful to the Asian community
alone, the application of acupuncture to animal brings this point
of view into question. Indeed, recently in California, a legislator
stated that this was indeed a culturally sensitive pain relief. With
this argument, the western culture's chosen technique of pain control is
alcohol and drugs.
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