TCM eye for the Western-med guy
Sorry if this article has already been mentioned. Looking through some other threads, I thought it may be an interesting read; both for those that fall more in support of TCM and those that think it's mostly unscientific nonsense.
Chris Kresser, L.Ac. wrote a series of articles that explain TCM from a Western-med POV. Here's the intro:
Quote:
What if I told you that nearly everything we’ve been taught in the West about how Chinese medicine works isn’t accurate? What if I told you that Chinese medicine isn’t a woo-woo, esoteric “energy medicine” at all, but instead a functional, “flesh and bones” medicine based on the same basic physiology as western medicine? And what if I told you I could explain the mechanisms of Chinese medicine in simple, familiar terms that any eight year-old could understand and even the most skeptical, conservative doctor couldn’t argue with?
The “energy meridian” model that has become the default explanation of Chinese medicine US is not only out of sync with our modern, scientific understanding of the body – it’s also completely inconsistent with classical Chinese medical theory. In other words, we’ve made up our own western version of Chinese medicine that has little to do with how it was understood and practiced since it began more than 3,000 years ago in China.
In Parts I – III of the series, I explain how the mistaken “energy meridian” model of understanding acupuncture came to prominence in the US, and I replace it with a model that is more historically accurate and consistent with modern science. Part IV summarizes what we know about how acupuncture contributes to healing from a biomedical perspective, and Part V goes into more detail about how acupuncture relieves pain. Finally, in Part VI I discuss the advantages of acupuncture and Chinese medicine over western medicine as a primary healthcare modality.
I hope you enjoy the series!
Here are the links:
For those of you that aren't familiar with Chris Kresser, he's a Licensed Acupuncturist (L.Ac.) that writes topics primarily focused around nutrition and general health. I've been reading his blog for a number of years now and I think he does a good job of cutting through the bullsh!t while sticking heavily to science and relying on science as evidence. This is why his site (before he went professional and got his license and stuff) used to be called "The Healthy Skeptic".
Overall, I really liked this series of articles and found it very interesting as an aspiring TCM student. One thing I wish he went in to more detail on was the explaination of Qi. (Though perhaps this lecture will do that? I haven't watched it yet)
