Recent clashes between practitioners of Chinese and Western medicine have once again rekindled the usually dormant animosity that marks the uneasy coexistence of the two medical systems.
At the center of the debate is a figure whose personal story exemplifies the medical tug of war that has become increasingly heated since the ban on aristolochic acid, an herbal drug commonly used in Chinese medicine, on Nov 4.
Wang Yun-kai (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"I began taking the drug in October of 2001 because I was always tired, and I realized that the aristolochic acid in the drug had damaged my kidneys by July of 2002," Wang stated.
When Wang gave voice to his personal experience at a Veterans' General Hospital workshop on herbal poisoning, he received both applause and accusations.
Doctors representing the National Chinese Medicine Association accused him of inaccurately portraying the effects of aristolochic acid, while others welcomed Wang's support in the effort to ban the acid.
Firestorm
Wang's testimony, along with the ban on aristolochic acid, sparked a chain of subsequent attacks on both Chinese and Western medicine in the following week, culminating with Veterans' General Hospital doctor Wu Ming-ling (
The said events highlight the politics that move beneath the surface of medical treatment. "Western medicine has a history of about 200 years, which is a small slice of Chinese medical history," Wang said, "Nevertheless, Western medicine more or less dominates the field."
Cheng Ping-sheng (
Deng Jou-fan (
"They do not want doctors of Western medicine to research Chinese drugs, but when the use of Chinese medicine leads to an emergency situation, patients come to us," Deng protested.
Commenting on the two different points of view, Chairman of the Department of Health's (DOH) Committee on Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy Lin I-hsin (
Holistic approach
"Chinese medicine is often accused of being unscientific because it does not offer numerical evidence," Lin acknowledged.
"However, the fundamental theory behind Chinese medicine is that the human body is like a small universe in and of itself, and treatment therefore focuses on the whole. Western medicine on the other hand was established under the microscope, and generally focuses on the individual parts that make up the whole," Lin said.
"As a result, the nature of the drugs used by Chinese and Western-medicine practitioners is also quite dissimilar. While Western drugs generally only have one primary chemical component, Chinese drugs are usually a combination of several different substances, underscoring a holistic approach to treatment," Lin said.
Lin touched on one of the key points raised by Chinese-medicine practitioners in response to charges that Chinese drugs are unsafe -- does the Western scientific method used to determine the harmful effects of a Chinese drug take into account how Chinese medicine is practiced?
"All medicine is poisonous to some degree. It is how the medicine is used that determines its benefit," Wang emphasized.
Chen Yi-tai (
`Unscientific'
As expected, Western medicine doctors disagreed. According to Deng, it is the responsibility of the Chinese-medicine doctors to clearly lay out how a drug should be used, for how long, and the possible side effects. "Chinese medicine needs to become more scientific if it is to be safe," he said.
The accusation of being unscientific is ironically the same complaint that Chinese-medicine doctors have raised against Western-medicine doctors. Wu's blanket statement that Chinese drugs can lead to liver damage was disputed by the National Union Association of Chinese Medical Doctors specifically because they felt it was not an evidence-based, thoroughly scientific conclusion.
Wu and other Western-medicine doctors were accused of prematurely calling Chinese drugs unsafe before enough bedside diagnostic tests had been performed, unfairly tarnishing Chinese medicine.
However, there are also commercial motives involved, fueling the race to be more scientific. "The reason why Western medicine has the upper hand in the playing field is simply because there are more Western pharmaceutical companies. A lot of times doctors are merely dispensers of medicine," Wang said.
Deng also admitted that science sells, explaining that consumers would be unwilling to use Chinese medicine if it remained unable to develop an appropriate technology of medicinal management. "Before Western drugs are sold, there is a standard process for determining appropriate usage. The drugs are clearly labeled so that consumers know what they are getting. Chinese drugs will be unacceptable in today's society if they cannot cater to the needs of consumers," said Deng.
Government role is important
Meanwhile, it becomes clear that the government's management of Chinese drugs is crucial to both the pressure to become more scientific and the commercial incentives that underlie it.
"The DOH's control of Chinese drugs is too loose. They do not want to upset Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certified companies, but we need stricter management," Wang said.
According to Lin, the DOH established a medical center in Chang Gung Memorial hospita in 2001 to monitor Chinese medicine. "The center brings together Chinese-medicine doctors, pharmacognosy experts, epidemiologists, and poison control experts in an effort to build an organized database of information on Chinese drug poisoning," Lin said.
Lin concluded that Chinese and Western medicine both have advantages and disadvantages, pointing out that both are covered by the National Health Insurance; patients should choose appropriate treatment methods depending on their illness.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
RSS