For years, I had been skeptical of Asian medicine, but I have changed. This blog will explain why.
My first exposure to Asian medicine was back in about 1949 when I was in San Francisco with my uncle. He went to an Asian pharmacy to get something for some condition that he had. I don't know what it was. The guy behind the counter poured all kinds of leaves and seeds onto a sheet of paper and then folded it up in a very strange way. He said to make a tea out of this and drink a cup every day. My uncle came to our house with his herbs and made a cup of hot tea. We all had a taste and it was terrible. My uncle did drink a cup, but left the whole bunch of herbs at our house and left.
Latter, I got the herbs out and made another cup of tea and it was just as bad as the first. I think that part of the cure much have been a "test" to see if you were really sick by drinking the tea. The paper full of herbs stayed around the house for several months and we tasted it once in a while, but it never got better. I have no idea what was in it, but it was dark brown and very bitter. That experience turned me against Asian herb medicine until recently.
I did some research on Asian medicine and found that they have been using this technique for thousands of years. Some of it was very strange, but it seemed to work. The life expectancy of Asians is not that much less than ours and for Japanese, it is much longer. The other thing is that Asian medicine does not cost near as much as our western style medicine and that is a big plus. After this positive data on Asian medicine, I started thinking about how this could be that it was so cheap and simple yet as effective as our more expensive and complex western medicine.
Here is what I came up with. I know that some of the herbs are toxic and contain small amounts of the same ingredients that are in many of our western medicines, In some reports, the amount of the active ingredients is so small that some don't feel that it could possibly be effective, but I don't think that is how it works anyway. Here is what I think. Asian medicine focuses on the person "before" they are sick, while western medicine focuses on the person "after" they are sick. follow that? In most cases it is our natural immune system that fights off most sicknesses. That is why people who are strong and healthy are normally not sick and if they get sick, they get better naturally by their immune system. I think that most can agree on the above point.
If the immune system is the key, how do we encourage a stronger immune system? Think of lifting weights. Your plan is to build a stone wall in you back yard next summer so to prepare for that "work" by lifting weights ahead of time to strengthen your muscles. Simple idea, right? I feel it is the same with your immune system. It needs some kind of work out to strengthen it so that it can deal with a problem when it occurs. That is where the herbs come in. As I said, some of the herbs are actually toxic and if taken in large quantities could kill you. The idea is to take some of these toxic herbs in small quantities so that your immune system gets some needed exercise before it has to save your life.
In western medicine, we start with a weak immune system so it is not ready to deal with a bad problem. Western medicine thus, has to deal with the sickness after the horse is out of the barn and we know that takes a lot more effort and cost. I think that is the reason that our western medicine is so complex and costly because it does not take full advantage of our natural immune system. You know how powerful our natural immune system can be by when it goes wacky and causes a serious problem. That happens all the time and we need to understand that. Think of hay fever or allergies.
They are examples of how powerful our immune system is.
In this current Covid-19 epidemic, I think it is clear that we need to work to strengthen our immune system and that is what the vaccine is supposed to do. Why don't we hear more about how the Asian style of medicine that might be effective in dealing with Covid-19? Is there some kind of bias at work here? You tell me!
My first exposure to Asian medicine was back in about 1949 when I was in San Francisco with my uncle. He went to an Asian pharmacy to get something for some condition that he had. I don't know what it was. The guy behind the counter poured all kinds of leaves and seeds onto a sheet of paper and then folded it up in a very strange way. He said to make a tea out of this and drink a cup every day. My uncle came to our house with his herbs and made a cup of hot tea. We all had a taste and it was terrible. My uncle did drink a cup, but left the whole bunch of herbs at our house and left.
Latter, I got the herbs out and made another cup of tea and it was just as bad as the first. I think that part of the cure much have been a "test" to see if you were really sick by drinking the tea. The paper full of herbs stayed around the house for several months and we tasted it once in a while, but it never got better. I have no idea what was in it, but it was dark brown and very bitter. That experience turned me against Asian herb medicine until recently.
I did some research on Asian medicine and found that they have been using this technique for thousands of years. Some of it was very strange, but it seemed to work. The life expectancy of Asians is not that much less than ours and for Japanese, it is much longer. The other thing is that Asian medicine does not cost near as much as our western style medicine and that is a big plus. After this positive data on Asian medicine, I started thinking about how this could be that it was so cheap and simple yet as effective as our more expensive and complex western medicine.
Here is what I came up with. I know that some of the herbs are toxic and contain small amounts of the same ingredients that are in many of our western medicines, In some reports, the amount of the active ingredients is so small that some don't feel that it could possibly be effective, but I don't think that is how it works anyway. Here is what I think. Asian medicine focuses on the person "before" they are sick, while western medicine focuses on the person "after" they are sick. follow that? In most cases it is our natural immune system that fights off most sicknesses. That is why people who are strong and healthy are normally not sick and if they get sick, they get better naturally by their immune system. I think that most can agree on the above point.
If the immune system is the key, how do we encourage a stronger immune system? Think of lifting weights. Your plan is to build a stone wall in you back yard next summer so to prepare for that "work" by lifting weights ahead of time to strengthen your muscles. Simple idea, right? I feel it is the same with your immune system. It needs some kind of work out to strengthen it so that it can deal with a problem when it occurs. That is where the herbs come in. As I said, some of the herbs are actually toxic and if taken in large quantities could kill you. The idea is to take some of these toxic herbs in small quantities so that your immune system gets some needed exercise before it has to save your life.
In western medicine, we start with a weak immune system so it is not ready to deal with a bad problem. Western medicine thus, has to deal with the sickness after the horse is out of the barn and we know that takes a lot more effort and cost. I think that is the reason that our western medicine is so complex and costly because it does not take full advantage of our natural immune system. You know how powerful our natural immune system can be by when it goes wacky and causes a serious problem. That happens all the time and we need to understand that. Think of hay fever or allergies.
They are examples of how powerful our immune system is.
In this current Covid-19 epidemic, I think it is clear that we need to work to strengthen our immune system and that is what the vaccine is supposed to do. Why don't we hear more about how the Asian style of medicine that might be effective in dealing with Covid-19? Is there some kind of bias at work here? You tell me!
