4000 Years of Chinese Traditional Medicine
Don't tell anyone, but I'm on a diet. You could call it the "iPhone diet" because I'm using one of the many applications (iTunes link) for my iPhone to track daily calorie intake. My plan is to eat whatever I want while accurately recording everything, which will help me identify the stuff I've been eating that's the most harmful. To help me out, my wife bought some bad-tasting medicine, saying, "Now, this is kampo, so it will definitely work." A word that literally means "Chinese way," kampo refers to the traditional herbal medicine of China, and it occupies an almost mythical place in the minds of the Japanese, in effect being a complete class of medical science that's separate from Western medicine. Many products, from energy drinks to various "enhancers" to Yomeshu (a kind of medicinal sake loaded with Chinese herbs) advertise themselves as making use of the magical power of kampo to relieve symptoms. Many kampo medicines have the full backing of the medical community here, and health insurance even covers them. In the U.S., however, traditional Chinese medicines are completely ignored by almost every major company. It'd be interesting if there were some really effective drugs sitting right under our noses that have been in use in China for thousands of years.
posted by Peter in Japan at 8:07 PM
5 Comments:
Ug, I remember growing up and having that stuff shoved down my throat by my mother whenever I got sick. No matter what kind it was, it always tasted terrible and to this day I can't bring myself to swallow any of it.
2:00 AM
an interesting approach, with the iPhone app. my concern would be how to accurately measure reastaurant meals for caloric intake.
4:25 AM
You need to listen to some Skeptic's Guide to the Universe shows that cover these types of cures. Chinese medicine, homeopathy, chiropracty, etc. That will cure you of seeking out such cures.
When they talk about being scientific in any of these, it usually means everything makes perfect sense when based on a set of beginning premises. If examined, the beginning premises are wrong.
The fact that some health insurance groups, private or run by some government, have been swindled into covering such things is not proof that they work. If one wished to be charitable, you would say that even officials who should know better can be mislead or steered by pressure of the market even when they know better. If you wanted to be less than charitable, you could say it's cheaper to pay for this stuff than medicines and procedures that actually work.
5:26 AM
Timo, in the U.S. you've got it easier since there are a lot of databases you can load, well two or three anyway, including one that has specific meals from a few dozen restaurants in it. Here in Japan I have to be more careful, since no database has exotic Japanese foods. On the plus side, most Japanese restaurants print calories for their meals in the menu. *Why* don't they do this in the U.S.?
Tudza, I'm sure there's some quackery, of course. I wonder how closely monitored the kampo medicines are. But I wouldn't be surprised if there were some valid medicines hiding in the kampo tradition, it'd be cool to find them.
10:36 AM
Kampo is the traditional Japanese herbal medicine originated from China. But it is very different from modern traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) practiced in China. In fact, Japanese do not care to share their one of the best kept secret with other people at all. More than 70% Japanese physicians write prescriptions of Kampo to treat their patients daily. If kampo is inferior and dangerous, do you think anyone in Japan would use it or take it? Herbal medicines take care more 80% of world population nowadays. If you have a chance to visit any medical school in Japan, you will find Kampo medicine has been listed in the curriculum of almost every school. I am not trying to say Kampo is better or worse than western medicine here. Yet you may enjoy music by Elvis, Tchaikovsky, and the Beatles. Tell me which is better?
9:35 AM
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