There are no magic bullets. Western Medicine always has a latest and greatest treatment or wonder drug, but often they are laden with side effects. Western Medicine often has the best of intentions, and the worst of results. A good analogy to relate it to is to think of your body as a garden. If the soil is weak, the seeds sown won’t grow well. If the garden is fertilized and watered, the seeds can grow strong and bloom into healthy plants. And seeds don’t become healthy plants overnight. If we develop our soil – through proper diet, exercise, stress management, and with the help of acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine – the seeds of good health can come to fruition.
The formula for improving health isn’t complicated. We make it so, with our reliance on Western Medicine to fix things through drugs and surgical techniques. There is a place for those, but often times, unless we have a life-threatening problem, they should be the secondary choice, and the primary choice should be either Chinese Medicine by itself, or an Integrated Medicine.
In Chinese Medicine, it is said there are three classes of Doctors: The lowest class use drugs and surgery to treat people; the middle class of Doctors use Chinese Medicine to treat people’s symptoms; and the highest class of Doctor not only use Chinese Medicine to treat symptoms, but educate people so that they can take care of their own health, and can develop better health, which would allow them to realize more of their innate human potential. This is the type of Doctor I aspire to be.
