An Argument About Alternative Medicine

I dunno man, I don't want to sound rude but it doesn't sound like you have much to back up that statement. I know it's standard to bash alternative medicine like TCM these days, but most of the people bashing these treatments just don't know that there's actually a boatload of scientific, clinical research that's been done on TCM.

Most people who oppose TCM are rational, scientific-minded people who suspect that there's no scientific basis for the practice. I worked full-time as a health and medicine research author and have been a proponent of both Western and Eastern medicine.

Each have their benefits, each have their drawbacks. Neither are inherently better than the other, and certainly neither of them should be consisdered quackery. Perhaps it'd help if I shared my perspective and some western-styled clinical research on TCM.

Just because something functions differently than we're used to doesn't mean that it's quackery, especially when faced with evidence-based research, clinical trials, and double-blind studies proving its efficacy. Acupuncture, for example, was considered completeely fraudulent just a decade ago. Now it's widely acknowledged in the scientific community as being an acceptable complementary - or even primary - treatment, even if they haven't figured out 'how' it works yet..

I think a lot of the reason that there's so much hate on TCM is because people expect that they'll be able to cure diseases with it, and are disappointed when they find out that they can't. Or, because of shitty social media hype and clickbait marketing, people think TCM doctors are promising that they can 'cure cancer' or 'prevent aging,' or 'make your penis grow 5 inches with this one magic herb,' WHICH NO (self-respecting) TCM DOCTOR IS EVER GOING TO TELL YOU.

TCM does not work in the same way as allopathic medicine. It's like comparing the sun to the moon. Both have their place.

The main difference that jars people is that TCM not a one-pill-fix-all system. It never claimed to be, and ironically this is still why people discredit it. If a TCM doctor is selling you a one-fix-all-system, then yes, they're quacks. However, when approached as a complementary medicine or used in conjunction with Western medicine, you'd probably be surprised to see what sort of research has been done on TCM.

Not trying to sound rude, but it seems that your opinion of TCM was built on hearsay rather than actual research and conclusion. Which is fair. It takes a while for stigmas to disappear, especially when they surround something as important as medicine.

Regardless, here's a few studies proving that TCM is not quackery.

• Here's a double-blind study showing that asthmatic patients who received acupuncture showed significantly more short and long-term improvement in their clinical symptoms than the placebo group. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17165494
• Patients with non-small lung cancer were given either 3 treatments with astragalus polysaccharide as well as vinorelbin and cisplatin, or simply the two medications. The group taking the astragalus extract showed clinically signiifcant reductions in pain, vomiting, nausea, and fatigue, while showing clinically significant improvements in their physical function and overall well-being. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21928106
• The TCM formula emodin inhibits dendritic maturation and helps the body produce more T cells, used to help patients who are struggling with liver transplants. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22020806
• A study on the use of acupuncture and TCM decoction for treating psoriasis. The control group showed no improvement, 57% of the group receiving acupuncture and decoction showed a decrease in symptoms. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25022114
• This study observes how a TCM formula can induce apoptosis in lung cancer cells in vitro. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6714142/
• Here a clinical trial that was done by combining TCM while accommodating the rigorous standards of Western medicine. One study group used a TCM formula and the other group used a pharmaceutical. Both groups found relief from their symptoms. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01293734

I could go on but I honestly doubt anyone's actually reading this.

Don't get me wrong man, I'm a healthy skeptic myself and I used to think TCM was hoo-ha. Unfortunately, I had to shed that old belief once the evidence started stacking up.

Does it work every time? Obviously not, TCM might have you try out 3-4 different formulas - just like your doctor might get you try out 3-4 different antidepressants before finding one that works.

Has every TCM formula been tested? No - that'll never happen because the development of medicine and methods employed in TCM don't fit snugly in the constraints of allopathic medicine. People are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and then accuse the square peg of being a shitty circle.

However, there's more than enough evidence available to make it pretty clear that TCM isn't quackery, and as more research is done, it's becoming more obvious.

If you've been to China, you might have seen the TCM doctors working alongside allopathic doctors in the hospitals. Rather than bickering about which form of medicine is better, they both recognize that each is valuable in its own right and that they complement each other rather than oppose each other.