Why people become ill? How to treat diseases?
Modern western medical science tends to believe that, the reason why people become ill is that the bacteria or viruses invade into the body. So how to treat diseases is simple: find a medicine to kill the microbes, or perform a surgery to remove the infected parts from the body.
One may argue that, why among the people who live in the same environment, some become ill, but others not?
Obviously, microbes or environmental factors are not the only factor that causes diseases. If you are strong enough, you will be invulnerable, and free from illness. So how to treat diseases is simple: find a way to make you strong, or find a way to regulate the system of your body. This is the thinking logic of traditional medical theories.
Which is closer to the truth – modern medical science or traditional medical science? On the level of thinking logic, we cannot say one is better than another.
From the ancient people came the concept that disease occurs when there is an imbalance of the humors, or that disease is caused by an imbalance between hot and cold principles. For example, in traditional Chinese medical theory, disease is caused by an imbalance between Yang and Yin, or Qi (life force) and Xue (blood).
So according to traditional medical theories, for health maintenance, or for disease treatment, the basic method is to regulate the system of the body, bring back the balance of the humors or principles.
How to detect and regulate the system of the body?
According to traditional medical science, a low metabolic rate signify one has a “cold” disease while “hot” conditions are characterized by a high metabolic rate. Typically, the symptoms of “cold” includes that the patient feels cold, and is under-functioning, weak, tired, and calm; the symptoms of “hot” includes that the patient feels hot, and is over-functioning, upset, irritable and hyperactive.
The goal of treatment is to restore the balance. Thus, “hot” diseases should be treated with “cold” or cooling medicine, and “cold” diseases should be treated with “hot” or warming medicine. For example, we can use “hot” or warming remedies, such as ginger, garlic to treat common cold, or cold pains in stomach.
How to detect a patient has “cold” or “hot” disease, and how to find a medicine or remedy is “cooling” or “warming”, is just a technical issue. Traditional medical science has been demonized by modern medical community for more than two hundred years. If we take the prejudgement out of our heads, this basic principle, from traditional medical science, of how to treat disease is still right, or at least is still valuable.
