Medical Studies

[AdmiralJim]

Hi there,
I have training in western medicine and I am curious if there have been any randomised control studies conducted using Tibetan Medicine. I know studies have been done regarding certain chinese medical treatments. for instance the efficacy of chinese acupuncture in rheumatic conditions has been well verified.

[Malcolm]

Hi there,
I have training in western medicine and I am curious if there have been any randomised control studies conducted using Tibetan Medicine. I know studies have been done regarding certain chinese medical treatments. for instance the efficacy of chinese acupuncture in rheumatic conditions has been well verified.

They have done some, both in China and India (Ayurveda).


But things like the three dośas, which are fundamental to Tibetan Medicine as Ayurveda are phenomenological ways of looking health i.e. you cannot identify a substance in the body called pitta. Translating it as bile is innacurate, since as we know, bile is an alkaline substance which neutralize stomach acids in the small intestine. But pitta, which is considered to be the heat of the body, primarily, has various functions which frankly, you can't observe. All you can do is observe, "they have this theory. Based on the this theory, are the treatment outcomes effective or not for the conditions they are treating".

[AdmiralJim]

Thanks for getting back to me. do you have any links? as i would be interested in reading them. i understand what you are saying but with randomised control studies only the treatment itself is analysed compared to say placebo - so the theoretical basis for the underlying pathology is unimportant. for instance in bipolar disorder ( as most mental illness ) the biochemical mechanisms are not well understood but studying the effects of anti-epileptics for mood stablisation purposes have been well documented in studies. in fact before lithium in the 1970s there were no effective western treatments for bipolar disorder.
the rheumatic studies i mentioned used chinese acupuncture for treatment of osteoarthritis in the spine, the only thing that was looked at was whether the treatment was effective in reducing pain, obviously from a chinese medicine stand point the doctors using it understood the treatment from their pathophysiological viewpoint and the western doctors viewed the pain reduction from the standpoint of the gate theory of pain. ultimately the view was unimportant because the treatment worked!
i mention randomised control studies because they are the most impartial as those who analyse the data do not know which treatment each person received so it is less biased.
thanks
J

[edearl]

On TV I saw the Tibetan medicine treatment of a woman with a bad cavity. The doctor heated a small iron to red hot and pushed it into the cavity to clean out the rotting tooth. She had no anesthesia. It appeared to be brutal, but she was unperturbed. It seemed like an acceptable treatment, but my meditation is not strong enough to withstand that kind of pain, yet.

[AdmiralJim]

I understand what you are saying edearl and i am glad we live in an era of aneasthesia but there are western medical practices which will appear brutal it is a matter of viewpoint, for instance endoscopies going into the stomach are given with light sedation or numbing throat spray in 50 years time it will be viewed as brutal. and within my generations time even western medicine has changed for example for tumours of the breast in the 1970s the only treatment was radical mastectomy which involved cutting away the breast and underlying muscle tissue, thankfully this has changed to relatively minor cancerous lump removal in those patients where the cancer is small enough because of the advances made in radiotherapy and chemotherapy, so it is merely a matter of perspective

[edearl]

I understand what you are saying edearl and i am glad we live in an era of aneasthesia but there are western medical practices which will appear brutal it is a matter of viewpoint, for instance endoscopies going into the stomach are given with light sedation or numbing throat spray in 50 years time it will be viewed as brutal. and within my generations time even western medicine has changed for example for tumours of the breast in the 1970s the only treatment was radical mastectomy which involved cutting away the breast and underlying muscle tissue, thankfully this has changed to relatively minor cancerous lump removal in those patients where the cancer is small enough because of the advances made in radiotherapy and chemotherapy, so it is merely a matter of perspective

Yes, but one researcher reported excellent anesthesia from meditation--endorphins are powerful. I just had started meditating about a week before I found the article shown below. I am confident that I will no longer need hydrocodone.

http://www.wakehealth.edu/News-Releases ... s_Pain.htm

[AdmiralJim]

Hi, earl. I am well aware of the benefits of meditation with particular focus on pain reduction. it is my hope that when i have completed my dharma training programme that i will be able to offer tuition in meditation in the palliative care unit at my local hospital. in the good old spirit of the national health service everything will be free of charge too but i know it is going to be a bureaucratic nightmare to get started, i also need to try and get more people involved because i know i am going to be overrun otherwise but i still think it is a good idea

[Tara]

Polite reminder.

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Regards,