Re: Chinese traditional or western medicine?

On 27 Feb 2006 20:08:22 -0800, "rst0wxyz@xxxxxxxxx"
<rst0wxyz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I don't know which you are from but lets say you are from Hongkong,
Taipeh, Singapore or Malaysia, or any of trhe larger cities in North
America and Europe with big Chinatwons where traditional Chinese
medicine is still common, finding a traditional herbal practioner and
finding a herbal shop is not too hard.

Like pluto said, San Jose. Yes, finding quacks are easy, in San Jose
as well as any other city.

I grew up in SE Asia during the 50s when much of the old world was
still around. I can only relate what I saw and experienced myself.
Modern life does not encourage those old altruistic practices to
survive, and yes, there are a lot of charlatans in the Chinese herbal
scene. Even mainland Chinese have clued into this lucrative market.
They are totally unregulated and every now and then there will be a
high profile case where a manufacturer of pills or concoctions would
be found to have included a poison in his formulation.

Consulting a herbal practioner is something you would have done with
your parents since childhood and taking the herbal medications
something you have done from that time too. That experience I
enjoyed

My experience were different from yours. I found it awful, taste ugly
and difficult to take.

Yup. I remember that foul tasting black stuff. Oddly enough my
memory of it now is the tangy aftertaste, much like dried orange
skins, and my saliva is already running.

In the same vein even the most ignorant peasant
would have acquired whatever knowledge he/she has of herbal remedies
from parents or kinfolk. To them that knowledge is a matter of life
and death and carefully passed down from elder to younger.

The womenfolk I knew knew what they wanted in herbal medicines and
could describe their properties. It was mumbo jumbo to me then. I
hear the same struff today which means they learnt the offcical
explanations and did not make it up themselves.

I lived in rural China for the first 11 years of my life, and I found
they know nothing of herbal remedies, only what we currently called "
old wives tales" about sickness and its cures. When they get sick,
they die.

Like you, when I was much younger, I was angry at our poverty and
backwardness. But this was what we were born into and for a long time
there was no way to alleviate it then. This is why I am so proud of
China now. We are no longer the underdogs. We don't owe anyone
anything to come to where China is today.


I returned to the village where I was born in China in 2003,
I found they lived pretty much the same as in the 1940's. When they
get sick, they die. When my taxi arrived at the village, I asked for a
person I used to go to school with in those days. I was told by his
wife that he had died 10 years ago. That would make it to his late
fifties when he died.

Also, I was in Beijing last November, 2005. On a tour to the Ming Tomb
and the Great Wall, the bus stopped by a herbal institute where we were
given a lecture on Chinese herbal medicine. At the end, we were all
given a demo or sales pitch. This herbal "doctor" took my pulse and
asked me whether I have any illness. I said "no", but I have high
blood pressure. He said "for high blood pressure, we have item "A"
which would lower your high blood pressure. It only cost US$35.00 for
a month supply". I said "my doctor prescribed these blue pills. It
only cost me US$10.00 for 3 1/2 month supply". He said our herbal
medicine has no side effect. I said these pills has no side effect,
either. Besides, I don't have to boi itl all day to get it.


Sounds like a honest to goodness tourist trap con man. I take this
with a chuckle for it shows that Chinese are as smart as the white guy
in separating people from their money. The important thing is that
you were also smart enough not to take his con. This is what I try to
promote in my posts, to provide the information so that people can
think better and spot scams when they come across one.
.

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