Recently, I have been studying and researching "Emergency Medicine of Traditional Chinese Medicine". This is the national planning textbook of traditional Chinese medicine in general higher education, that is, the textbook that teachers should teach students to learn in the national colleges of traditional Chinese medicine and universities of traditional Chinese medicine.
The book is very thin, but it also records many theories and methods of TCM emergency and first aid. After reading it carefully, the more I learned, the more I felt that something was wrong. There are many thoughts and understandings, write them down and communicate with you.
I have been studying Chinese medicine for more than 20 years, and I have read hundreds of Chinese medicine books. Compared with Western medicine (modern medicine), the advantage of traditional Chinese medicine lies in the holistic concept and syndrome differentiation and treatment, and in the treatment of diseases for which Western medicine does not have specific treatments. This is the consensus of the Chinese medicine community, and it is also the basis for the development and promotion of Chinese medicine.
Traditional Chinese medicine is broad and profound, of course, there is also emergency medicine, and there is a lot of content, and many ancient books have recorded the first aid methods of Chinese medicine. The problem is that these contents and methods were all produced in ancient times when science was backward and medicine was underdeveloped, and they were forced to deal with them at that time. Such as war wounds, fractures, trauma, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular accidents, pain, obstetric dystocia, high fever, pediatric convulsions, although there is therapy, but the effect is not good, and does not meet the modern diagnosis and treatment standards. To put it mildly, it's just a dead horse being a live horse doctor.
"The Yellow Emperor's Neijing" is the earliest and most widely circulated classic of Chinese medicine, there have been some emergencies, such as "syncope", which is equivalent to the current stroke, "true heartache", equivalent to modern myocardial infarction, the book is only a preliminary writing of some Chinese medicine understanding, and there is no treatment drug.
Zhang Zhongjing of the Eastern Han Dynasty is known as the saint of medicine, and his "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases" has also been passed down through the ages. The book describes high fever, hemorrhage, stroke (cerebrovascular accident), and "convulsion" (the equivalent of shock in modern medicine), and also gives prescriptions and medicines. However, in today's developed and prosperous modern medicine, and in today's rapid development of Western medicine and emergency medicine, there is no much significance and value. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a historical relic.
The shortcomings and disadvantages of Chinese medicine are in surgery, obstetrics, and emergency medicine. Of course, the ancients cannot be blamed for this, after all, historical conditions and scientific standards do not allow it. We should face up to and face the shortcomings of Chinese medicine, not protect our shortcomings, and not deify and worship the ancients and Chinese medicine in everything.
For example, the "miracle doctor" Hua Tuo's major abdominal surgery, although it is recorded in history and ancient books, cannot withstand serious scrutiny. As long as people with medical knowledge know that major surgery is very difficult and complex, it is necessary to fight infection, stop bleeding, transfuse, have monitoring instruments, cooperate with multiple disciplines, and have a sterile environment...... These conditions could not exist at all in the late Eastern Han Dynasty where Hua Tuo lived. Therefore, Hua Tuo's major surgery is more like a legend and story. Hua Tuo scraped Guan Yu's bones to cure poison, which was just a "romance". Hua Tuo wants to treat Cao Cao's head stroke and craniotomy, which is just nonsense. Cao Cao didn't believe Hua Tuo, and it was a matter of course.
Ge Hong of the Jin Dynasty wrote "Elbow Reserve Emergency Prescription", which is the first emergency first aid manual in the history of traditional Chinese medicine. However, judging from the current level of medicine, it is too naïve and can only be used as a cultural heritage, not as a contemporary practical medical technology.
Sun Simiao, known as the "King of Medicine" (Chinese medicine likes to give people the title of god and king), wrote "Prepare for Emergencies", and many first aid techniques are also recorded in the book, as well as "catheterization", but the use of onion tubes to catheterize urinary is not a joke. We can only admire the spirit of the ancients who dared to innovate and save lives, as for the curative effect, it's just hehe.
The problem is that the modern Chinese medicine community still seriously studies these naïve ancient first aid techniques, and proves that there are really things and miracles. This can only be said to be the self-congratulatory and self-deception of the Chinese medicine industry.
From the beginning to the end, Chinese medicine has not formed a scientific obstetrics. Until the founding of the state, the mortality rate of women during childbirth was high. It is not an exaggeration for the ancients to regard women giving birth to children as passing through the ghost gate. Obstetrics, which involves dystocia, massive bleeding, severe infection, shock, heart failure, which cannot be solved by ancient Chinese medicine. Although there were many ancient famous doctors who studied obstetrics and wrote many obstetric works, it seems that there is no medical significance now.
Traditional Chinese medicine injection, which is a product of traditional Chinese medicine emergency and first aid, is actually very harmful. In another article of mine, I have written in detail about the unscientific, unsafe and non-compliant nature of TCM injections. China is the only country in the world that is using dangerous traditional Chinese medicine injections, and no other country recognizes it, let alone uses it. For thousands of years, traditional Chinese medicine has been used orally or externally, and if you have to inject traditional Chinese medicine into the blood vessels, I don't know what to think, and the protection of traditional Chinese medicine should not become the protection of traditional Chinese medicine, and it cannot be at the expense of the patient's health.
I'm not a black Chinese medicine doctor. I love Chinese medicine and have been committed to promoting it for a long time. However, we must be rational, learn from each other's strengths, and absorb the latest achievements of modern medicine. Any idea of deifying the ancients and worshipping Chinese medicine excessively is harmful and wrong, and it is irresponsible to the patient.
It is hoped that the Chinese medicine community will dig less ancient first aid techniques, study less Chinese medicine emergency medicine, do more practical things, think more about people's health, focus on difficult and chronic diseases with poor Western medical efficiency, and give full play to the advantages of Chinese medicine, instead of fully blooming and comparing everything with Western medicine.