Chinese Diagnosis -- A Practical Road Map (40)

Chinese Diagnosis -- A Practical Road Map

Medical diagnosis, whether Eastern or Western, must fulfill three requirements as follows: objectivity, rationality, and connection with a practical treatment method.

Objectivity
How can you be objective in diagnosis? You must employ your senses rather than your imagination. A health problem is usually observable and detected by your senses of sight, touch, hear and smell. If an illness is not easily observable, you should ask plenty of questions to see how the patient feels. A physician who asks few questions misses a lot of valuable information.

In Chinese medicine, there is the golden rule of observe, listen, question, and pulse read 「望聞問切」. This means we have to detect the illness with our senses in the first place. Then we do the last step of pulse read. Pulse reading cannot give you a definitive picture as the three steps of observe, listen, and question combined, but it can serve to confirm what you have detected with your senses. For more details about pulse reading, please see my video "Popular Misconceptions".

Despite all its myths, Chinese medicine never suggests using the sixth sense or imagination in diagnosis, for that is violating the principle of objectivity.

Rationality
A health problem manifests itself in complicated ways. What seems apparent from your senses, and what the patient tells you may not be real. This is where rationality comes in. You must be able to distill the real problem from the aberrations with your reasoning. In other words, your diagnosis should make good common sense. It should explain the causes and effects of an illness. Rationality helps to prevent a wrong diagnosis obtained from the five senses. Objectivity improves the chances of a correct diagnosis.

The requirement of rationality also applies to Western medicine where heavy emphasis is placed on the machine for diagnosis. We should never replace human judgment with a machine. The physician should always examine and interpret the results produced by a machine.

Connection with Treatment
A good diagnosis must connect to a practical treatment method. What good does it do if the physician says you have an illness but offers no practical treatment?

The herbalist should avoid abstract diagnosis, clichés or jargons. Why? If he is well versed in herbs he should know that most Chinese herbs have non-abstract and specific effects on body, organs and conditions. An abstract diagnostic result will fail to connect to the herbs. That means the chances of getting the right herbs for treatment are greatly reduced.

To cite an example, many herbalists like to use the Yin Yang imbalance, or Yin deficiency as a diagnostic result. This is not a diagnostic result at all, because any non-professional (including my grandma) can use this phrase to explain any kind of illness, and worse, gets away with it. It lacks specifics, objectivity, and rationality. It is only a cliché and a jargon used in everyday conversations. Most importantly, it does not connect to the herbs for an effective treatment. The herbal dictionary provides no herbs that specifically restore the balance between Yin and Yang. However, if the diagnosis pinpoints weak kidneys, overactive liver, or weak blood circulation, etc, there will be plenty of herbs that can be selected from the dictionary.

Dos and Don'ts in Chinese Diagnosis
• Use your five senses to detect a problem.
• Ask the patient many questions about how he feels.
• Pulse read to confirm your judgment.
• Use good reasoning to arrive at the correct diagnosis.
• For conditions that require Western diagnosis, borrow the results but make sure you know how to interpret them.
• Make sure the diagnostic result connects to the herbs for treatment.

• Don't use your sixth sense. You're not a witch doctor.
• Don't use your imagination.
• Don't use clichés or jargons.
• Don't scare or confuse your patient with a far-fetched, creative, or abstract diagnosis.

Please go to www.herbsandtea.com for further information.
Raw herbs and herbal capsules can be tailor-made for your conditions.

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[buzzaw77]

The way I see medicine is that it exists for the simple purpose of improving someones condition of health. Wherever the system of medicine comes from it has this intention, and it has a repertoire of tools to achieve this. In Chinese you have herbs, acupuncture etc. In western, drugs, machines etc. I also think that whatever tools are being used there exists a best possible use of them for a persons body condition. The diagnosis method should arrive at the best possible use.

[buzzaw77]

What you say in this video makes a lot of sense. If the steps you follow to make a diagnosis do not lead you to specific herbs, what's the point in making a diagnosis at all? There is no point in that case, you may as well just put the names of herbs in a hat and test your luck with the first 10 drawn.