The answer to this is pretty simple. They really do not know enough of what Chinese medicine is and what it can do. They may have ideas and opinions, but most likely they do not have well educated facts.
Doctor’s are human beings, with only so much time to research and investigate all the different treatment options that exist. Chinese medicine is a vast topic, covering pretty much all aspects relating to ones health. We could never expect every Doctor of western medicine to be up to speed on it.
Doctor’s of western allopathic medicine will only recommend therapies to their patients that they are comfortable with. The usual route for developing comfort is through the publication of modern research. Since Chinese medicine is, for the most part, empirically based – meaning it has a long history of Doctors passing down their own experiences, writing and sharing their clinical results – then it represents a different way than the average western Doctor uses to develop faith in a given remedy.
Sure there are many many modern research papers written on the Chinese medical treatment of such things as eczema, or psoriasis. Many of them showing good result, with good safety. It is just that the methodology used to research Chinese medicine has to be different than that for bio-chemical treatments. Chinese medicine’s strength is not only in the herbs, it is in the actual way that the Doctor aproaches the problem itself. Chinese medicine is completely based on the presentation of the individual at hand, rather than the “one-drug-fits-all-for-this-one-disease” approach of modern biomedicine.
Thus the experiences of older, very experienced, Doctors of Chinese medicine are seen as more important than any research. For it is only through time and experience, and often a lot of it, that one can learn to master the art of individualized treatments.
This is usually the major stumbling block for western Doctors learning Chinese medicine. It is just too hard to shift from the level of thinking that they have developed. It is much easier to just learn how to diagnose eczema, give a steroidal cream, and send the patient home. It is much more difficult to diagnose a patient’s eczema in ways that differs from anyone elses, write up a herbal formula that may contain 16 different herbs from a list of maybe a thousand different options – with each herb having very unique dosages within the formula, and then monitor the patient every two weeks so as to continually modify the original formulation so that it continually meets the changing patients needs. This is surely no easy task, especially for the already overworked GP who really has no extra time to study a new art – let alone read about Chinese medicine as an actual option.
Of course exceptions always exist. In North America there are many western trained physicians who are familiar with Chinese medicine’s success for certain health complaints, and do not have a problem referring on to someone qualified. In other parts of the world, like Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, and Austria I have friends that are actually high level western internal medicine Doctors working in busy hospital settings, who went back to school after an initial 10 year commitment to their western studies, to learn Chinese medicine themselves.
Why so much effort? Because they are dedicated physicians who care first and foremost for their patients health. They have heard about, read about, and seen first hand the beneficial results herbal medicines can achieve, they know very well the limitations of their own biomedicine, and so they made the switch. Many of the Doctors in these countries now use upwards of 95% herbal medicines with their patients. That is truly a fact worth remembering!
My mentor, Mazin Al Khafaji, actually visits hospitals in Switzerland on a regular basis, teaching them the art of Chinese medicine for dermatology and allergic disease. His teachings are well received and are now practiced by many. One can only hope that one day we to, here in North America, will also have hospitals using Chinese herbal medicines, offering a broader scope of options to the needy patient.
The best way to help your Doctor understand the benefits of Chinese herbal medicine is to share your experiences with them. If you have had success with herbal medicine for any complaint then tell your Doctor about it. Doctors want you to get better and they want to know what works. By sharing your experience, they become more knowledgeable to do further studies themselves, so that others may benefit.
Dr. Trevor Erikson
Copyright © 2019 Dr. Trevor Erikson