…there’s a small subset of individuals that say that they are practicing what they call “Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine” (TCVM) on animals, including horses. They say that they’re practicing according to how the ancient Chinese practiced veterinary medicine on animals, practicing in a way that’s different from the unnatural, reductionist, drug- and surgery-filled “western” medicine that most veterinarians are taught. And in some sense, I’d say that they’re right; what they are doing is certainly different. And it also has essentially nothing to do with the way that the Chinese practiced veterinary medicine on animals throughout history.
“I am convinced that if we could tell the supernatural story of Christ word for word as of a Chinese hero, call him the Son of Heaven instead of the Son of God, and trace his rayed nimbus in the gold thread of Chinese embroideries or the gold lacquer of Chinese pottery, instead of in the gold leaf of our own old Catholic paintings, there would be a unanimous testimony to the spiritual purity of the story”
G.K.Chesterton
James Herriot has a passage in one of his books about going out to a farm to treat a sick horse. The farmer had been treating the horse by stuffing raw onions into its rectum. That’s pretty holistic, and maybe organic, too.
Would it be pronounced “horistic”? 😉
With all due respect, the author does not even read Chinese. He relies on translation of a few manuscripts, and now thinks of himself as an expert on Chinese veterinary medicine.
I know nothing about veterinary medicine, but I am somewhat familiar with Chinese medicine. The author is wrong in at least several respects.
He is probably right in that Chinese medicine probably has not advanced for hundreds of years. (Full disclosure, I am very biased in favor of Western medicine.) But in Chinese history, a hundred years is but a blink. The Manchu dynasty, started in 1644, is modern history. Books on medicine had been written at least as far back as 300 B.C., which none but scholars specializing in classics of that era can read now. But by the Tang dynasty at least (begun 600 A.D.) they had royal physicians who were well versed in all the books of medicine. I don’t believe there was such a thing as a school of medicine, but there were teachers (think of teacher/student relationship in Kungfu movies) and books. Many scholars dabbled in medicine. I have in my garage many Chinese medicine books left by my father.
He is wrong about Chinese medicine not being holistic. It is very holistic. Western medicine is based on the belief of perfect health as everything functioning as it should. Ill health is caused by something not functioning correctly, either as a result of internal problems or invasion by foreign microbes. Cure is effected by removing the cause of that malfunction. Chinese medicine is based on the belief that two opposing qi (literally air) exist in the body, and good health is when they are in balance. Ill health is caused by their imbalance. Cure is effected by promoting the lower qi, and suppressing the higher qi, until they are in balance. By now the names given the qi is probably familiar to everyone in the Western world, yin (dark, or cold) and yang (bright, or hot). Almost every Chinese housewife is taught which food is yin, which is yang, and which is neutral, and balance the meal accordingly. That is as holistic as all get out.
He is wrong about the points not being connected, in theory. They are connected by “meridians” in Chinese medicine. (In fact, the Chinese word for meridian is used for the blood vessels, artery is “active meridian”, and vein is “passive meridian”.) As far as I know, points and meridians are not really physical. But they correspond closely with actual blood vessels. Supposedly a team measured the skin conductivity over the whole body, and found higher conductivity where the points would be. Take that for what it is worth. I looked at one of the author’s manuscripts of Chinese veterinary medicine. It shows a horse, and all around the horse is a list of the horse’s points.
Not reading Chinese, and not understanding basic precepts in Chinese medicine, the author is hardly the expert on Chinese (veterinary or otherwise) medicine he thinks he is, to the point where he feels qualified to write a book on the subject.
Because I saw some Hollywood Actors doing it … I have decided to have my dog “cupped” … to “Cure” her hip displaysia. Yeah, I am shaving her, placing suction cups all over her body … burning incense, and chanting Buddhist prayers. I have complete faith in the healing techniques adopted by Hollywood actors … and pro athletes. … sarc. OFF … if you hadn’t noticed.
Interesting comments and the author doesn’t like climate deniers too much either, whatever a climate denier is supposed to be.
Anyone who quotes Chesterson … is my friend, and my intellectual superior.
I probably should better explain my 2 comments.
I copied the Chesterton quote from the Slate article which does a pretty good job of explaining how Mao used the Sinophilia so often observed in the west to misrepresent and promote traditional Chinese medicine but of course being a Slate contributor the author just had to get this in:
“Thomas Kuhn had just published his theory of paradigm shifts and scientific revolutions, a brilliant (and controversial) analysis perennially abused by climate-change deniers and creation-scientists”
Have seen some horse people who do the “traditional medicine” route including the “Chinese” stuff (anything to try and make a winner)– I’m personally suspicious about the authenticity of the traditions and from China myself.
I also personally think its a way for some people to make money off of horse people’s endless quest to make a winner.
Don’t get me wrong: a lot of stables/trainers now rely perhaps too heavily on advances in science and technology (when the best thing they could do is the daily grind of icing legs and rubbing down sore muscles, checking the conditions of the environment and fixing anything that isn’t squared away…and maybe giving the horses a bit more layoff between big efforts or when an injury/illness strikes; that’s something they don’t do anymore).
But this other stuff has appeared to me (and I’ve seen a lot of it in the past 45 years)as a bunch of woo being pitched.
By the way, I know Dr. Ramey and have spoken with him before. He has a pretty good reputation as a knowledgeable equine vet and for having a very common sense approach to horse care…and for not charging people for “cures” that essentially are just taking their money and not really working.
And he’s seen a lot new, alternative approaches — both of the traditional and non-traditional (experimental) type — the horse world usually sees it well before any of the other veterinarian areas or people. The traditional Chinese medicine stuff has been pretty heavily followed for the last 30 years or so that I know of.
I’ve never seen it really work — but it often gave the horses a few days off from work (and also the owners sometimes watched how they were planning the work schedules after that, and/or the tack fit etc.), and that was sometimes what they really needed.
Which means the traditional medicine got the merit for “curing” the horse (same thing used to happen back in the days of pin firing).