Dimitri Kordzaya
At present the sharp growth of
interest in Traditional Medicine and in such Alternative Directions of Medicine
as: Acupuncture, Su-Jok Therapy, Homeopathy, Curative
Yoga, Bioenergy Therapy, National Traditional and
People's Medicine, etc. is observed in Georgia as well as in the whole world.
This interest is stipulated by high medical effectiveness, affordability and by
the absence of allergic and other reactions, which are typical for chemically
produced drugs (medicines).
Therefore legal bases of the
Traditional and Alternative Medicine activity as well as pre- and post-diploma education process and
certification of specialists are necessary to be improved.
In
order to analyze conditions of the Traditional and Alternative Directions of
Medicine it is important to accept their definitions.
First of all, what does the Medicine
mean?
For this purpose it is necessary to
define the health of a human.
According to WHO, the
human's health is his/her absolute - biological, spiritual and social
prosperity. How to understand it? What
does the “prosperity” imply? All kind of human lives in physical, cultural,
social and etc. environments. The prosperity means to be with these
environments in harmonic equilibrium. More precisely, to be in such
equilibrium, that allows the optimal realization of functions the person has to
accomplish. In another words, it is coordinated that the health means to be in
absolute harmony with nature and society.
And what is the medicine?
The Medicine is the unity of
scientific and practical activities purposing to preserve health condition, or
in other words, to bring condition in harmony with environment. In case of
disturbance of this harmony balance - medicine has to recover it. By medical
terminology, medicine is the unity of theory and practice directing towards the
health care: to get rid of illness, but in case the illness develops, to treat
(cure) it.
Medicine realizes its functions by
universal methods: Allopathy, Isopathy and Homeopathy.
Allopathy
implicates the influence by opposite. Allopathic approach is used for
prophylaxis of illnesses as well as for treatment. For example, in case
pathogenic microbes are reproduced in organism causing disturbance of
body-environment balance (harmony), anti- microbe remedies – antibiotics should
be used.
Isopathy implicates the influences
by the same: the classical example of Isopathic influence is vaccination. We
let the minimal dose of this antigen in a human’s organism, which is a
self-provoker of illness.
Homeopathy implicates the influence
by the similar: The least doses of those drugs, that provoke the similar
symptoms as illness, are given to patients. Generally well-known example of
homeopathic influence is the reception of quinine in malaria. The quinine in high
doses provokes similar symptoms as malaria.
Thus, we've explained
shortly:
1) What the health is?
2) What the Medicine is?
3) What are the medical methods?
Now we have to explain what the
Classical and Traditional Medicine is. What do these terms mean, and how are
they considered in international practice?
Medical knowledge, as well as
knowledge in general, is based on plural empirical facts, connected as the
result of observation or/and experiment. Periodically, stored knowledge has
undergone analyses and systematization by distinguished individuals and in such
way was transmitted to following generations, etc. (of course, the creation of
written language considerably assisted to the generalization of knowledge). In
the same way systematized and stored Medicine knowledge has been becoming
obligatory for followers of this field. Thus, step by step was created
so-called Classical Medicine (Modern Medicine), which uses all three aforesaid
methods but with the evident primate of Allophathy.
By international recognition it
takes beginning from old Greece Medicine - from the Hypocrite’s study. It
should be considered, that the Shumerians, Egyptians,
even the old Kolkhidas’ (west Georgian) Medicine
traditions has assumed the basis of Hypocrite’s Medicine. It is noteworthy, old
Romans named the field "Medicine" after Kolkhidas’
princess Media, due to her greatest knowledge in curative plants and magic
medical art she took from Kolkhida to
Therefore today under the definition
of Classical Medicine the world means the Medicine which is officially
recognized in the economically developed
The widely spread synonyms of
Classical Medicine are - Modern Medicine, Official Medicine. This latest term
is gaining foothold after the wide development of insurance system in Medicine.
(Insurance companies finance only the expenses of officially acknowledged
medical service).
What is the Traditional Medicine?
Traditional Medicine is Medical
reasoning system elaborated and experienced during the centuries by several
countries, nations, peoples’ or inhabitant’s big group, which was developed
independently from the classical Medicine on alternative principles. Its
effectiveness has been proved by history and empiric. The classical example of
Traditional Medicine is Traditional Chinese Medicine, Traditional Tibetan
Medicine and Traditional Indian Medicine. Generally it has to be pointed out
that the Traditional Medicine developed in oriental countries, which
historically have missed the way of European civilization (unfortunately, or on
the contrary, gladly).
What tendency is noted for today? Chrestomathical part of the Traditional Chinese Medicine -
Acupuncture, which has perfectly formulated programs, methods, manuals of
teaching, also the statistic of official estimation recognized by WHO.
As for such kind of interesting
directions as Homeopathy, Su-Jok Therapy etc., we
think, it is difficult to identify them with the Traditional Medicine as far as
they have personal founders. In case of Homeopathy it is Swedish Haneman (18th century), in case of Su-Jok
Therapy - Korean Pak-Je-Wu, our contemporary classic.
So, any newly appeared direction of Medicine, and it is also presumable in
future, has to be discussed precisely as the new directions of Medicine, which
step by step will become the part of Classical, Official, Modern medicine after
creation of trustworthy statistic of results.
Homeopathy may serve as an example to it: this direction is widely
applied in various countries of the world (today it is recognized, that about
one third part of population of
Often Homeopathy, Acupuncture and
Su-Jok Therapy are called as the Alternative
directions. Why
dose it happen?
Alternatives of what are these directions? Is it of Medicine? Obviously
not!. In case of Homeopathy it is stipulated by the
primate method of Homeopathy - Homeopathic method, which opines alternatively
towards the general method of classical Medicine - Allopathy?
(Although, as we have mentioned, the classical Medicine also
uses Homeophatic methods). As for the Su-Jok Therapy, it is based on fundamental principles of the
Traditional Chinese Acupuncture – auto-bio-energy-correction. The mechanisms,
with the help of which are realized this correction, is more or less clear.It is Allophatic mechanizm. For example: in case ”In”
energy is increased, it has to decrease, or it has to reinforce its opposite”Ian” energy contrary.
The term "alternative"
should be stipulated by different philosophical-methodical approach: The
classical Medicine analyses a human, as bio-social animal, whose health and
illness processes are studied from the position of the bio-physical,
bio-chemical changes taking place in the organism as in structural-functional
wholeness.
Traditional Medicine (Traditional Chinese
Medicine) takes a human, as the part of general cosmic wholeness. As for the
health and illness, they are taken as preservation of balance by organism in
this wholeness, or in opposite, as disturbance of this balance. But it should be pointed out, that for the
last years the Classical Medicine has been becoming more and more interesting
in the conception explaining the human body as the part of cosmic wholeness. It
is confirmed by the presentation of such fields as Gravitation Medicine,
Bio-energy-informational medicine, etc. Such well-known directions of Classical
Medicine as cardiology, neurology, psychiatry, etc. also begin the study of
influences of cosmic phenomenon over an organism.
On its part, Traditional Medicine,
e.g. Traditional Chinese Acupuncture, begins to study the
biophysical-biochemical peculiarities of the self-basis - Meridian systems
structure as well as study of the mechanisms of physiological and phato-physiological influences. So the evident tendency of
combination of two directions is appearing vividly.
Therefore to determine the
above-mentioned directions of medicine as Alternative is quite relative.
Thus:
All directions of Medicine -
traditional, conditionally alternative or simply a new direction, have to pass
the following way: to gain positions and authority with wide trustworthy
statistic, scientific analysis of the mechanisms of influence and to transmit
into the Classical Medicine -
to become its organic part.
What is the current situation with
Traditional Medicine in
Following the above-given
definition to the Traditional Medicine, for today, Traditional Georgian
Medicine have not been recognized. However, it is
completely presumable, that old Traditional Georgian Medicine (Kolkhidas'
Medicine - "Medea’s Medicine") has
represented the real Traditional medicine which has already joined the world
Classical Medicine (become its inalienable part).
Proceeding from high level of
Medicine, which historically was always permitted in
At the same time, it is
necessary to create and polish the legislative basis, first of all, the law
about Traditional Medicine should be adopted by Parliament; old Georgian
medical books should be studied; tradition of cultivate-reproduction and
collection of curative plants should be restored; trustworthy statistical data should be
created.
We should accelerate the
promotion of the residual part of old Traditional Georgian Medicine in order to
pass the general way from Traditional to Classical Medicine as promptly as
possible.