Qi Spot

Not exactly chinese medicine, but still an important fact to be re-emphasized

http://www.drcutler.com/general-health/study-links-smoking-to-low-back-pain-19554062/

On another note, a brief rant.  I read some “crusader” against “quackery” today say that how can Chinese medicine be proven ineffective?  Look at life expectancy, they said.  In 1900, the life expectancy of a Chinese was 30.  Now it’s 71, after the introduction of western medicine.  So WOW Chinese medicine must suck right? Wrong.

Let’s look at China in 1900.  What was happening? Civil War.  Boxer Rebellion.  Lots of poor babies dying before the age of 1 because of lack of access to health care, skewing the numbers.  I believe that if we take away babies dying at age 1 and 2 due to inaccessibility of health care and proper nutrition, the number should jack up to the 40s and mid 40s.    Why do I assume that?  In 1900, lots of young people died – babies, young adults in war.  Hence, you have people dying in their 00s and 20s… that will definitely pull the average down.  To compare, US life expectancy was at 49 at the time.

Look at wikipedia: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy>

Sometimes, mainly in the past, life expectancy increased during the years of childhood, as the individual survived the high mortality rates then associated with childhood. A pre-20th century individual who lived past the teenage years could expect to live to an age comparable to the life expectancy of today.

So, get rid of high infant mortality – which was a UNIVERSAL PROBLEM then, and you improve life expectancy.  Given that the US was NOT in a civil war in 1900, what does that say about life expectancy in the US – probably just the same as in China.

So what DID make a difference: something that helped both? antibiotics.  Antibiotics helped fight off previously lethal pediatric infections, allowing kids to live and people in general to live longer.

So let’s take another indirect method of measuring the effectivity of chinese medicine.  Research has shown that people in China have less heart disease, less fractures despite more osteoporosis, and generally require less babying than their western counterparts.  How many homes for the aged are there in China?  Look at Japan, which uses both Chinese medicine (aka Kampo) and western medicine – their average life expectancy is GREATER than the American one – HIGHEST IN THE WORLD.