By Hong Hai
The eminent physician William Osler famously said:
It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease
than what sort of a disease a patient has.
The good physician treats the disease.
The great physician treats the patient who has the disease.
Osler held the prestigious Regius Chair of medicine at Oxford. His emphasis on the patient’s overall condition, rather than their disease, would win approval from any traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) physician.
For example, two patients may have the same complaint of skin eczema. In TCM terminology, eczema is often caused by internal heat and “dampness”. This “heat dampness” in one patient may have its origins in an improper diet with too much oil and spice. For the other patient, emotional stress damaged his digestive system, weakening spleen-stomach qi to result in dampness and heat. These conditions require different treatments. The first patient needs a new cook, the other a friendly psychologist.
Gazing Physicians
The TCM physician places less emphasis on the disease, and commonly looks for the disharmonies underlying the disease. Indeed, it has been said in jest that you can pick out a Western doctor from a Chinese one, not by their garments (both wear white coats), but by the gaze of their eyes.
One spends much time on blood test and other diagnostic results on the computer screen. The other observes the patient and asks questions ceaselessly. How’s your appetite? How often do you poo, and does it come out mushy or well-formed? Are you tired, vexed? Do you sweat in your sleep?
These questions enable the physician to determine the patient’s underlying imbalances and impediments to flow of blood and qi. The other diagnostic tools are feeling the patient’s pulse and observing their face and tongue.
Avoid synthetic drugs
Like a Chinese physician, Osler had grave reservations about synthetic drugs:
The first duty of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.
TCM believes in natural healing, preferably through food and changes in living habits and, if necessary, herbs from Nature’s garden.
TCM often uses the same herbal potion to treat different diseases. This is because many diseases are caused by the same underlying disharmonies in the body. For example, a lack of qi could cause one person chronic headaches. In another person, it could cause loose stool and stomach upsets. Both can be treated with qi tonics.
Osler would have approved:
The young physician starts life with twenty drugs for each disease,
and the old physician ends life with one drug for twenty diseases.
The Poetry of Life
Osler had a warm affinity to man as part of nature
The best book in medicine is the book of Nature, as writ large in the bodies of men.
He was at one with the teachings of the ancient Chinese classic, Huangdi’s Canon of Medicine, which advocates a philosophy of man being in harmony with nature. This medical tome is rich with the wisdom of yangsheng (养生), or the cultivation of life by going with the flow of nature, nurturing the spirit, and balancing of the body’s yin–yang.
Like the sage Huangdi, Osler danced to the poetry of life:
Nothing will sustain you more potently than the power to recognize the true poetry of life —
the poetry of the commonplace, of the plain, toil-worn woman,
with their loves and their joys, their sorrows and their griefs.
William Osler died a hundred years ago. His wit and wisdom continue to resonate with discerning physicians in this fast-paced stress-ridden world ruled by IT and Big Pharma.
If you believed in reincarnation, you would think that Osler was a Chinese physician in his past life.
Hong Hai was CEO of Haw Par Corporation and a former chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Health. Trained originally in engineering and economics, in mid-life he studied Chinese medicine at the Institute of Chinese Medical Studies, Singapore and the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine before starting the Renhai Clinic. His books on TCM include Principles of Chinese Medicine: A Modern Interpretation https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Chinese-Medicine-Modern-Interpretation/dp/1783267992 and (with Karen Wee), Pursuing the Elixir of Life: Chinese Medicine for Health. https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/10365 . His public lecture on yangsheng may be viewed in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZesRVdR4YQ
The Osler quotes are from https://litfl.com/eponymictionary/oslerisms/ .
Pictures: Osler and the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine are from Wikipedia; Hua Tuo from Dreamstime.com; Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove from a private art collection
