Rheumatoid arthritis
“Every human being is the author of his own health or disease” Qi
In the end of the comparison of Chinese and Western medicine, of Chinese and Western worlds, it is very striking that it is easy to focus on the differences. That’s why the question arises, what about the similarities?
Tao
“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”- Friedrich Nietzsche, the leading actor on stage of the contemporary Western philosophy, said. These words are very characteristic for the western, liberal society, a society that holds in the highest esteem the principles of democracy, of tolerance, of individualism. Nevertheless, in a strange way, these words can also relate to the Chinese philosophy of the Tao Te Tjing, a philosophy of following your way as it is and not trying to make it something it is not. We live in a world where globalization is now inevitable, where, because of the access to various ways of communication, every citizen is a citizen of the world. So in a way the merging of cultures, philosophies, technologies and approaches already took place and the real question here is how to make this transition easier. In case of the Chinese medicine it would be introducing it to the western public by means of scientifically tested compounds and personalize the treatment of the patients by, in the case of RA, determining the patients subgroup not only by standard Chinese diagnosis but also by investigating their gene and metabolomics profiles.
Origin - Universiteit Leiden
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