CANCER CHINESE CURE
癌症中医疗法
KWAN Lihuen 關理煊 (LH Kwan 关健)
Canada 加拿大2012-11-11 draft稿
CANCER CHINESE CURE
癌症中醫療法
Master Dr PANG Kon[1] said, “No surgery; no chemotherapy, and no radiation treatment.” 彭幹師尊說: “不要開刀, 不要化療, 不要電療.”
“How does Chinese traditional medicine cure cancer then?” I asked him forty years ago. 我問: “然則中醫如何治療癌症?”
“I cannot tell you, because you may betray it to the West.[2] The cure is in the medical classics. We treat cancer no different from tumours.” “我不能告訴你, 恐怕你把療法出賣給西方. 療法在中醫典籍, 癌症與腫瘤, 療法相同.”
Master PANG passed away in 1979[3]. 幹師1979年逝世.
Ghost of Master Dr PANG Kon
彭干師尊的幽靈
Master Dr PANG Kon said, “No surgery; no chemotherapy, and no radiation treatment.” 彭幹師尊說: “不要開刀, 不要化療, 不要電療.”
I emigrated to Canada in 1973.
Master Dr PANG Kon passed away in 1979 in Hong Kong.
I did not dare publish an early draft, 300 words, of “Cancer: Chinese Cure” in 2006 for fear of a scandal.
My friend Dale Beyerstein, who taught Philosophy at the University of British Columbia and later at Vancouver Community College[4] said, “You must publish it, Kwan, because for his importance, Dr PANG’s view is representative of other TCM practitioners, and this standard TCM view is killing lives.”
Professor Joseph Agassi said, “Never mind the scandal, as long as you are fair.”
—o0o—
Criticism by Dale Beyerstein
“Let me get this straight: He is saying that he has the cure, but he cannot reveal it because of simpleminded rivalries with western medicine. So he is content to allow millions of people to die to keep the west from getting an advantage. So either he has the morality of the typical pseudoscientific liar, or worse, he is plain evil.”白亞士丁批評彭幹醫師説謊或不仁, 癌症療法不傳西方, 任由千萬人死亡. (2010.8.31.)
Taiwan Brain Surgeon
臺灣腦手術醫生
In 2009, PN Chan, former Chief Court Interpreter in Hong Kong, after my time, sent me a YouTube TV interview of a Taiwan surgeon, who had trained and practised science-based medicine in Taiwan, having performed 10,000 brain surgeries, who, when diagnosed with colon cancer, chose not to have surgery, chemotherapy or radiation treatment. He said he had seen too much suffering of cancer patients in hospitals who had gone through surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. He changed his life style and survived well and long, to tell his story. He ceased being a workaholic for money, quitted excessive meat, fish, and alcohol, and practised something like Qigong (energy exercise), which he now teaches to his (cancer) patients. Unfortunately, the interview was done in Chinese and you cannot understand it. (I have lost the link, but if you can understand Chinese, I shall ask PN whether she still has it.)
Then in December 2009, PN sent me another article on cancer, in English:
Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins
AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINSIS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY….
I read the article. It struck me as if my Master Dr PANG Kon’s ghost is speaking again: “No surgery, no radiation therapy, and no chemotherapy.”
As this time it was in English, I sought criticisms on the article, suspecting that it was forwarded by a Chinese student in Hong Kong. My friends responded:
Criticism by Shirley Ballin
Date: January 2, 2010 8:27:52 PM PST (CA)
Subject: Re: Cancer Chinese Cure?
Scary. We have too many patients come to us after delaying traditional western treatment to use Chinese herbal medicine and then when it doesn’t work they come pleading to us to save them. Of course, by then it’s usually too late to receive anything but palliative treatment. In many cases a person can take Chinese herbal remedies and western treatments concurrently but both practitioners need to be advised.
Criticism by Dr David Klassen
2009-12-28
Hi Kwan,
I completely agree with Mr. Dale Beyerstein. This (is) dangerous advice (not using surgery, radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy where indicated) and could result in allowing a curable cancer to become incurable.
The advice that cancer can be treated only by stimulating the immune system is, unfortunately, incorrect and does not work. That does not mean that we should not keep our immune systems as healthy as possible; but once a cancer is established no immune system stimulation, when used alone, will be strong enough to eradicate it.
There are many inaccuracies in the recommendations e.g.: cutting off sugar, milk and meat (not beneficial) or altering the acid/base balance of the body (very difficult to do and dangerous). These recommendations are similar to others proposed by advocates of “unorthodox” cancer therapies (some are listed in point# 14). Many of the recommendations are not harmful but have been demonstrated to be not useful in treating existing cancers. Some of them are under investigation for cancer prevention and have either been shown to be not valuable or are still under investigation.
I hope these comments are helpful,
David Klaassen
Criticism by David Steele, Ph.D.
2009-12-28
This is indeed a dangerous article if anyone listens to it. It’ll cause a lot of unnecessary suffering and death. I don’t have time to do a point by point critique but it is full of falsehoods. For example, cancer does not indicate nutritional deficiency. The acidity of water is meaningless. It’s not buffered. Add the slightest bit of acid or base to it and it’s pH will change wildly and instantly. Cancer cells no more have tough protein coatings than do any other cells; cancer does not feed on mucus; cancer cells are highly likely to thrive in an oxygenated environment (not that anything one does via diet or exercise will have much bearing on that); etc., etc., etc. If traditional Chinese medicine routinely cured cancer we’d have no cancer these days. People would have jumped on it long ago, been cured and broadcast the fact far and wide.
All the best,
Dave
—oOo—
OTHER CANCER VIEWS AND STORIES
Now that I have built up some strong criticisms by my friends trained in science-based medicine or medical biochemistry, I shall present other views and stories of cancer.
Hippocrates, c460-c377 BC, the Father of Western Medicine, (also) considered surgery dangerous because those who had the (breast) tumour excised “perish quickly; while those who are not excised lived longer.. 西方医学之父希波格拉底(也)認爲開刀危險, 因爲切除(乳瘤)病人快死, 不切除命較長. (Olsen 2002: “A History of Breast Cancer” 擇錄網上文章<乳癌醫史>, 見網頁 www.randomhistory.com)
Hippocratic Humours
希波格拉底的體液論
* The 4 humours were blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. 體液四: 血, 黃膽汁, 黑膽汁, 痰.
* The properties of the humours—heat, cold, dryness, moistness. 體液性質: 寒, 熱, 燥, 溼. (Very Chinese! 中醫基礎理論也.)
* Each of the 4 humours was also linked to one of the four elements—air, fire, earth, and water. 體液分屬四行: 風, 火, 地, 水.
- Each of the humours was identified with a bodily organ: phlegm with the brain, blood with the heart, yellow bile with the liver, and black bile with the spleen.[5] 体液各屬臟器: 痰屬腦, 血屬心, 黃膽汁屬肝, 黑膽汁屬脾.
Hippocrates 希波格拉底
Blood 血 heat 熱 air 風 heart 心
Yellow bile 黃膽汁 cold 寒 fire 火 liver 肝
Black bile 黑膽汁 dryness 燥 earth 地 spleen 脾
Phlegm 痰 moisture 溼 water 水 brain 腦
Traditional Chinese medicine 中醫
Wood 木 liver 肝
Fire 火 heart 心 heat 熱
Earth 土 spleen 脾
Metal 金 lungs 肺
Water 水 kidneys 腎 cold 寒
The corresponding similarity between Hippocrates and traditional Chinese medicine is wonderful and spectacular! 古希臘醫聖希波格拉底的理論與傳統中醫理論吻合奇妙壯觀!
The Hippocratics viewed health as a sound balance of the humours. Imbalance, too much or too little of one or more of them, or an imperfect quality (often described as a corruption) of one of them produced disease.
希波格拉底跟從者, 認爲體液均衡則健康. 失去均衡, 其一或一個以上的體液過多或過少, 或其一體液品質不完善(常稱爲腐敗), 則致病.
Bloodletting, for example, had a rational basis, since local inflammation, or the fluid of fever, was easily interpreted as evidence that the body had too much blood, and therefore needed aid in ridding itself of it.
乃至構成放血理論根據: 局部發炎, 或者發熱的流液, 容易以爲是身體太多血的證據, 需要幫助棄去.
‘Self-limited disease’: most disease, treated or untreated, is self-limited. Treating the symptoms of a cold for example, may make one feel better, but it never really touches the cause, which in due course the body generally deals with.
<疾病自限律>: 多數疾病, 治療或不治療, 都有自限性. 譬如治療傷風病徵, 可能使病者覺得好一點, 卻永遠不真正觸及病因, 真正病因身體到時自己處理.
Hippocrates taught the doctrine of the healing power of nature: ‘Natural forces are the healers of disease. As to diseases, make a habit of two things—to help, or at least do no harm.’[6]
希波格拉底教導自然療能道理: 治病者, 自然能力也. 至於疾病, 宗旨二: 能幫助,則幫助, 不能幫助最低限度不要爲害.
Therapy was thus aimed primarily at assisting the patient’s body to do its natural work.[7] 因此, 治療目的, 在於幫助病人身體進行自然工作.
Food therapy 食療
Galen (who followed Hippocrates) tried to relate the properties of foods to the four humours and their various constituent qualities. Some foods were heating, others cooling, moistening or drying; some thickened the humours, others thinned them, making them easier to excrete and thus acting as a sort of slimming aid. Galen’s listings and his placing of foods according to their digestibility, strength and suitability for human beings differ little from those of other ancient writers on food. [8]
蓋侖跟從赫波格拉底, 以食物性質及各成分連屬四體液. 食物有寒熱燥濕。 有令體液濃密；有令體液稀薄, 使體液更容易排泄, 幫助瘦身. 蓋侖把食物分列消化難易, 力量, 對人類適合程度, 與其他古代食物論者大同小異.
Indeed, food therapy is abundantly elaborated on in traditional Chinese medicine. Master Dr PANG Kong said, ”Any food you eat or drink is medicine.” 中醫食療理論也洋洋大觀, 彭幹師尊有言: “飲食皆藥也.”
Criticism by Professor Joseph Agassi. Quoting Hippocrates agreeing with Dr PANG Kong does not make Dr PANG’s view stronger. Kwan: Perhaps it only makes Master PANG as ancient as Hippocrates. But it is all right, because Master PANG’s practising clinical theory was as ancient as the legendary Yellow Emperor. Indeed, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) makes sense of Hippocrates.
—o0o—
“A History of Breast Cancer.” <乳癌歷史> 英文原文載於下列網址:
http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/029cancer.html
Ancient Greece 古希臘
Breast Cancer as a Systemic Disease
認爲乳癌是全身系統病
Hippocrates described breast cancer as a humoral disease. In other words, for Hippocrates, the body consisted of four “humours” (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile), which mirrored the building blocks of nature (air, fire, earth, and water)–and any imbalance of the system of humours caused sickness or even death.
For Hippocrates, cancer was caused by the excess of black bile, or ‘melonchole.’ 公元前460年, 西方醫聖希波格拉底認爲乳癌是黑膽汁過多而致.
This logic made sense to Hippocrates because the appearance of an untreated breast tumour would be black and hard, eventually erupting through the skin with black fluids. He named the cancer karkinos, a Greek word for “crab,” because the tumours seemed to have tentacles, like the legs of a crab.
Hippocrates considered surgery dangerous because those who had the tumour excised “perish quickly; while those who are not excised lived longer (Olsen 2002). 希波格拉底認爲開刀危險, 因爲切除乳瘤病人快死, 不切除命較長.
In A.D. 200, Galen, Hippocrates successor, also describes cancer as excessive “black bile” but, unlike Hippocrates, Galen also realized that some tumors were more dangerous than others. Galen also discusses a wide range of pharmaceutical agents to treat breast cancer, such as opium, castor oil, licorice, sulphur, and a variety of salves, as well as incantations to the gods. For humoral physicians, surgery to remove the tumor or entire breast was not even considered to be an option for a cure since they assumed the cancer would just reappear near the surgical site or somewhere else in the body.
For Galen and physicians succeeding him over the next 2,000 years, breast cancer was a systemic disease, which meant it was a disease of the entire body, not just one localized part. The dark bile was believed to course throughout the entire body–so even if a tumor were removed, the bile would still remain in the body, ready to create more tumors.
其後兩千年都認爲乳癌是全身系統病, 不是局部病, 黑膽汁行走全身, 即使切除局部腫瘤, 黑膽汁仍然存在體内, 準備產生更多腫瘤.
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The Eighteenth Century 十八世紀 Breast Cancer as a Localized Disease and the Rise of Surgery 認爲乳癌是局部疾病, 要開刀 By 1769, the humoral theory had lost much of its currency. To disprove the humoral theorists, French physician Jean Astruc took a piece of breast cancer tissue along with a slice of beef and burned them both in an oven and chewed them. Both tasted the same, and he concluded the tumor tissue did not contain unusual amounts of bile or acid. 1769年, 津液痰飲論不再流行. 爲了推翻液論, 法國醫生阿斯特魯取一塊乳癌組織與一塊牛肉, 一同放在爐裏烤燒, 然後嘴嚼之, 兩者味道一樣, 他結論腫瘤組織並不含有超量膽汁或酸素. With the humoral theory disproved, physicians began to search for a new origin of breast cancer, and many argued that its origin was sexual. Physicians knew of Bernardino Ramazzini’s 1713 hypotheses that the high frequency of breast cancer in nuns was due to lack of sex; according to Ramazzini, without regular sexual activity, reproductive organs, including the breast, started to decay and cancer was the result. Friedrich Hoffman of Prussia posited that women who had regular sex but still developed cancer were practicing “vigorous” sex that could result in lymphatic blockage. 推翻了津液痰飲論, 醫生們開始找尋乳癌新的起源, 很多醫生認爲性行為是起源. 他們知到1713年拉馬斯尼的假設認爲修女尼姑之所以多患乳癌, 是因為沒有性行爲; 拉馬斯尼認爲, 沒有經常性行爲, 婦女的產育器官, 包括乳房, 會開始腐萎, 結果而至癌患. 普魯斯亞囯的何福滿更補充說, 有經常性行爲的婦女, 仍然患乳癌, 則因為她們性行爲太厲害, 而引致淋巴阻塞. But there were other, nonsexual theories also presented. 當時也有與性無關的理論. Giovanni Morgagni blamed curdled milk. 莫夾尼認爲乳汁凝結變質致癌. Johanes de Gorter in the 1750s claimed that tumors came from pus-filled inflammations in the breast that mixed with blood, lodged in the milk gland, and dried into a tumor. 1750年代, 約翰格特認爲腫瘤來自乳房痰炎混合血液藏於乳腺乾而成瘤. (中醫曰: 痰火. Traditional Chinese medicine says: ‘Phlegm fire.’) Claude-Nicolas Le Cat from Rouen claimed that depression caused cancer by constricting the blood vessels and trapping coagulated blood. 葛咯特.尼克拉.勒卡認爲情緒抑鬱收縮血管陷藏凝結血液致癌. (中醫亦曰: 抑鬱, ‘瘀血’ 致乳癌. Traditional Chinese medicine also says: depression and ‘blood stasis’ are causes of breast cancer.) Lorenz Heister placed childless women at high risk, while others blamed a sedentary lifestyle which slackened bodily fluids. 駭斯特認爲沒有生育孩子的婦女是患癌高危. 也有人認爲不事運動的生活方式令體液遲慢致癌. (中醫曰氣虛.) Though there was no lack of theories, the cause of breast cancer was still as mysterious to them as it was to the ancients. 理論多多, 乳癌之因仍是神秘莫測, 自古至當代. But unlike the ancients, eighteenth-century physicians gradually became more certain that breast cancer was a localized disease. This had enormous implications, because in contrast to humoral theories which considered mastectomy a tangential treatment due to the systemic nature of cancer, doctors were rapidly becoming skeptical of anything but surgery (Olson 1999). 與古代不同者, 十八世紀醫生逐漸確信乳癌是局部疾病. 此有巨大含義, 因為與體液論相反. 體液論認爲癌病是全身系統病而乳房切除只是邊沿治療.既然反對體液論, 醫生們就迅速對任何別的治療都懷疑, 而只相信開刀手術.
William Halstead and the Radical Mastectomy Paradigm 赫死她之乳房徹底切除範本 By the mid-nineteenth century, most physicians held that because cancer was a localized disease, surgery was the only hope. He knew that cancer was a cellular disease and worried about his own role in spreading it. He argued that lifting away the excised breast with surgeon hands probably scattered tumor cells. This led him to call for a radical mastectomy—removal of the breast, axillary nodes, and both chest muscles in a single en bloc procedure. 主張徹底切除乳房, 腋結節, 左右胸肌肉, 一次過全部切除. He would cut widely around the tumor, removing all the tissue in one piece. During the first four decades of the twentieth century, the radical mastectomy dominated breast cancer treatment. Halstead himself performed hundreds of radical mastectomies and urged that inflicted women should receive a radical mastectomy before the tumor spread to regional lymph nodes. While the radical mastectomy may have extended life slightly and eased the pain of diseased breasts, it was not an unmixed blessing. 事實雖然乳房徹底切除可能稍微延長生命一點, 也減輕疾病乳房的疼痛, 卻非純粹之福. Some women avoided the surgery because it would leave them wounded and disfigured for the rest of their lives. Women had to deal with a deformed chest wall, hollow voids under the collar bone and the armpit, chronic pain, and lymphedema or swelling in the arm because the removed underarm lymph nodes could no longer process circulatory fluids efficiently. 有些婦女避免開刀切除, 因爲手術令她們受傷, 而且終生身段毀損破相. 她們要處理毀傷畸形的胸壁, 鎖骨與腋窩下的空洞, 長期疼痛, 與及淋巴水腫或者手臂腫, 因爲切除的臂下淋巴結再不能有效地處理循環液體. Halstead dismissed these effects as necessary evils; besides, the women’s average age was “nearly fifty-five years [and they] are no longer active members of society” (Olson 1999). 赫死她認爲這些都只不過是不可避免的害處而已; 而且那些婦女的平均壽命已經快五十五嵗, 她們已經不再是社會的活躍份子. Halstead also gave some thought to shoulder amputation 赫死她曾經考慮切除乳癌病人的肩膀. For Halstead and his followers, cutting away more and more tissue was the only way to treat breast cancer 赫死她與其跟從者認爲, 乳癌病人身體部份切除越多越好, 是治療乳癌的唯一辦法. Jerome Urban, the architect of the super-radical mastectomy in 1949, would remove the breast, the axillary nodes, the chest muscles, and internal mammary nodes in a single procedure, often on patients who had tumors less than one centimeter large. 1949年的超級徹底乳房切除大師桀狼哦笨腫瘤小不及一公分也施行乳房超級徹底大切除.
Twentieth-Century Breast Cancer Surgeries 二十世紀乳癌手術 Oophorectomy 卵巢切除 Adrenalectomy 腎上腺切除 Hypophysectomy 垂體切除 In 1895, Scottish surgeon George Beatson discovered that removing the ovaries from one of his patients shrank her breast tumor. This news spread and soon surgeons were performing “prophylactic” oophorectomies, which involved removing both ovaries and performing a radical mastectomy. The operations were debilitating and the results unpredictable since the surgeons had no way of determining which tumors possessed estrogen receptors. Because of this, by 1920 most surgeons employed an oopherectomy only as a last resort. What modern oncologists now know is that some breast tumors have estrogen receptors that feed on estrogen. Removing the ovaries in some cases starved the tumor, at least temporarily. The tumor would always regrow because the body compensated by secreting estrogen-like substances from the adrenal and pituitary glands. In 1952, approximately the same time as Urban’s super-radical mastectomy, Charles Huggins began removing a woman’s adrenal gland (adrenalectomy) in an effort to starve the tumor of estrogen. 1952年, 與哦爾班超級徹底乳房切除朮相約同時, 赫根斯開始切除婦女的腎上腺 (腎上腺切除) , 企圖餓死雌激素的腫瘤. Rolf Lefft and Herbert Olivecrona began performing hypophysectomies, or the removal of the pituitary gland. Side effects included impaired vision, personality changes, and cognitive difficulties. 勒夫特與哦力為克魯納開始垂體切除(垂體腺切除). 其副作用包括視力損害, 性格改變, 認知困難. Even with these extreme surgeries, the tumors still returned to kill. 如是諸多極端手術, 結果腫瘤還是回來殺人.
A New Beginning 新的開端: Moving Away from the Halstead Mastectomy 不切除乳房 The Halstead mastectomy was based on the premise that breast cancer was a localized disease that could be treated by surgically removing the diseased part of the body. George Crile in 1955 began to argue that cancer was not localized but rather is spread throughout the body. 1955年, 佐治.克爾開始辯論認爲: 癌非局部病, 癌其實傳播全身. Bernard Fisher also revolutionized cancer treatment by revising metastasis theory which, like Hippocrates, argued that cancer cells traveled throughout both the circulatory and lymphatic systems and that surgery could not cure cancer because cancer cells were floating throughout the body in the circularity system. 伯納非沙革命性改變癌病的治療, 重新修定均衡理論, 如古希臘醫聖希波格拉底所論, 認爲癌細胞走行整個循環系統與整個淋巴系統, 開刀手術不能醫治好癌病, 因為癌細胞浮游全身循還系統内. In 1976, Fisher published results indicating that simpler breast-conserving surgery followed by radiation or chemotherapy were just as effective as the radical mastectomy, and usually more so (Hellman 1993). 1976年, 非沙發表研究結果, 顯示簡單的保存乳房手術, 跟著放療或者化療, 效果不遜於徹底切除整個乳房, 而且通常效果更好. By advocating a more systemic approach to breast cancer, Fisher and Crile directly challenged the surgeon’s role as the primary source of breast cancer treatment. 主張系統處理乳癌, 非沙與克尔挑戰或否定開刀手術醫生所扮演的乳癌治療首要角式. Yet physicians were reluctant to abandon the Halstead mastectomy until the sexual revolution and modern feminism. 可是手術醫生們死不放棄<赫死她乳房切除朮>, 直至現代代婦女運動興起革命. With the decline of the Halstead radical mastectomy and a revised theory of metastasis, physicians hypothesized about the origins of breast cancer and, during the 1990s, everything ranging from diet, chemical pollution, race, delay in having children, and breastfeeding was up for debate. <赫死她乳房切除朮> 衰落, 加上轉移論的復興修正, 醫生們又再來推測乳癌病因. 1990年代, 飲食習慣, 化學污染, 種族, 晚生孩子, 哺乳, 等等辯論不停. Despite this uncertainty, there were still advances. After an in initial increase in breast cancer rates, the number of deaths plateaued in 1995 and then started to decline. 雖則如是辯論不明, 還是有了進步. 乳癌病起初增多之後, 1995年乳癌死亡率至高原, 其後開始下降. By 1995, less than 10 percent of breast cancer-inflicted women had a mastectomy. 到1995年, 乳癌接受切除乳房的婦女不到百份之十. Improvements in chemotherapy, radiation, hormone treatments (particularly Tamoxifen), mammography, and surgery helped move breast cancer from an urgent disease to a chronic condition. 化療, 放療, 荷爾蒙治療, 乳房X綫照相術, 與及開刀手術等的改良, 幫助乳癌急病轉爲慢性病. Significantly, scientists isolated the genes that cause breast cancer: BRCA2 and ATM. 重要者, 科學家成功隔離了致癌基因: BRCA2 與 ATM. Today, advances in molecular and genetic sciences are creating novel therapeutic strategies that give both women and men not only hope but also more choices about their bodies. 今天, 分子與基因科學的進步都在創造新的治療戰略, 給與婦女與男性不只是希望, 還給與她們處理自己身體更多的選擇.
New Hope for the Twenty-first Century 二十一世紀新希望 Changing Public Perception 公衆改觀 The ultimate cure for breast cancer remains elusive. 乳癌最終療法至今隱蔽. The disease is so complex, diverse, and so subtly connected to genetic and environmental variables that finding a cure can often seem remote if not impossible. 其病如此複雜多端, 與遺傳和環境變數如此微妙相關, 療法的發現好像遙遠或不可及. While a cure has not yet been found, public perception surrounding breast cancer has changed dramatically. Once a disease that women felt ashamed to discuss, breast cancer now has lost much of its stigma, providing the opportunity for politicians and health care officials to acknowledge that economic and political considerations bear on the success of breast cancer treatment as much as advances in medical science. 雖然療法還沒有找到, 公衆對乳癌的態度, 已經戲劇性地改觀了. 曾幾何時, 乳癌是婦女恥於討論的疾病; 現在, 乳癌已經不再是婦女的恥辱: 給與從政者與衛生官員機會, 承認經濟與政治的考慮, 影響乳癌治療的成功, 不亞於醫學的進步. — (Olsen 2002. “A History of Breast Cancer” 擇錄網上文章<乳癌醫史>, 見網頁 www.randomhistory.com. Posted 2008-02-27發表.
References 參考資料 Hellman 赫爾門, Samuel . 1993. “Dogma and Inquisition in Medicine 醫學教條與審問.” Cancer 癌. 71.1: 2430-2433. Leopold, Ellen 愛倫李普. 1999 . A Darker Ribbon: Breast Cancer, Women, and their Doctors in the Twentieth Century 更深色的飾帶: 二十一世紀乳癌, 婦女, 和她們的醫生 . Boston 波士頓: Beacon Press 燈塔出版社. Olson, James 詹士歐森. 2002. Bathsheba’s Breast 巴詩巴的乳房: Women , Cancer, and History 婦女, 癌, 歷史. Baltimore: John Hopkins Press 約翰斯.赫根氏出版社. |
“A History of Breast Cancer.” <乳癌歷史> 英文原文載於下列網址:
http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/029cancer.html
—–oo0oo—–
Cancer Chinese Cure 癌症中醫療法
“Betraying the Secret to the West”
‘出賣秘密給西方’
Master Dr PANG Kon said, “No surgery; no chemotherapy, and no radiation treatment.” 彭幹師尊說: “不要開刀, 不要化療, 不要電療.”
“How does Chinese traditional medicine cure cancer then?” I asked him forty years ago. 我問: “然則中醫如何治療癌症?”
“I cannot tell you, because you may betray it to the West. The cure is in the medical classics. We treat cancer no different from tumours.” “我不能告訴你, 恐怕你把療法出賣給西方. 療法在中醫典籍, 癌症與腫瘤, 療法相同.”
Master PANG passed away in 1979. 幹師1997年逝世.
—o0o—
In 2003, a book, “betraying the secret”, in English, was published in the West: Management of Cancer with Chinese Medicine 中醫藥與腫瘤. LI Peiwen 李沛文et all. UK: Donica Publishing. 2003年, “出賣中醫治療癌症’ 的一本莊重權威的英文書出版了, 北京中日友誼醫院中醫腫瘤科主任李佩文教授等著作兼翻譯, 英國丹尼卡出版社出版.
The Chinese title of the book is Chinese Medicine and Tumours, written and translated by five medical doctors, four of which had been trained and practised in Western science-based medicine.[9] 此書作者西醫李文沛教授, 兼中醫程志強(音譯), 西醫杜修平(音譯) ; 英文翻譯者西醫毛樹章(音譯) 與西醫包麗玲(音譯).
Professor Joseph Agassi had said to me 50 years ago (1962) when I wanted to write an M.A. thesis on the philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine: “Unless you are a qualified doctor in Western (science-based) medicine, what you say about the philosophy of Chinese medicine does not carry any weight.”
四十九年前(1962), 我在香港大學學士畢業, 想寫一篇中醫哲學碩士論文, 艾格思教授說: “除非你是西醫生, 你的中醫哲學論文沒人看重.”
The authors, and the translators, of Management of Cancer with Chinese Medicine meet Professor Agassi’s requirement. 看: <中醫與腫瘤> 作者與翻譯者都符合艾格思教授的要求.
Let me quote from the Foreword of the book 且看書序:
“Even though the term cancer (ai 癌) cannot be found in the ancient writings on Chinese medicine, there are many other terms that clinically correspond to cancer. 雖然傳統中醫沒有 ‘癌’ 字, 可是有很多別的字詞, 說的就是癌症. “… cancer could only be diagnosed in ancient times when it gave rise to a palpable 可以触诊的mass. If the mass was very small and not palpable, an ancient doctor could not have diagnosed it. Modern diagnostic techniques allow us to diagnose (and therefore treat “masses” before they are palpable: a small fibroadenoma 纤维腺瘤revealed by mammogram and a small myoma 肌瘤[10] revealed by a CT scan[11] are good examples.
“Chinese medicine has a great deal to offer in the treatment of cancer in three major ways: it can be used to “attack” the cancer itself, it can be used effectively in conjunction with Western treatments, and it can be used to alleviate the side-effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Moreover, Chinese medicine sheds light on the etiology 病因 [12] and prevention of cancer, particularly through the practice of Qigong 气功 [13] (energy exercise).” (Foreword by Giovanni Maciocia.)
—o0o—
CANCER CHINESE MANAGEMENT
Instead of the traditional Chinese view on cancer as represented by my uncompromising Master Dr PANG Kon, this book is a modern compromised view of Management of Cancer with Chinese Medicine.
The principal author, LI Peiwen, has been Professor and Director of the TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) Oncology Department at the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital in Beijing since 1986.
The back-cover of the book says:
“This book is designed for TCM practitioners to consult in their daily practice, working either in an alternative or conventional medicine environment, and can also be referred to by other health professionals to gain a better understanding of the role Chinese medicine can play in treating cancer.”[14]
“Integration of Chinese medicine in a cancer treatment strategy offers major advantages in dealing with commonly seen complications and in combating the side-effects of treatment my conventional medicine methods such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.”[15]
—oOo—
The view represented by Management of Cancer with Chinese Medicine is a compromised view on the ‘management’ of cancer with traditional Chinese medicine. The book has carefully chosen the word ‘management’ rather than ‘cure’; and the phrase ‘Chinese Medicine’ rather than ‘traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).’ ‘Chinese Medicine’ in China today freely adopts things from Western science-based medicine. The principal author, trained in modern science-based medicine, promotes ‘traditional Chinese medicine’ only as a complement to Western science-based medicine, not as an ‘alternative’ to it.
On the other hand, Master Dr PANG Kon’s view is uncompromising. To him, traditional Chinese medicine is a better alternative to Western science-based medicine, and science-based medicine is only complementary to traditional Chinese medicine in general, and in the ‘cure’ of cancer in particular. Master PANG Kong was the Chinese Hippocrates.
Let’s have a quick look at how breast cancer is managed today with Chinese Medicine in China. The crude text below is copied for your convenience. The CTM terms are troublesome, which will be my responsibility to later simplify for an average newspaper reader, i.e. a grade 12 graduate, to understand. Please simply glance through the crude text first in no more than an hour’s time. My writing will follow.
—oOo—
(Study Notes) from Management of Cancer with Chinese Medicine. LI Peiwen, CHENG Zhiqiang, and DU Xiuping. Translated by MAO Shuzhang and BAO Liling. UK: Donica Publishing Ltd, 2003.)
Management of Cancer with
Chinese Medicine
癌症中醫調理
BREAST CANCER 乳癌
Clinical manifestations 临床徵候
- The initial symptom or breast cancer is usually a firm painless increasing mass or lump with no clear margin and located in the upper part of the breast; this accounts for 80% of patients presenting with breast cancer.
- At the initial stage, the lump may be mobile; in the later stages, it will adhere to the chest wall or overlying skin and become fixed. In advanced cases, swelling or ulceration may develop on the skin.
- Inverted nipple, nipple erosion or nipple discharge may occur.
- The breast may lose its normal contour and the overlying skin may develop an orange skin-like appearance (peau d’orange) or become inflamed.
Etiology and pathology 病因病理
Internal factors 内因
- The breast is traversed by the Liver channel, whereas the Stomach channel passes through the nipple. In addition, women rely on the Chong and Ren vessels (任冲二脉) as the Root, which depends on the Essence-Qi (精氣) of the Kidneys. Deficiency of Vital Qi (Zheng Qi 正气), internal damage due to the seven emotions, obstruction of Spleen Qi, and Deficiency of the Liver and Kidneys will disturb Qi and Blood (气血) and cause disharmony of the Chong and Ren vessels. When the functions of the Zang-Fu 脏腑 organs are debilitated and the immune function weakened, Qi and Blood will stagnate, and Phlegm will congeal. Pathogenic Toxins will eventually accumulate in the network vessels of the breast, resulting in cancer.
- Prolonged emotional depression may lead to endocrine disturbance, imbalance in the sex hormone level and over-secretion of estrogen. Persistent stimulation of estrogen will result in the loss of control of cell division, giving rise to carcinomatous changes.
External factors 外因
· External pathogenic Wind-Cold can take advantage of Deficiency in the channels to settle and bind with Blood to form lumps.
- Pathogenic Fire Toxins invade the Zang-Fu organs to cause breast cancer with inflammation, characterized by redness, swelling and pain.
- Nipple erosion or nipple discharge is due to invasion of pathogenic Damp.
Pattern identification and treatment principles 辨证治则
LIVER DEPRESSION AND QI STAGNATION 肝郁气滞
Main symptoms and signs 主徵
Firm lumps in the breast with distension and pain but without any change in skin color, an impatient or melancholic mood, oppression in the chest and distension in the hypochondrium, irritability, poor appetite, a biter taste in the mouth, dry throat, dizziness, and distension in the breast before menstruation. The tongue body is dull with a thin yellow coating; the pulse is wiry, or wiry and thready.
Treatment principle 治則
Dredge the Liver and regulate Qi, transform Phlegm and dissipate lumps.
Prescription 處方
XIAO YAO SAN 逍遥散加减
Free Wonderer Powder, with modifications
(Ingredients given in full. See page 436.)
Explanation
(The purpose or effect of the herbs/ingredients explained in full. See page 436.)
PHLEGM-DAMP DUE TO SPLEEN DEFICIENCY 脾虚痰湿
Main symptoms and signs 主徵
Firm and uneven lumps in the breast and axillae, a sallow yellow facial complexion, mental and physical fatigue, cold hands and feet, oppression in the chest and distension in the stomach, reduced appetite, and loose stools. The tongue body is pale with teeth marks and a white or white and greasy coating; the pulse is slippery and thready, or wiry and slippery.
Treatment principle 治則
Fortify the Spleen and transform Phlegm, soften hardness and dissipate lumps.
Prescription 處方
XIANG SHA LIU JUN ZI TANG JIA JIAN 香砂六君子汤加减
(Ingredients given in full. See pp. 436-7.)
DISHARMONY OF THE CHONG AND REN VESSELS任冲不调
Main symptoms and signs 主徴
Firm lumps in the breast which are painful on pressure, irregular menstruation, aching and limpness in the lower back and legs, distension in the breast before menstruation, a sensation of heat in the chest, palms and soles, dry eyes and dry mouth. The tongue body is pale with a thin white coating; the pulse is wiry and thready, or slippery and thready. This pattern occurs more often where he woman is nulliparous, or has multiple miscarriages, or does not breast-feed the baby.
Treatment principle 治則
Harmonize the Chong and Ren vessels, enrich the Liver and supplement the Kidneys.
Prescription 處方
LIU WEI DI HUANG TANG JIA JIAN 六味地黄汤加减
Six-Ingredient Rehmannia Decoction, with modifications
(Ingredients given in full, pp. 437-8.)
Explanation 解釋
(Full explanation on page 438.)
ACCUMULATION OF STASIS AND TOXINS 瘀毒壘積
Main symptoms and signs 主徴
Firm and immovable lumps in the breast with a sensation of burning heat and pain, the skin above the lump is dull purple with an indistinct border, or there may be an ulcerated swelling like an upside-down flower with oozing of foul-smelling blood or pus; accompanying symptoms include irritability, dry mouth, afternoon fever, shortness of breath, lack of strength, constipation, and reddish urine. The tongue body is red or dull red with stasis marks and a yellow coating; the pulse is slippery and rapid, or wiry and rapid.
Treatment principle 治則
Clear Heat and relieve Toxicity, transform blood stasis and dissipate lumps.
Prescription 處方
TAO HONG SI WU TANG HE JIN YIN HUA GAN CAO TANG JIA JIAN 桃红四物汤和金银花甘草汤加减
Peach Kernel and Safflower Four Agents Decoction Combined with Honeysuckle and Licorice Decoction, with modifications
(Ingredients given in full on page 438.)
Explanation 解釋
(Explanation of the effects of the herbs, page 438-9.)
DEPLETION OF QI AND BLOOD 氣血亏虚
Main symptoms and signs 主徴
Late-stage breast cancer (also known in TCM as ru yan (乳岩) or mammary rock), characterized by lumps in the breast which erode and then ulcerate giving off foul-smelling, thin, clear exudate, accompanied by dry and lustreless skin, mental fatigue, emaciation, a pallid facial complexion, dizziness, feeling flustered, shortness of breath, reduced appetite, difficult digestion, profuse sweating, sleeplessness, clear urine, and loose stools. The tongue body is pale with a yellow, or thick and greasy coating; the pulse is deep, thready and forceless.
Prescription 處方
YI QI YANG RONG TANG HE SHI QUAN DA BU TANG JIA JIAN 益气养榮汤和十全大补汤加减
Decoction for augmenting Qi and Nourishing Yang Qi Combined With Perfect Major Supplementation Decoction, with modifications.
(Ingredients given in full on page 439.)
Explanation 解釋
(Explanation of the effect of each herb, p. 439.)
INTEGRATION OF CHINESE MEDICINE IN TREATMENT STRATEGIES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF BREAST CANCER
乳癌中西醫結合調理
Integrating Chinese medicine in the overall treatment strategy for breast cancer can obtain very good results by improving the therapeutic effect, raising the quality of life and prolonging the survival period.
TCM treatment for supporting Vital Qi (Zheng Qi) and dispelling pathogenic factors should be applied throughout the course of treatment with surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Surgery and postoperative period 手術期與術後期
INTERNAL TREATMENT 內治
- After surgery for breast cancer, internal treatment with Chinese material medica can help the patient to recover more quickly and also lay the foundation for strengthening the body to cope better with future radiotherapy or chemotherapy.
Treatment principle 治則
Supplement Qi and nourish the blood, fortify the Spleen and boost the Kidneys.
Prescription ingredients 處方
(Ingredients given in full on page 440.)
- If the surgical wound does not heal, this is due to depletion and deficiency of Qi and Blood and obstruction of static Blood.
Treatment principle 治則
Augment Qi and nourish the Blood, invigorate the Blood and free the network vessels.
Prescription ingredients 方藥
(Ingredients given in full, p. 440.)
Accompanying external treatment 外療配合
Apply Sheng Ji San 生肌散 (Powder for Generating Flesh) or Hua Yu Sheng Ji Fen 化瘀生肌散 (Powder for Transforming Blood Stasis and Generating Flesh) to the affected area and hold in place with a gauze dressing. Change once a day.
EXTERNAL TRREAMENT 外療
For postoperative swelling in the upper arms, local external treatment can be combined with the internal treatment described above based on pattern identification for postoperative conditions.
Three prescriptions can be used depending on the manifestations. Decoct the ingredients to produce 500-800m. of liquid, which is used first to steam then to soak the affected arm for 30 minutes, once or twice a day. Alternatively, 50ml of the concentrated concoction can be obtained for application to the affected arm, then covered y gauze and wrapped in plastic film; change the dressing two or three times a day.
3 Prescriptions 藥方
(Given in full, together with treatment principles and explanations of the effects of the herbs, pp. 440-1.)
DIET THERAPY 食療
For persistent swelling with a normal skin color and which depresses on palpation (pitting edema), prescribe Wu Mi Zhou 五米粥(Five Grains Congee) to take once or twice a day on a long term basis.
(Five ingredients given, p. 441.)
Put the ingredients in a pot with 1000ml of water, bring to the boil and simmer for 40 minutes until the congee thikens.
Preparation
Radiotherapy 放療
Breast cancer is relatively sensitive to radio therapy, which can be given before or after surgery or as a palliative treatment for patients who cannot or do not wish to undergo surgery. However, radiotherapy for breast cancer can cause severe side-effects manifesting as painful local skin, ulceration, swelling and fibrosis, radiation pneumonititis, and radiation damage to the heart.
INTERNAL TREATMENT 內治
DAMAGE TO YIN 傷陰
Main symptoms and signs 主徵
A sensation of burning heat and pain in the skin, dry mouth with a desire for drinks, irritability due to Heat, reduced food intake, dry stools, and yellow or reddish urine. The tongue body is red with a scant coating; the pulse is thready and rapid.
Treatment principle 治則
Nourish Yin and generate Body Fluids, clear Heat and relieve Toxicity.
Prescription ingredients 方藥
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL TREATMENT 内外治療
SKIN DAMAGE DUE TO RADIATION 放療傷皮
Main symptoms and signs 主徵
The skin in the affected area is red, swollen, dry, scaly, and itchy; there may also be erosion, exodation, or ulceration with acute pain.
Treatment principle 治則
Augment Qi and nourish the Blood, draw out Toxins and generate flesh.
Prescription ingredients 方藥
External treatment 外療
Chemotherapy 化療
Breast cancer is a solid tumour and one of most responsive to chemotherapy. General and local chemotherapy can help to improve the therapeutic effect of surgery and radiotherapy, and conserve as much of the breast as possible. Chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer helps to relieve symptoms and improve the quality of life.
Chemotherapy for breast cancer often causes gastrointestinal reactions characterized by nausea and vomiting and irregular bowel movements, other side-effects include poor appetite, bone marrow suppression, altered liver function, cardiotoxicity, and alopecia.
Endocrine therapy 内分泌治療
Endocrine therapy with hormone-blocking drugs is a palliative treatment and can have a significant effect in achieving remission of symptoms, prolonging survival time and improving the quality of life for patients at an advanced stage. However, long-term use of drugs such as…can cause irregular menstruation, nausea and vomiting, and poor appetite. The treatment of these conditions is discussed in detail in Chapters 4 and 5.
Other therapies 其他治療
DIET THERAPY 食疗
* After surgery, patients should be advised to eat foods for augmenting Qi, supplementing the Blood and regulating the Spleen and Stomach such as Chinese yam powder, spinach, vegetable sponge, seaweed, Chinese dates (Da Zao, Fructus Ziziphi Jujubae), Ling Zhi Hong Zao Zhou (Glossy Ganoderma and Chinese Date Congee), or Hong Zao Gui Yuan Zhou (Chinese Date and Longan Flesh Congee).
* During radiotherapy, patients should eat foods for enriching Yin and moistening Dryness such as Xing Ren Shuang (Apricot Kernel Jelly), Xing Ren Mi Nai Shuang (Apricot, Honey and Milk Jelly), Wu Zhi Yin (Five Juice Beverage) and Zhe Ou Zhi Yin (Sugar Cane and Lotus Root Juice).
*During chemotherapy, patients should regularly eat ganoderma, yellow jelly fungus (Bai Mu Er, Tremella), Chinese olives, oranges, hawthorn fruit, fresh ginger, radish, tomato, and other fresh vegetables and fruit, as well as Yi Mi Zhou (Coix Seed Congee) and Mu Er Nuo Mi Zhou (Jelly Fungus and Glutinous rice Congee).
* Patients with breast cancer should avoid stimulating foods such as raw ginger, or ripe pumpkin.
(See also chapter 7, “Food Therapy”, pages 351-408.)
QIGONG THERAPY 气功治療
After surgery, patients should start to practice strengthening Qigong in a standing position as early as possible; exercise by slowly raising the hand and arm in an increasing vertical range (see Chapter 6.)[16]
Clinical experience and case histories 臨床經驗與病例病史
(Of different doctors and theories.) (Pages 444-447.)
—–ooOoo—–
Breast Cancer Chinese Cure
乳癌中醫療法
Problems 疑問
Please notice that the same disease, breast cancer, is diagnosed here as five different types or patterns by TCM ‘pattern identification 辨証’.
1 Liver depression and Qi stagnation肝郁气滞
2 Phlegm-damp due to spleen deficiency 脾虚痰湿
3 Disharmony of the Chong and Ren vessels 任冲不调
4 Accumulation of stasis and toxins瘀毒垒积.
5 Depletion of Qi and blood 气血虚损
And the treatments are different. TCM calls this “different treatments for the same disease 同病異治”.
Question: Does this make sense to science-based medicine?
Answer: No.
Question: Are there also different types of breast cancer in science-based medicine?
Answer: No, the breast cancer cells in science-based medicine are the same; the only difference is in the stages of the amount and spreading of the same breast cancer cells, I guess. Am I right?
Question: What different types in science-based medicine do these different TCM types or patterns correspond to?
Answer: The five different TCM syndromes are only five different TCM bodily conditions giving rise to the formation of breast cancer cells in science-based medicine, I guess. Alternatively, these syndromes express that the patient already has significant breast cancer cells. When this condition is discerned, before the cancel cells have formed, cure of this condition is possible and easy with TCM. When this condition is discerned, but only a small amount of cancer cells are formed (tumours) or spread, cure is still possible with TCM, preferably without surgery, as Hippocrates and Master PANG advise. One doubts, however, whether traditional Chinese medicine or Hippocrates can diagnose breast cancer at all by the TCM syndromes when no lumps are yet formed. Am I right?
Question: Does science-based medicine also treat such different types differently? How differently?
Answer: The Chinese types do not make sense to science-based medicine. As to different stages of the spreading of the breast cancer cells clearly diagnosed in science-based medicine, the treatments are a different story: minimum surgery with minimum surgical harm, plus chemotherapy and radiotherapy with whatever harm or no harm, immediate but temporary or chronic and fatal.
Question: Are there only five types or more of TCM breast cancer ?
Answer: Who knows?
Question: Are the so-called different types or ‘patterns’ only different stages of breast cancer?
Answer: The five TCM breast cancer types may each have different stages and correspondingly different expressions in severity. I am guessing. Am I right?
Question: Does breast cancer develop from one type to another type? Do the different types/patters (syndromes) manifest at the same time, and in different combinations?
Answer: Who knows?
Question: Perhaps the same breast cancer cells, in whatever stage of development, as long as they manifest one or more of the Chinese syndromes, can be treated for the one or more syndromes accordingly?
Answer: Looks like so.
Question: According to science-based medicine, when breast cancer cells have spread to the lungs or other organs or parts of the body, are they still breast cancer cells or lung cancer cells, etc.?
Problem: The TCM terms of Liver, Spleen, Chong and Ren vessels, Qi and blood, are things completely different from or strange to science-based medicine. For example, the TCM ‘Liver’ has functions that you cannot find in the science-based anatomical liver, so much so that the TCM Liver is like a ghost[17] or spirit with no anatomical organ, or consists of different anatomical organs. One wonders what on earth has the liver got to do with breast cancer. And the spleen!
Criticism by LI Xiaojing
The only thing I am not comfortable with is the term “breast cancer cells” used in your answers. “Breast cancer cells” sounds more like something from western science. TCM only uses “病” and “证” (‘disease’ and ‘symptom evidence patterns’.)
However, it is your research, I cannot say you cannot use it this way.
My understanding of breast cancer is that it is related to “气血“ (energy and blood) which transform to “月经“ (menstration) or ”人乳汁“ (human milk.).
Breast cancer is the “chaos” during this process. Of course, it affects/is affected by the functions of “心” (Heart) and “小肠”(Small Intestines.).
The “心” (Heart) shares an interior-exterior relationship with the “小肠” (Small Intestines.)
(LI Xiaojing)
—ooOoo—
Tough Questions 要命的問題
How can traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) help breast cancer patients? Is traditional Chinese medicine science or nonsense? Is it reliable? Can it really help breast cancer patients? Can it do harm? Can Western science-based medicine work with traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment and management of breast cancer? Can TCM really compensate for the shortcomings (side-effects) and faults, if any, of Western science-based medicine? On its own, can TCM cure cancer? Has it been able to in the past 3000 years?
Fatal problem: Is traditional Chinese medicine science or metaphysical nonsense like astrology or geomancy (fengshui)?
Fatal Problem 致命問題
Fatal Problem: Chinese traditional medicine, Chinese astrology, and Chinese geomancy: all three have the same theoretical framework of the Theory of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements. Astrology and geomancy are both unreliable. Is traditional Chinese medicine also unreliable? This problem is fatal.
Some may argue that traditional Chinese medicine does not need the Theory of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements. But Master Dr PAGN Kon emphasizes that without the Theory of Yin-Yang and the Fiver Elements, there is no traditional Chinese medicine. 沒有陰陽五行就沒有中醫。
Science or Nonsense 科學抑或谬论
Paradox 荒谬 1: “I am lying 我説謊.” (‘The Liar’s Paradox’)
Paradox 1 gives you a headache, because if is true, then it is false, as it says itself. This paradox is possible because it says something about itself, called self-reference. To avoid such paradoxes, Wittgenstein disallows such self-references as illogical nonsense.
Paradox 荒谬 2. On one side of an index card is written 一卡两面, 一面说: “The sentence on the reverse side of this card is true 这张卡反面的句子是真的 .” On the other side of the same card is written 反面句子说 : “The sentence on the revere side of this card is false 这张卡反面的句子是假的.”
Paradox 2 has two sentences: neither refers to itself. And you still have a paradox.
Popper says self-reference need not be nonsense. Consider this self referring statement: “This statement, in this study paper, is written by LH Kwan.” I see nothing wrong with it.
I assure you that traditional Chinese medicine is full of ‘paradoxes’–giving me headaches studying it and writing this study paper.
Science or Metaphysics 科學抑或玄學
If you say the universe is finite and I say it is infinite, you can never prove me wrong, and I can never prove you wrong either.
If I say the stars add up to an odd number, and you say they add up to an even number, again neither you nor I can prove each other wrong.
If I say there is a diamond ten tons big in the universe, you can never prove me a liar, because you can never search the whole universe.
What if Master Dr PANG Kon says there is a cancer cure in the Chinese medical classics?
Fundamentalist Christians say we have souls and there is heaven and hell after death to reward or punish you. Religious Buddhists believe the same, plus human reincarnation as humans or animals to reward or punish you. Enlightened Christians say heaven and hell are in this very world. Enlightened Buddhists say the same. Neither can prove the other wrong.
These are all metaphysics.
My surgeon brother Dr KWAN King-Huen says traditional Chinese medicine is metaphysics. Chairman Mao made him study traditional Chinese medicine for three months before he graduated from Xiangya Medical College in Hunan Province, Mao’s native place.
Is traditional Chinese medicine metaphysics?
Contradictions 矛盾论的荒谬
Example: “All swans are white and there are black swans in Australia.”
Hegel, Marx, and Mao all say contradictions are all right in dialectic. People’s Republic of China traditional Chinese medicine textbooks still officially say traditional Chinese medicine is ‘dialectic materialism’, i.e. both ‘dialectic’ and ‘materialism’ (No spirit in the body.) 中國大陸中醫課本誤認中醫基礎理論是樸素辯證唯物論, 是唯物論(只有身体, 没有魂魄.). 也是辯證法(容許矛盾). Communist dialectic allows contradictions 共产党辯證法容許矛盾. They say traditional Chinese medicine is simple (primitive) materialism 说中医是朴素唯物论.
Professor Karl Popper, father of modern scientific method, says, “If you say your contradictions are all right, you shut yourself up from criticisms, i.e. exposure and elimination of your errors.” 以矛盾自豪, 是禁绝批评. But science is the unending elimination of errors, says Professor Joseph Agassi. 艾格思教授说: 科学就是永无终止的改掉错误: 改错就是科学, 科学就是改错. Confucius says, “There is no greater good than correcting our mistakes. 孔子也说: 错而能改, 善莫大焉.
Elementary logic tells us contradictions, like the example above, cannot be true. Any sensible schoolboy will tell you the same. Professor Karl Popper, has written an article to say the same.[18]
If there are contradictions in a system, like traditional Chinese medicine, something is wrong, or many things are wrong.
The trouble is that our TCM doctors in mainland China have been brainwashed or forced by MAO Zedong and communism to accept contradictions and think with contradictions.
I say contradictions will kill traditional Chinese medicine. By accepting contradictions in theory, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis, by the same practitioner or different practitioners, errors will not be exposed or eliminated, and that will kill patients. 自我矛盾必毀滅中醫. 理论矛盾, 诊断矛盾, 用药矛盾, 治疗矛盾, 预后矛盾, 一个医生自己矛盾, 几个医生互相矛盾, 错误不明不改, 病人死亡惨重.
You cannot say all swans are white and black swans are not swans but monsters; nor can you say TCM can cure all cancers except monster cancers.
Materialism 唯物論?
“The mechanist view of life holds that all phenomena, no matter how complex, are ultimately describable in terms of physical and chemical laws and that no ‘vital force’ distinct from matter and energy is required to explain life. The human being is a machine –an enormously complex machine, but a machine nevertheless. …. But vitalism, the view that some force beyond physics and chemistry is required by living organisms, is not completely dead, nor is it surprising that this viewpoint remains specifically in brain physiology, where scientists are almost entirely lacking in physicochemical hypotheses to explain such phenomena as thought and consciousness. Most physiologists believe that even this area will ultimately yield to physiochemical analysis, but it would be unscientific, on the basis of present knowledge, to dismiss the problem out of hand.” [19]
This may be the best expression of materialism in medicine, science-based, on behalf of Maoist theorists.
Again, materialism, that the universe is ultimately matter and matter alone, or matter before mind, is metaphysics. So is idealism, that the universe is ultimately mind, and mind alone, or mind before matter. Both materialism and idealism are metaphysics, and you can never prove either wrong.
Strange, Master Dr PANG Kon asserted materialism for both traditional Chinese medicine and for Confucianist metaphysics.
I find that traditional Chinese medicine is definitely not materialism. TCM’s primal word is Qi, meaning energy and life together as one.
The Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic, which is the bible of traditional Chinese medicine, clearly says “Spirit is one with body 形與神俱.” It says that the primal ‘substance’ of the universe is Qi (energy), which is both matter and life.
Professor John Wisdom taught me in 1962 at the London School of Economics that mind and body are like between electricity and magnetism: they can change into each other. We also say matter and energy can change into each other: E = mcc. Materialism says only matter exists; mind does not. The Yellow Emperor clearly says that reality is both body and mind. We must not contaminate TCM with materialism.
TCM links our emotions with our body organs: liver-anger, heart-joy, spleen-thought, lung-worry, kidney-fear. Both are real and affect each other. You cannot cure the body neglecting the ‘spirit’, its consciousness in thoughts and feelings. Neither can you cure breast cancer ignoring the patient’s ‘karma’.
Peter Ballin on Paradox包寧評荒謬
“In 1980, I delighted in observing a white blackbird, at Alkali Lake.” “It’s a bigger issue than logic and internal inconsistency. The last credit philosophy course that I took, philosophy of social sciences, examined many hallmark texts such as Bell, Malinowsky, Mead, and others. We shredded them. All had contradictions within them. So what? The ideas from these authors nonetheless set the tone of study in their disciplines, and essentially formed paradigms. So many belief systems dominate peoples’ minds and actions even though their bases are riddled with inconsistencies or even absurdities.” (31 August 2010.)
Dr LI Wenpei 李文沛醫生, Director of Vancouver Beijing College of Chinese Medicine: “Scientific method is beyond me. Traditional Chinese medicine works, with great results. TCM theories also work. 科學方法非我所長, 只知中醫實效豐富. 中醫理論也是實效豐富.” (2 September 2010.)
Master Dr PANG Kon said, “Without the theory of Yin-Yang and the Five Processes, there is no traditional Chinese medicine. Without the theory, TCM is a mere collection of crude experiences or a mere grocery store of herbs plus.
Problem: Chinese astrology and geomancy (fengshu) both have Yin-Yang and the Five Processes as their theoretical framework. Both astrology and geomancy are unreliable. Is traditional Chinese medicine also unreliable?
Dialectic Materialism 辨証唯物論
Dialectic materialism is a mistake. It has contaminated TCM in mainland China, not in Taiwan or Hong Kong. In mainland China because it is the official communist dogma that demands conformity to it in science. It will choke science in China. The West is not that stupid for such chronic suicide.
We must expose and eliminate errors in TCM to clear up contradictions and muddles—for the cure, treatment, or management of cancer.
Professor Agassi says, “Science is the elimination of errors.”
This all said, I shall guess what the cure of cancer is in the Chinese medical classics, if there is at all a cancer cure in these medical classics, as asserted by Master Dr PANG Kon. If I fail, you can try Master PANG’s disciple Dr HO Yu-Ping in Hong Kong.
Breast Cancer Chinese Cure
Conjectures
Master Dr PANG said, “The cure is in the (Chinese) medical classics. We treat cancer no different from tumours.”
He also said, “Tumours are either benign or malignant. A benign tumour can develop into a malignant tumour. Cancers are just the terminal stage of tumours.”
Conjecture: That is the cure: cure the tumour before it develops terminally into cancer. If you are already diagnosed with cancer, hopefully in the early stage, cure it no different from a tumour.
The treatment of tumours is amply described in the Chinese medical classics.
Dr Shirley ZHANG’s Conjecture: I asked my teacher Dr Shirley ZHANG (張樹榮醫生) in her Chinese Diagnosis class last week (2 September 2010), when she was teaching Chinese diagnosis by looking at the tongue of the patient: “Presented with ten breast cancer patients, will their tongues show different features and require different treatments? Will they show any common features and can share the same treatment?”
She answered, “Yes, their tongues will show different features, in terms of Yin-Yang, exterior-interior, cold-hot, and deficiency-excess; and they require different treatments, depending on the stage of their cancer.”
“If they are all at the beginning stage?” I asked.
She answered, “Then it depends on individual body conditions.”
“And the treatment will be different?” I asked.
She answered, “Yes.”
“What common features, if any, will they all share?” I asked.
She answered, “All cancers have blood stasis (凡癌都有瘀血) whatever the position, breast or elsewhere. The patient’s tongue is bluish purple or pale purple (舌青紫或淡紫, 有紫班). Radiation treatment and chemotherapy patients lose their appetite and their tongues are mostly pale white (淡白). Treatment is by regulating the Qi (energy or vitality) of the ‘Liver’[20] and vitalizing the blood (调肝气, 活血), to reduce or prevent rotting or migration (预防或减少腐化转移). To treat, tonify the blood. For diet therapy, the patient can have “Five-Red Congee 五紅粥 ”, i.e. congee with five red ingredients: red beans, red dates, red-skin peanuts….”
We must first clear up the obscurity of the language, i.e. clarify the terms. Then we point out and eliminate any errors. (Science is the elimination of errors: Agassi.)
I have bought ten books in Chinese, recently published in China, on the treatment of cancer by TCM by ‘well-known TCM doctors, ancient and contemporary.’ Do their theories contradict one another, including Dr Shirley ZHANG’s, and do they contradict with science-based medicine? If they do, there are errors to be pointed out and eliminated, until the best theory so far survives, so as not to do harm to the patient.
Diagnosis by the tongue is only one part of diagnosis by looking, and looking is only one of the four things you do to diagnose: looking, listening (and smelling), asking, and feeling the pulse (and touching). By all four, you ‘differentiate’ and decide on the ‘pattern/syndrome’ of the disease. Ten initial stage breast cancer patients can have different syndromes and you treat them with different herbs. TCM calls this ‘treating the same disease with different treatments 同病异治’. The same disease of breast cancer can take different forms, and the treatment has to be different. This, TCM practitioners claim, is different from science-based medical treatment of all breast cancer patients by surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.
——-o0o——-
More Conjectures
盲人摸象
Let us look at other sources in traditional Chinese medicine guessing at the causes, other causes, of breast cancer. Let us check whether these guesses contradict one another or one author contradicts with another author. If there are contradictions, there are errors to be eliminated. Perhaps all the guesses are in error.
<亂石擲竹林> There is a joke that some practise medicine as if throwing a handful of stones into a bamboo bush hoping to hit a bird, and the result is that none of the stones hits the bird. The bird flies away. The stones are the diagnoses and prescriptions.
Dr HUANG Zhijie’s Conjecture
Let us look at another book: 中医抗癌古今验方精选Chinese Medicine Against Cancer: A Crème de la Crème Selection of Ancient and Modern Prescriptions that have Worked.[21] One chapter, 30 pages, 56 prescriptions, is devoted to Mammary Cancer 乳腺癌.
其病因病机为情志所伤，肝郁气滞，脾虚生痰，痰气交结；或冲任失调，气血运行不畅， 气滞血瘀； 或湿热蕴结，久则聚痰酿毒， 气痰瘀毒凝结於乳房而成瘤。
The causes 病因and mechanisms 病机 of mammary cancer are listed as:
emotional harm, depressed Liver and stagnated energy, weak Spleen generating phlegm, ‘phlegm energy intertwining and congregating’; or the Chong and Ren (Conception) meridians being in disorder, energy and blood circulating not smoothly, energy stagnating and blood bruising; or ‘wet heat’ accumulates and concentrates, in time gathering into phlegm, brewing toxin, 气痰瘀毒凝结於乳房而成瘤 ‘energy phlegm’ and ‘bruise-toxin’ coagulate in the breast to form tumours.
治疗以疏肝解郁，化痰散结， 解毒化瘀，调摄冲任，补益气血为法。
Treatment method: smooth through Liver (energy) and liberate depression; dissolve phlegm and dissipate knots; detoxify; dissolve bruise; adjust and regain control of Chong and Ren vessels; enhance energy and tonify blood.
(To be continued 待续.)
Back to Hippocrates
Hippocrates taught the doctrine of the healing power of nature: ‘Natural forces are the healers of disease. As to diseases, make a habit of two things—to help, or at least do no harm.’
Therapy was thus aimed primarily at assisting the patient’s body to do its natural work.[22]
Traditional Chinese medicine tries, without the side-effect harms of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment.
For Hippocrates, cancer was caused by the excess of black bile, or “melonchole.”
Traditional Chinese medicine today gives five diagnoses of breast cancer.[23]
- Liver depression and qi stagnation
- Phlegm-damp due to spleen deficiency 脾虛痰溼
- Disharmony of chong and ren vessels
- Accumlation of stasis and toxins
- Depletion of qi and blood
The phlegm-damp 痰溼 in (2) above in TCM corresponds to Hippocrates’ black bile of the spleen causing breast cancer. Both Hippocrates and TCM associate black bile or phlegm-damp with the spleen (TCM digestion system).ipppH
Conjecture: Could it be that breast cancer begins with black bile or phlegm-damp, when it can be cured? The detection or diagnosis of excessive phlegm-damp due to spleen deficiency is easy in TCM, and possibly also easy of ‘black bile’ in Hippocrates’ system. The treatment is easy in TCM, and possibly also easy in Hippocrates’ system. Could this be the simple cure of breast cancer, to cure it before the black bile or phlegm-damp develops into tumours and then cancer?
Question: Is phlegm the only cause of tumours and therefore cancers in traditional Chinese medicine? Is this the secret of Master Dr PANG Kon?
My TCM diagnosis teacher Dr Shirley ZHANG Shurong said something different, that all cancers originated from blood stasis. Does Dr ZHANG contradict Hippocrates? Hippocrates says that all cancers originate from black bile (Chinese phlegm-damp). ZHANG says that all cancers originate from blood stasis. This is a contradiction. Either Hippocrates is in error, or ZHANG is in error. They cannot be both right.
But they can both be in error. Perhaps black-bile or phlegm is not the only cause of cancer. Perhaps some cancers are due to black-bile, and some cancers are due to blood stasis, and still other cancers are due to other causes. We have already listed above five causes.
Question: Do all the other four causes or conditions go through or manifest in a stage of being black bile or phlegm-damp?
(To be continued 待續)
——-oooOooo——-
CONCLUSIONS
2012-11-12
KWAN Lihuen 關理煊 (LH Kwan 关健)
Canada 2012.11.12
End Notes 書後註釋
13172 words.
[1] In the first of the only two national examinations for practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine administered by the government before the Guomintang was forced by the communists to retreat to Chongqing, Nanking. Dr PANG placed 2nd in the exam, and 1st in the southern provinces. Dr PANG was a Confucianist scholar, who said he would teach me traditional Chinese Medicine (only) if I would learn the Four Books by heart. I learned the Four Books, i.e. the philosophy of it, still unable to recite them. Master PANG’s point is that medicine is a skill, which can do good or harm, depending on whose hands it is in, whereas Confucianism is the Tao, and it can only do good, in whoever’s hands. He taught me Confucianism for free, taking me to tea, as Socrates would have done to his students. I paid for the tea sometimes.
彭乃楨師尊, 業名彭幹, 國民政府中醫師考試全國榜列第二名, 南方第一名. “國民政府遷臺前曾舉辦過兩次中醫考試，分別為民國三十五年及三十六年。彭公所參加的是三十五年。小弟有一本名為《中華民國中醫師考試制度》由正中書局出版，是考試院考詮叢書指導委員會主編的，中華民國七十四年四月初版。內容詳盡記錄考 試內容、概況及結果。 彭公怕出賣給西方的說話，小弟甚表存疑。以小弟所認的彭公，不會有此狹隘的思想。就算是說的話，恐怕是說笑吧？想不宜供之於世，影響彭公形像！”(何譽丙醫師2011.6.2)
[2] As in the case of the herb mahuang 麻黄 (Ephedra; Ephedra sinica; Herba Ephedrae) for asthma. Dr Schmidt from Germany came to Hong Kong and learned it. He never acknowledged it when mahuang drugs were later mass-produced in Germany for asthma. This is also dangerous because mahuang is good for only most asthma cases, but it is a wrong herb for some other asthma cases, which are in traditional Chinese medicine diagnosed differently according to the ‘Eight Categories in Diagnosis (八纲辩证)’.
[3] Dr PANG is survived by a disciple in traditional Chinese medicine: Dr HO Yu-Ping 何誉丙医师in Hong Kong.
[4] Vancouver Community College, Langara Campus, had a study programme on traditional Chinese medicine. Dale Byerstein is a sceptic. He personally tested traditional Chinese medicine. He went to Chinatown and consulted three practitioners of CTM. They gave him three different diagnoses and different prescriptions. Yet none of them could tell he was diabetic. Langara College discontinued the CTM programme.
[5] The History of Medicine: a Very Short Introduction. William Bynum. Oxford: University Press, 2008, p. 10.
[6] Ibid, p. 12.
[7] Ibid, p. 12.
[9] Authors 作者
Professor LI Peiwen 李文沛教授graduated in 1967 from Beijing University of Medicine with a Bachelor of Medicine degree. Since 1984, Professor LI has been Chief Doctor and Director of the TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) Oncology Department of the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital, Beijing and a supervisor of Ph.D. students. He is Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Association of Ontology in Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine. Professor LI has accumulated 35 years of clinical and research experience in the application of integrated Chinese and Western medicine in the prevention and treatment of cancer and the side effects caused by chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
CHENG Zhiqiang 程志強 (音譯) graduatedin 1995 from Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine with a Bachelor of Medicine degree.
DU Xiuping 杜修平(音譯) graduated in 1982 from Yangzhou University of Medicine with a Bachelor of Medicine degree. From 1982 to 1987, he worked as an internal medicine doctor in the Hospital Affiliated to Jiangsu Salt Company. He graduated Translators 翻譯
MAO Shuzhang 毛樹章, now retired, graduated from Tongji Medical University, Hebei and was Professor of Microbiology at Peking Union Hospital.
BAO Liling 包麗玲 (音譯), also now retired, graduated from Peking Union Medical College in 1955. She was Professor and Chief Doctor of the Ophthalmology of Peking Union Hospital and Shanxi Medical University.
Subject editor 編輯
Trina Ward graduated with a background in anthropology, started studying Chinese medicine in Australia in 1988 and graduated in 1992 after completing an internship at the Shu Guang Hospital in Shanghai and studying Chinese at Feng Chia University, Taiwan. In 2002, she completed an Mphil at Exeter University on safety aspects of Chionese herbal medicine. Practising in London alongside Western doctors, she is keen to promote the integration of Chinese medicine with Western medicine.
Publisher
UK: Donica Publishing Ltd, 2003.
[10] Myoma. A tumour formed of muscular tissue. (Dorland’s Pocket Medical Dictionary, Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1982.
[11] CT = computed tomography. Tomography = any imaging method that produces images of cross-sections of the body.
[13] Qigong Therapy = energy-healing exercise. Management of Cancer with Chinese Medicine, chapter 6, pp. 339-350.
[14] Back cover of the book.
[15] Ibid.
[16] See also a simple and excellent explanation of the theory of Qigong therapy in Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide to CANCER. W. John Diamond, M.D. and W. Lee Cowden, M. D. with Burton Goldberg. Tiburon, California: Future Medicine Publishing, Inc., 1997. Chapter 33: Physical Support Therapies for Reversing Cancer: Qigong, pp. 1005-1025.
[17] Please see my paper “Ghost Liver.”
[18] “What is Dialectic 什么是辯證法?” Conjectures and Refutations. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963, chapter 15, pp. 312-335.
[19] Human Physiology: he Mechanisms of Body Function. Arthur J. Wander et al. New York: McGraw Hill, 1990. (First paragraph of Preface, Introduction, or Chapter 1.)
[20] TCM ‘Liver’ is a ‘ghost’ liver completely different from science-based anatomical liver. Understand it as a system of organs and functions that “smooth the flow of Qi” For example, the anatomical liver has nothing to do with the thyroid, but TCM says hyperthyroidism 甲亢is due to ‘Liver depression 肝郁.’ I am also writing a paper on “Liver Science and Nonsense.”
[21] 黄志杰HUANG Zhijie , 主编editor-in-chief; 李荷君LI Hejun, 责任编辑‘editor-responsible’. 武漢Wuhan：湖北科學技術出版社 Hubei Science and Technology Press, 2009。
[22] Ibid, p. 12.
[23] Management of Cancer with Chinese Medicine. LI Peiwen, CHENG Zhiqiang, and DU Xiuping. Translated by MAO Shuzhang and BAO Liling. UK: Donica Publishing Ltd, 2003, pp. 436-439..)
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