Western Medicine vs. Eastern Medicines

I think an adequate generalization would be that Western medicine has certain diseases and conditions at which it excels immensely, but that there are many conditions for which it either struggles to treat/cure, or for which it has found no effective treatment.

Notably, there are many specific diseases and ailments for which western science has developed a cure. Examples range from the outrageous successes against polio and smallpox to the recent H1N1 outbreak. Surgical procedures are also immensely beneficial when such procedures are appropriately indicated. Organ replacements directly save lives. Trauma medicine saves millions of lives, as well. I'm sure there are a host of medical conditions for which western medicine has an excellent track record, something akin to a 90%+ success rate with little to no complications, side effects.

Western medicine has struggled, however, with a host of chronic illnesses. Many of these are diseases which affect the body in a holistic manner, and for which western medicine currently has an inadequate conceptual grasp over. Autoimmune diseases lie in this category. In fact, autoimmune diseases are often a catch-phrase for a certain subset of chronic illness which involve the immune system somehow, but how or why is uncertain.

For many of these chronic illnesses, patients have found solace in various Eastern traditions, ranging from acupuncture to Ayurveda to traditional Chinese medicine. These traditions are often rooted in over a thousand years of experiential medicine. They are much more holistic in nature and are often able to provide more efficacious answers to chronic illnesses. However, due to the inconsistent nature of these teachings and the way their knowledge is passed on, there is a high degree of variability in Eastern medicine prescriptions. A knowledgeable, well-trained practitioner is invaluable here, and can help increase one's chances for an effective treatment.

In essence, they each have their strengths and weaknesses. How does one choose which to use? I would probably use the following rule of thumb, given no financial constraints: Consult a western doctor or two or three, and if they have a strong consensus in diagnosis and treatment, find out the efficacy. If the prescribed treatment is extremely effective: 90-99% effective cure rate, and has minimal or marginal side effects, I would go with the western approach. However, many medical conditions would fail this test. At that point, I would explore complementary and alternative medicinal remedies. Note that this is a very quick and dirty rule of thumb. The actual conditions and diagnosis would greatly influence any decision I made.

Earth Day Fail.

I just wrote the following letter to www.climatecentral.org, a nonprofit billed as trying to bridge scientists and the public to provide clear up-to-date info and help educate ppl and help them make decisions.

Hi,

Yesterday, I attended Earth Fair in San Diego.  It is billed as the largest free earth day event in the world with over 70,000 visitors.  Among the music, food, and entertainment were what seemed like a million booths from corporations, individuals, and non-profits alike trying to sell products, educate people, obtain signatures, publicize, etc.  I searched through the official index beforehand and I searched the whole complex for one booth dedicated to (a) educating the public about the severity of climate change, (b) disseminating the truth of and science behind climate change (there are still a lot of climate denialists out there), or (c) empowering people to use said knowledge to influence public policy.

The closest I found was the Citizens Climate Lobby (www.citizensclimatelobby.org), a group dedicated to grassroots lobbying.  While I applaud their action, as well as the actions of all the groups out there helping people "green" their everyday lives via products, awareness, recycling, reduced emissions, etc., none of it seems adequate.

Am I wrong to think that there should have been a much greater "Climate Change Awareness" presence at such an event?  Am I wrong to think that there should be resources or information that press people to "Join here, Sign up, Sign here, Do this, Act now" to help prevent climate change.  

The lady at the Citizens Climate Lobby booth said that people want to put on blinders and ignore the fact that climate change is an extremely real and imminent danger.  Well, is the answer to stop trying to educate them since they'll ignore you anyways?  It can't be.

I can only come to two conclusions as to the cause of this startling lack.  Either the movement to mitigate climate change has not reached the maturity where they reach out at events like this, or it was tried and found to lack efficacy.  The latter rationale seems thin.  When groups promoting Atheism and Humanism are at the event, and every local watershed has multiple nonprofits trying to raise awareness, then why not raise awareness about climate change.   Especially with the recent spate of public attacks against climate change wouldn't an event like this be ideal for debunking those attacks and educating the public?

I would love your thoughts how or why this happened.

Thanks.

New Directions

So among the myriad reasons why I haven't been blogging is that I feel like this blog is being pulled in too many different directions.

I've been using it as a journal/diary for self-analysis, as a philosophy of mind/cognitive science blog, as a place to talk about self-empowerment, and as a planning area for my days, weeks, years, and life.

I have a ton of posts that are all unpublished simply because I'm no longer sure where I should be publishing them.

What I will be doing over the next 2 weeks:  Separating this blog into 2, possibly 3 distinct sites.  One will be very scientific-oriented, with a heavy emphasis on Cognitive Science, Philosophy of Mind, and Psychology.  One will be very personal, and may even be private, with a heavy emphasis on my own personal growth, life planning, and possibly even daily activities if I have time to blog that much.  The myriad of my posts that don't fall into one of these two categories will either be posted to a third blog, or something else.

What will I do with this blog and its archives?  I'm not sure at this point.  I may eventually resort these posts and categorize, then move them into the correct new blog.  Or I may just archive this whole blog and mothball it.

I apologize to all of my regular readers, all 2 of you, who have missed me for the last three months.  If any of you do read this and want to follow me on my personal blog, please comment or message me, and I will be sure to let you know the subsequent address and allow you to read, even if I make it semi-private.

The cog-sci blog will be public for certain, and will probably be linked to my irl identity.  Eventually, I'd like to link both, and perhaps will, soon.  Time will tell.