NO ART IS PERFECT. NO DISCIPLINE FOR ALL DISEASES.
Posted on January 7th, 2010 in Alternative Medicine Ancient_Art, Treatment
I don’t know which one is the best medicine, but the truly medicine considers the human body as to the means by which it is cured and by which it is driven away from health. The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes. Therefore in medicine we ought to know the causes of sickness and health. And because health and sickness and their causes are sometimes manifest, and sometimes hidden and not to be comprehended except by the study of symptoms, we must also study the symptoms of health and disease. Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials. Of these causes there are four kinds: material, efficient, formal, and final. It was explained by Ibnu Sina (973-1037).
Material causes, on which health and sickness depend, are— the affected member, which is the immediate subject, and the humors; and in these are the elements. And these two are subjects that, according to their mixing together, alter. In the composition and alteration of the substance which is thus composed, a certain unity is attained.
Efficient causes are the causes changing and preserving the conditions of the human body; as airs, and what are united with them; and evacuation and retention; and districts and cities, and habitable places, and what are united with them; and changes in age and diversities in it, and in races and arts and manners, and bodily and animate movings and restings, and sleepings and wakings on account of them; and in things which befall the human body when they touch it, and are either in accordance or at variance with nature.
Formal causes are physical constitutions, and combinations and virtues which result from them.
Final causes are operations. And in the science of operations lies the science of virtues, as we have set forth. These are the subjects of the doctrine of medicine; whence one inquires concerning the disease and curing of the human body. One ought to attain perfection in this research; namely, how health may be preserved and sickness cured. And the causes of this kind are rules in eating and drinking, and the choice of air, and the measure of exercise and rest; and doctoring with medicines and doctoring with the hands. All this with physicians is according to three species: the well, the sick, and the medium of whom we have spoken.
*Source : Charles F. Horne, ed., The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, (New York: Parke, Austin, & Lipscomb, 1917), Vol. VI: Medieval Arabia, pp. 90-91.
Think that Ibnu Sina was not only a medical expert, but also a spiritual guru. When he describe medicine to us, you might see that it is integral medicine which can do such a thing. If you have read my other articles, you will see that I gave many alternative medical discipline examples which have their own specialty. Just said, vitiligo. According to the testimony of my colleague, acupuncture can cure vitiligo. I don’t know if other discipline can do the same. Then, there’s a good progress to cure autism with homeopathy and music therapy. Cranio therapy are the best therapy for head-ache I ever know. But, whenever you get Seborroicha Dermatitis, selenium sulfida is the best solution. When your child get seizure, I don’t find any cure better than Diazepam, Phenobarbital, and its derivate. If you have chronic renal failure, what can acupuncture do to lower your blood-ureum?
No art is perfect. No discipline for all diseases. This is the fact that we must face with. Medical doctor must realize that no art is perfect. I don’t know how to unite all of the medicine, because it’s rather impossible to do such a thing. Andrew Weil, MD and Dr. Mehmed Oz are some of them who join into integral medicine, not to merge all of the discipline, but to make them cooperate each other. This could be a hard work, but it’s truly brilliant. It should become the face of future medicine.
I dream about the future of medicine. There’s no gap between conventional and alternative medicine. There’s no hate each other. But, since each discipline claimed the best therapy for all diseases, I left my hope in my dream. I wish one day integral medicine will be called as an advanced medicine, the next generation of medical knowledge, full-holistic-body-oriented.
There’s the Hippocrates oath. Or may be we might call as the Hippocrates hope. So, let’s review something we probably missed.
1. To hold my teacher in this art on a par with my parents. To make my teacher a partner in my livelihood . To look after my teacher and financially share with her/him when s/he is in need. To consider him/her as a brother/sister along with his/her family. To teach his/her family the art of medicine, if they want to learn it, without tuition or any other conditions of service. To impart all the lessons necessary to practice medicine to my own sons and daughters, the sons and daughters of my teacher and to my own students, who have taken this oath-but to no one else.
2. I will help the sick according to my skill and judgment, but never with an intent to do harm or injury to another.
3. I will never administer poison to anyone-even when asked to do so. Nor will I ever suggest a way that others (even the patient) could do so. Similarly, I will never induce an abortion. Instead, I will keep holy my life and art.
4. I will not engage in surgery–not even upon suffers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of others who do this work.
5. Whoever I visit, rich or poor, I will concern myself with the well being of the sick. I will commit no intentional misdeeds, nor any other harmful action such as engaging in sexual relations with my patients (regardless of their status).
6. Whatever I hear or see in the course of my professional duties (or even outside the course of treatment) regarding my patients is strictly confidential and I will not allow it to be spread about. But instead, will hold these as holy secrets.
One big world of medicine
Andrew Weil wrote in his book Spontaneous Healing, “By modern medicine, we can handle so many cases, but as many as unhandle cases.” If we do like to open our eyes, see the world of diseases, they can’t differentiate which one is the conventional medicine, which one is the complementary one. It’s human who differentiate so well to judge other discipline. I don’t say that only conventional medicine do that, but also complementary do the exactly same thing. Don’t you know it is supposed to be one big world of medicine? It can be said whenever complementary medicine end, it also would be the end of conventional medicine. Why do I say so? Simple. You can’t handle all of them since there’s no the best medicine.
Sometimes I thought that diseases is on the way to find their own cure. But, human hide it from them. So, this disease become angry and attack human. This might sound funny, but when we see the world of medicine has broken piece by piece, we can assume that we let ourselves be attacked by disease. The joke was on us. So, please don’t let it be.
“Patient’s hope will always be the strongest ally for a doctor.”
Norman Cousins
Feel free to comment.
Related posts:
- WHAT DID THEY SAY ABOUT ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE?
- ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE : HARD TO BELIEVE, EASY TO UNDERSTAND
- MODERN THERAPY FROM ANCIENT ART
- CAM TREATMENT FOR LEUKEMIA
- IN SEARCH OF NATURE’S SECRET
Assalamualaikum. Hello, I am Fauzan. Thank you for visiting my blog. To find out more about this site, please visit
*Widget By mfaisal
Leave a Comment