Fearful symmetry

A tiger is a large-hearted gentleman with boundless courage and when he is exterminated – as exterminated he will be unless public opinion rallies to his support – India will be the poorer by having lost the finest of her fauna
— Colonel Jim Corbett, 1944

The Guardian reports on the parlous state of tigers in the wild:

There are now just 3,200 tigers left in the wild. Three of the nine subspecies (the Bali, Javan and Caspian tigers) are extinct; a fourth, the South China, is also lost to the wild, with a few dozen specimens surviving in captivity.

Altie organisations argue that tigers are no longer used for Traditional Chinese Medicine. Andrew Lam has a bizarre argument that TCM never endorsed using tiger parts for enhancing virility. In fact:

Many doctors and practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine are angered by the suggestion by some environmentalists that tiger parts are prescribed as aphrodisiacs in TCM. Tiger parts, and tiger derived medicines -- especially tiger bone, tiger bone plaster, and tiger bone pills -- have indeed been constituents of the official pharmacopoeia of TCM, even appearing in textbooks used at Universities in Beijing as late as the early nineties and unfortunately, continue to be used to this day. However, tiger bone derivatives are principally used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other bone and joint related illnesses, and have never been used as aphrodisiacs within TCM.

So killing tigers because of a magical belief that their bones cure arthritis is different from killing tigers because of a magical belief that their bones cure impotence is relevant exactly how? The American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, on the other hand, believes that tiger parts are no longer used in TCM, at least in China.

Tiger trade bans have helped wild tigers, and alternatives to tiger bone are effective and plentiful. Why waste 14 years of progress by TCM, China and the world in reducing the market for tiger products?

The 'alternative' proposed is the dead parts of mole rats which, in an apparently powerful conjunction of TCM and homeopathy (since less mole rate is more powerful than more tiger), are even better than tiger bits.

In May 2007, the prestigious, state-owned laboratories at Tanggula Pharmaceutical Company, which is supported by China’s Northwest Institute of Biology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, published results of 10 years of research showing that sailong (mole rat) bone “can completely substitute tiger bone for the effective treatment of rheumatism. Although sailong bone is smaller than tiger bone… its strength is obviously higher than tiger.”

China Daily reported in 2007

More than 20 years ago, Professor Zhang Baochen from the institute began to research the Sailong. He was amazed to find during his dissection of the rats that no cases of arthritis or other bone diseases had ever been identified in this species although the rats live in areas of low temperatures and high humidity.

Zhang said he realized that this rat's unique ability to fight rheumatism could hold hope for human beings afflicted with this disease.

Perhaps they die before arthritis shows itself? Certainly, dissection of an unspecified number of rats without arthritis doesn't automatically prove that they have some mysterious anti-arthritis powers. Despite more than 20 years of research, EoR was unable to locate any published evidence of these claims.

While mole rat bones may cure rheumatism (or, very probably, may not) the fact is that TCM continues to insist on killing animals in the name of a primitive belief system.

The facts about this remarkable turnaround in the killing of tigers shows the propaganda of TCM proponents for the empty arguments they are:

Tiger experts are agreed on the prime, simple cause of its disappearance: it is being massacred for a lucrative illegal trade in traditional Chinese medicine. Shocking new figures released this week show that parts of between 1,069 and 1,220 tigers were seized between 2000 and April this year – an average of at least 104 animals per year. The vast majority of seizures of parts from illegally killed tigers, including skeletons, claws and skins, were in India, China and Nepal, according to Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network. "With parts of potentially more than 100 wild tigers actually seized each year, one can only speculate what the true numbers of animals are being plundered," says Pauline Verheij of Traffic and WWF.

And the view that the ground up parts of almost extinct animals have magical properties is not confined solely to 'primitive' or 'superstitious' peoples. Westerners are equally prone to trusting in sympathetic magic. Just ask Elle MacPherson. Or all the sharks being killed because of a magical belief that dead sharks cure cancer.

And Australians, of course, are not unfamiliar with the principle of needlessly slaughtering a species to extinction (and, yes, EoR is well aware this is a different sort of tiger hunted to extinction for a different, but equally pointless, reason).

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In a strange twist of synchronicity and quantum entanglement, Andy posted about rhinos while EoR was working on this post.

TCM Stagnates, Dreams of Better Times

Perth has recently been witness to the amazing healing power of alternative medicine to deal with cancer. Just so you understand that this is actually based on science, consider TCM: A Woman's Guide to Healing from Breast Cancer by Nan Lu, O.M.D., L.Ac., with Ellen Schaplowsky (2009). As Ms Schaplowsky enthuses in the introduction:

In his gentle, wry way, Dr. Lu likes to remind his patients and Qigong students that TCM is not “New Age” medicine; nor, he says, is it a patchwork of different healing modalities. He likes to emphasize that TCM is a complete time-tested medical system — the only one that has identified a theory-based root cause for breast cancer. Why is this so important? Once the root cause is known, then specific treatments can be applied. Such is the case with TCM whose work on breast cancer began at least five centuries ago. (p.xi)

Take that evil Western treat-only-the-symptoms medicine! How can you ever compete with a five century head start? So, what are some of those 'root causes'?

Now, many of my patients ask me if stress directly causes cancer. I tell them that it is absolutely critical for women to understand that stress can cause a liver function disorder. When a woman has a liver function disorder, her blood and Qi can stagnate and cause a breach in her immune system. When this happens, she becomes vulnerable to breast cancer. (p.23)

And you thought beliefs about Qi and how it can stagnate in your liver were just the interpretations of the ancients as they attempted to understand disease? No. If it's five centuries old it must be correct. Of course, it's not that simple. No, to understand cancer, you need to know the whole aetiology of cancer:

THE TCM DEFINITION OF CANCER:
QI DEFICIENCY, COLD, AND STAGNATION
Ancient practitioners recognized that when there is cancer, three major conditions are present: Qi deficiency, cold, and stagnation. Cancer carries a cold or yin energy. Its very essence is cold or frozen. That’s why heat treatments with lasers and infrared lights are currently being explored to eliminate cancerous growths. Qi deficiency (which means your organs do not have enough Qi to perform their natural functions) can lead to cold. If a Qi deficiency continues over time, it will inevitably cause Qi or blood stagnation (which means that these intertwined forces become blocked in their natural, healthy flow through the body). When this condition occurs, a lump or mass will inevitably develop. The condition of stagnation then means the body’s internal environment will become cold. If the body is further insulted by external cold, this condition will worsen. If you have cancer, no matter what kind, these three conditions will always be present: Qi deficiency, blood stagnation, and cold in the meridians or specific organs. I urge you to take good care of yourself if you suffer from one or more of these conditions. Your body
now offers the right environment for cancer to develop. To prevent or treat breast cancer, TCM has many treatments to address these particular conditions. The first thing practitioners do is try to increase overall Qi, then break up any stagnation, and then relieve cold. (pp.44-45)

So cancer is caused by a deficiency of a magical life force that is invisible, has no mass or size; by stagnant blood (which EoR would have thought was more indicative of circulatory problems); and a further undetectable magic 'cold' in the invisible nonexistent life force. Easy, eh? Not only that, it's quite clear where exactly the 'stagnation' is occurring, since it will show up by where your breast cancer is.

According to TCM meridian theory, if the stomach meridian’s Qi stagnates in the breast area, then your breast cancer will show up in the outer, upper quadrant or on the center line that runs through the breast. If your kidney meridian’s Qi stagnates in your breast area, then your cancer will appear in the inside upper quadrant. If your liver meridian’s Qi stagnates in the breast area, then your cancer will develop in the outer, lower quadrant. Eighty-five percent of breast cancers occur in these three areas. Keeping your Qi running smoothly in these three major meridians can dramatically increase your chances of controlling the development of breast cancer, or its recurrence. Keeping your Qi running smoothly in these three critical meridians can also help keep your Inborn Qi, which resides in the kidney, strong and your whole body functioning in harmony. When this happens, you can help yourself avoid cancer’s energy pattern — even with a genetic or inherited predisposition for this disease. (pp.92-93)

Dr Lu is also fond, throughout the book, of using the automobile analogy which, at various times, has warning lights come on, runs out of oil, gets stuck in traffic jams and so on. EoR would, however, like to see a TCM Mechanic rush to the scene and attempt to warm and rebalance the stagnant automotive Qi in the brake meridian, or diagnose which part is failing from where exactly the bumps are on the bodywork.

In the Magical World of TCM, every body part seems to mirror every other body part. Iridology is well known (but which part of the iris represents the iris, and does this area also have a smaller part that represents the iris representation, and that part must also have an iris representation-representation, ad infinitum?), as is reflexology (but which part of the foot represents the foot, etc etc). Add to these the powerful diagnostic tool of nosology:

To show you how this works specifically, let’s look at the nose as a miniature of your body. The long bone from the bridge to the tip of your nose reflects your body’s spine; the curves at the nostrils reflect the health of your hip joints. The middle of the tip of your nose reflects the condition of your stomach. If you have skin problems on your nose, I am able to recognize which organs are causing them. A red nose means that the stomach is suffering from a condition of excess heat. This principle applies to almost all the body parts. Each one represents the entire body in miniature. Reflexology is based on this principle. For example, the
bottom of your foot is regarded as a map of your entire body. Your hand is also a body map. So are your face, your tongue, your nose and the bone of your index finger, and so on. (p.144)

As if that's not sufficient diagnostic possibilities, you can also tell what's wrong by what time you wake up:

TCM theory states that Universal energy changes every two hours and your body’s meridian and organ energies respond to and match these changes. For example, energy changes start with the lung, which is “on duty” or in charge of the body from 3:00 to 5:00 A.M. If your lung’s Qi has a problem, then you might find yourself waking up in this time period. Or, you might wake up with a physical problem like a cough during these hours. Here are the other times of Universal energy changes and their related organs:

3:00 A.M.–5:00 A.M. Lung
5:00 A.M.–7:00 A.M. Large intestine
7:00 A.M.–9:00 A.M. Spleen
9:00 A.M.–11:00 A.M. Stomach
11:00 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Heart
1:00 P.M.–3:00P.M. Small intestine
3:00 P.M.–5:00 P.M. Bladder
5:00 P.M.–7:00 P.M. Kidney
7:00 P.M.–9:00 P.M. Pericardium
9:00 P.M.–11:00 P.M. Triple warmer
11:00 P.M.–1:00 A.M. Gallbladder
1:00 A.M.–3:00 A.M. Liver (pp.221-222)

Failing all those, you might need to use dream interpretation, or possibly tarot cards, or tea leaf reading.

Dream diagnosis or interpretation is one tool TCM uses to understand a patient’s physical condition. Qi problems in the internal organs show up in different kinds of dreams. For instance, if your heart Qi is deficient, you might feel yourself falling out of the sky or off a tall building. If you have a kidney Qi deficiency, you might have dreams that are connected to drowning or being under water, or being in a boat that is capsizing. Or, you might find yourself being fearful and hiding from something in your dreams. If you refer to the Five Element Theory chart on chapter 2, you can see where this insight comes from. Water is the element
of the kidney and fear is its ruling emotion. You can gain more insight into your dreams by studying the Five Element Theory chart. If you always see yourself arguing or fighting or things are destroyed in your dreams, then you might have a parasite, or these could be signals that your internal problem might be worsening. (p.222)

They might also be signs that you're falling for a disproven medical system, and that's it time to update your 'tools' and 'theory'.

Online, Nan Lu also recommends the efficacy of a miracle to cure breast cancer.

To help create conditions that favor a miracle, return to moments in your life when you were truly happy. Recall these memories often; they are alive within your cells today. They have the ability to stimulate your powerful life force. Trust that you are the miracle. Trust that your life has purpose. Love your self. Make yourself, not others, happy first. Experience the joy of your own vitality and truly live your miraculous life!