回复Yi.Feng的评论:
很欣赏你独立思考的精神.
1)中医是源于数千年来的祖国医学实践,有其存在的合理性.我不想也不愿去否定她,但是她有其自身的局限性,她自身有个继承及发展局限性的问题,而数千年前的科学显然要落后于现代科学很多很多.有个朋友打了一个形象的比喻,比如说有了电灯,我们不必使用蜡烛来照明,有了飞机汽车我们不必步行骑马旅行;但有人执意去用蜡烛或步行骑马,那就随他去吧;但是如果他强行要求别人这样做或执意向别人推销,那就不对了.
2)As I mentioned above. There is a question of "opportunity waste". As a researcher, If you focus or spend your time in a wrong direction or subject, your success will be jeopardized. It is also true for patients when they seek for therapeutics.
3) 因为40亿年的进化,我们周围的自然及我们自身是非常复杂的.科学研究中有许许多多的死胡同.We are just not smart enough to know which one is deadend or how to explain a lot of things. 2004年LASKER奖获得者RON EVANS (他及另外两位获奖者在Nuclear Receptor领域的贡献将是今后几年NOBEL奖的有力争夺者)的一句话到出了科学研究的真谛 - Science is about to ask right questions. So, a good scientist needs to know how to ask the right (and big) questions. Curiosity is the basis for science, but not all of that will yield fruitful results. But this should not daunt us away to think.
Thanks for your comments. Hope this will help clarify.
Yes, I agree with your viewpoint – both western and Chinese (and other cultures) medicine offer their strengths and at times complimenting each other. The ultimate goal is to benefit the health!!
回复孤舟蓑笠翁50的评论:
Thanks for your comments.
To cure the disease is the ultimate goal of medicine practice. However, we are not smart enough to figure out how to do it; instead we were able to work out many ways to ameliorate the symptoms of the diseases. For pharmaceutical companies, curing a disease usually does not make as much profit as providing a treatment simply because one the disease is cured a medicine is no longer needed. But this does not mean the pharmaceuticals companies do not aim at developing curing medicine - it is just difficult to do so.
孤舟蓑笠翁50 发表评论于
Excellent article – thanks very much …
I used to teach Biomedical Engineering in a medical school. I have heard so many 药理教研组老师 complain about the drastic (and unfair) difference it is to bring a new西药to the marketplace compare to中药.
A new西药 undergoes numerous, rigorous and repeated steps and all it need for a new 中药is one successful case!
On the other hand, I don’t understand why the西药 focuses on treatment instead of cure – I know many friends that have to take the medicine for LIFE!! Is that because the pharmaceutical companies are only interested in making money by making the patient addicted to those drugs?
回复美舟木人的评论:
Lamivudine (http://www.lamivudine.com) and Adefovir are first developed for treatment of HIV, but now are widely used for HBV patients. They both are available in China.
Few modern medines, if any, were "stolen" from Chinese Traditional medicine. I can compose another article discussing the developing history of many breakthrough western medicines. Those natural medicines widely used in Western medicine were all sought out and validated through modern screening process. They were nothing to do with Chinese Traditional Medicine. I work in a Top-ten US drug company, it is always a challenge to find any valuable hits from natural products (we have library consists of more than 100,000 natural products or fractions). Most of valuable hits are from synthetic compounds.
There is a question of "opportunity waste". As a researcher, If you focus or spend your time in a wrong direction or subject, your success will be jeopardized. It is also true for patients.