Thursday, January 25, 2007

Day +204

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

I met an Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) patient in UH during my 2nd cycle of chemotherapy in UH. He was a retired school headmaster. In one occasion, we stayed next to each other in the ward. He was a very socialable man who talked a lot. While other people addressed me as “Ting” or “David”, he insisted to address me “Mr. Ting” (陈先生). In return, I addressed him “Headmaster”(校长) :-)

He told me he was still the chairman of 18 forms Tai Chi Chun (18 式太极拳) Association of Federal Territory. He used to teach hundreds of students to practice Tai Chi Chun. Unfortunately, he was also diagnosed with Leukaemia.

This gave me a clearer picture on the exaggerated claims of certain practices has toward our health. Now if someone told me practicing Tai Chi Chun will make us disease free, stay 100% healthy, I will have a second thought of it. While these practices do bring certain benefits to our health, it is definitely an over-claim to say that they are panacea (万灵丹) to our health problem.

See you next post :-)
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2 comments:

M R said...

Tai qi and many forms of "alternative medicine", another route from the orthodox medicine, have taken forms in ways we have no means to catch up with. The idea and concept behind each alternative vary, some may be bizarre. Even to quote tai qi as an example, we may need to accept concept of internal and external environments, and the qi (energy) regulated well within the internal until it's disturbed by the environment. Very typical chinese approach. But to the part of metaphysics in tai qi pratice, many have left a huge room of doubt and skeptic. That has to do with unity with god, heaven and earth, etc.

Chiropractice, aroma tx, massage, reflexology, etc, they are so many forms and too little scientific data. However, the qx may post and challenge the orthodox medicine, to what extent of the advancement in modern medicine we have all the parameter and measures to eliminate all sicknesses?

They may be many forms of "tx", but we may also need to bear in mind, there are many forms of illnesses, not just within the physical regime. As for a total healing, we treat physically, mentally, socially, cognitively.

January 26, 2007 9:41 PM
David said...

Thank for the valuable information, Jimmy :-)

January 27, 2007 9:14 AM

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