by Bob Flaws

Today I got an e-mail from a practitioner asking for advice on explaining Chinese medicine to laypeople. The gist of the question was whether I believe laypeople can understand Chinese medicine on its own terms, and the answer to that question is an unequivocal "Yes, they can." Granted, I am a professional communicator and was so long before I became a professional practitioner of Chinese medicine. Nevertheless, it is my experience over the last 30 years that patients and laypeople in general can understand Chinese medicine on its own terms if it is explained clearly, succinctly, and without apology.

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First of all, I introduce the idea that Chinese medicine's description of the human body and disease is merely a map created by the human mind. Next I explain that a map is not the terrain the map is describing, and that there can be several different kinds of maps of the same terrain depending on the purpose of the map. For instance, I live in Colorado, and we can have road maps of Colorado, population density maps of Colorado, altitude maps of Colorado, rainfall maps of Colorado, income maps of Colorado, vegetation maps of Colorado, etc. Depending on what you are trying to map, there can be an infinite number of maps of Colorado, each one different from the other, but each valid for its own purposes.

Once I have gotten the listener to understand this idea of the difference between a map and the terrain it describes, I then go on to explain that the biomedical map of the body we all learn in high school biology is only one potentially valid map of the body. It is the map of modern Western medicine. But Chinese have developed their own map of the human body over not less than 2,500 years, and that map is just as valid even though it is very, very different from the biomedical map. The purpose of this Chinese medical map is to diagnose disease states and propose rational treatment plans for those disease states using acupuncture-moxibustion, Chinese herbal medicine, Chinese dietary therapy, etc. As long as treatment logically based on that Chinese medical map results in the healing or halting of disease and the promotion of health, the intended purpose of the map has been accomplished. Therefore, the map was pragmatically useful if only (and just like the Western medical map) only provisionally true.

Personally, I find that the majority of my patients can understand all this -- that there can be different maps of the body and its diseases that these different maps may all be pragmatically effective in clinical practice. However, (and here's the important part,) just as it is wrong to use a rainfall map to decide the best route of driving from Colorado Springs to Boulder, it's important to keep medical maps separate. In other words, one needs to understand the Chinese medical map on its own terms -- that one should not try to reduce it to or try explain it by the Western biomedical map. That would be like comparing apples to oranges.

Ok, so now we have the listener grasping (in a simple and elemental way) systems theory (even though we have not introduced that term). This means that the listener is ready to accept that there can be different descriptions of the human body and its diseases that are each valid and true on their own ground and in their own terms. Now I go on to explain that the Chinese medical map of the body and its diseases is based on metaphors taken from our every day physical world. The Chinese medical map likens the body to a miniature world with its weather patterns, mountains and valleys, river, lakes, and seas as well as its own system of government and distribution of resources, and that health is nothing other than the maintenance of a dynamic balance in this internal environment. So, instead of talking about microbes, cells, enzymes, and DNA, Chinese medicine talks about hot and cold, wet and dry; it talks about wood, fire, earth, metal, and water; it talks about too much and too little; and it talks about the movement of various substances and liquids throughout the body via a system of channels and network vessels. I explain how this every-day, common-sense description of the body and its function is immediately understandable to all of us without a lot of long Latin and Greek scientific words for concepts we don't understand and can't really experience for ourselves in any case. I explain how easy it is for all of us to understand that our lungs are too wet or too dry or that our body is running too hot or too cold.

In fact, such a common-sense, every-day description of the body and its diseases is very empowering. While you may not have the first foggiest notion of what to do for yourself if you are told that you have, for instance, the swine flu virus, if I tell you that your lungs are too wet and that certain foods are prone to engender too much dampness in your lungs, then you immediately know not to eat too many of those foods. Most patients like being empowered to understand and to actually do something for their own health, and the Chinese medical map does exactly that in a very rational way. Once people see the immediate personal benefits of this kind of map, the buy-in is usually also immediate and enthusiastic.

When explaining all of this, I try to stay away from words such as qi, yin, and yang. If cornered, I will try to explain these. However, I basically use the "don't ask, don't tell" rule. If patients don't bring up these terms, neither do I. Rather, I try to stick to those basic every-day concepts from the personally experienced natural world on which Chinese medicine is ultimately based. I also never denigrate the Western biomedical model. Instead, I say that both models have their strengths and weaknesses, their good and bad points. However, I try not to get into these. Rather, I try to steer the conversation back to the fact that, when trying to determine precipitation you don't use a population density map -- that it's important to use the right map for the job you are doing and not judge that map in terms of other potential maps of the same terrain. In other words, I try to get the listener to stop comparing the Western biomedical map to the Chinese medical map and, more importantly, to stop judging the correctness of the one in terms of the other.

Granted, this is not the simplest task. We are all inculcated with the Western biomedical map at an early age, and this may be the first time someone has suggested to the listener that that map is only one potentially valid map of the body and its diseases. However, the clearer all this is in your own mind, the easier it will be for you to share this vision with your listener. But I guarantee you, it is possible to get patients and laypeople to understand this bimodal way of thinking, and, this bimodal way of thinking is the key to successfully explaining Chinese medical theory to Western listeners.

To help further clarify and achieve buy-in to the Chinese medical map, we send each of our new patients home with a book. Usually this is one of Blue Poppy Press's "Curing" series. Each title in our Curing series discusses the Chinese medical map of a particular disease and then how Chinese medical treatment is given on the basis of that map. These books reiterate what I have told my patients live in office and further explain Chinese medical concepts and procedures that I did not have time to explain. These books, therefore, reinforce my oral message as well as act as a resource for the patient at home. If the patient gets a good result from my treatment, he or she will typically share the book with at least one other person. Since we stamp our clinic's name in the front of each book, the book also acts as a promotional piece bringing in new patients with the same disease. Plus, we roll the price of the book right into the cost of the initial visit. So the book becomes yet another income stream for our clinic. In any case, it is my experience that it is patients who really do buy in to the Chinese medical map that become my life-long patients. Thus I make every effort to explain that map to my patients in terms they can accept and understand without resorting to the Western medical model.

Copyright Blue Poppy Ent., Inc., 2009. All rights reserved.