Tradition and Modern: Public Debate between Traditional Medicine Researcher and Philosopher

Ding-Ding Wang , Xiong-Zhi Wu, Xue-Jun Wu

1 Beijing University; 2 Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital; 3 Hebei Wansui Pharmaceutical Group.

Wu Xuejun: Professor Wu, I would like to know:What is ideal medicine in the future in your mind?

Wu Xiongzhi:It is a newly-built medicine, namely, it is a precision medicine on the basis of the systematic medicine. While the prerequisite to achieve is a solution to the relationships of disease, syndrome and symptom, which is to crack the complex of syndrome as well as multi-elements and multi-targets of prescriptions based on the theory of system biology.And then prescriptions can be made out precisely according to patients’ gene expression profiling on account of precision medicine. Furthermore, we should establish mathematical model to convert to artificial intelligence instead of depending on traditional doctors’ subjective dialectics.

Wang Dingding:In my imagination, NamiRobot will be used to repair any abnormal cells in 2045, but doctors estimate the general physical conditions of the patients’ and set up individual treatment plans by combing traditional medicine and western medicine.

Wu Xuejun: Will modern medicine replace traditional medicine definitely in the future?

Wu Xiongzhi:No, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)will not be replaced by modern medicine. Moreover,depending on modern bio-scientific technology, TCM will develop further and finally create a new medicine.The differences between TCM and modern medicine will disappear. The challenge now is that there are rare doctors who proficient in both traditional and modern medicine. What is worse, they could not diagnose diseases in both ways. When I was practicing Tai Chi,the coach told me a secret that as soon as you were familiar with the basic settings of Tai Chi, you can practice by exchanging left and right hand’s settings,gradually both hands can practice optionally with no settings. It was amazing when I witnessed my coach’s Tai Chi by exchanging left and right hand. Traditional and modern medicine are like left and right hand in Tai Chi, so it is difficult to coordinate them. I did not get used to them at the very beginning, but after practicing for years, I know them well and can operate them coordinately without any impact.

Wu Xuejun: Professor Wang, Could you please talk about the disadvantages of western methodology in terms of life phenomenon from the perspective of philosophy and statistics?

Wang Dingding:In general, the most effective ways of western medicine for treating patients are examination methods and surgeries. The challenge of western medicine is that the ways of examination and treatment have reached molecules level, but the idea of philosophy is still to expel diseases as the basic principle. Therefore, in view of western medicine, the diseases come up endlessly. And the treatments in western medicine are increasingly depending on statistics, but the main diseases are becoming individualization with the time going. On the contrary,traditional medicine focuses on individualized treatments.

Wu Xiongzhi: Precision medicine in western medicine is that doctors set up different treatment plans for patients according to their own gene expression, which is called as individualized treatment.

Wang Dingding:The technologies of western medicine tend to be individualized, but they rely on statistics in philosophy, which is blocking individualization.

Wu Xiongzhi:Each of the following such as systems biology, network pharmacology, prevision medicine and big data analytics is perfect combination of entirety and individual in high level. Computer assisted to design drug combinations, which is just like the atomic bomb, can help us get quite a few important preferences. The research of network pharmacology can foresee directly drug targets and the relationship of monarch, minister, assistant and guide in the drugs. So far, the latest big data analytics have broken away from traditional statistics, and statistics have multivariate statistics and statistics exploration functions, which belongs to advanced statistics and can help people to explore in unknown fields.

Wu Xiongzhi:Researchers in traditional medicine should learn from their rival.

Wang Dingding:Yes, we should learn from each other,but what should we learn? In traditional medical records, the doctors especially analyze the particular cases, but the doctors in western medicine emphasize the common cases.

Wu Xiongzhi:It is effective to treat patients with lymphoma by hormone of western medicine. I learned to use the function of quasi cortical hormone of liguorice, and we take 60g of liguorice and used its function of quasi cortical hormone, together with multiple herbs which are used for getting rid of side-effects of liguorice. As a result, the drug is also effective and much safer than western drug. Traditional and modern medicine should know each other and take use of their respective advantages and integrate into its own system.