Drugs Not Equal To Medicine（药物不等于医学）

l****2

    In the debate between Chinese traditional medicine and modern medicine, some of those supporting the former argue about the bad side with the side-effects of western drugs. Though drugs belong to medical therapy, but they are not all the medical issues. Sometime medicine does not order the patients to take pills, but to ask them to avoid taking some pills. Drugs are not the only thing that doctors could provide to their patients. Besides drugs, there are also advices on living, food, activity, mental issues, etc. For those whose conditions could not be improved by drugs, doctors might provide other therapies, such as surgery or organ transplantation. Someone condemning the modern medicine always begin with the side-effects and high prices of drugs, just like judging a person only by his accent.
    For example, chronic gastritis is the most common disease of my specialty, the digestive diseases. There is no single drug with the effects radical curing this disease. In the practice, some patients’ symptoms persist even after long periods of treatment with three or four kinds of drugs. But after careful history taking and communication with the patients about their personal lives, some doctors could find the true causes of their symptoms, such as family loss, sleep disorder, heavy smoke or drink, and unnecessary health care products consuming. After deserting those inducements, some patients’ complaints would be vanished without any drugs. That is also called medicine. By understanding the diseases, doctors could serve their patients with only some words.
    Fraud doesn’t do that way. They don’t understand the medicine or any specific diseases. But they know people’s attitude well. Some patients seek the fraud’s help after they failed with the formal medical service. Limited by the medical development and attitude of objectiveness and science, doctor’s statement seems to be less desirable than the fraud’s, which might be wonderful and dramatic. All they want to do is making something believed by patients, even they don’t believe by themselves. Whether the products they sell are effective or harmful is not their focus. Of course, that could never be called medicine.
中文版：
    在对于中医的争论中，有些支持中医的人攻击西医的论据就是西药的副作用。尽管药物属于治疗的一部分，但他们不是医学的全部。有些时候医学不是让病人吃药，反而会让病人不吃药。药物不是医生可以提供给病人的唯一东西。除去药物，还有对生活、饮食、活动和情绪的建议。对于某些病情不能经过药物控制的病人，医生还会提供其他的治疗方法比如手术和器官移植。许多人攻击现代医学总是从药物的副作用和价格开始，就如同判断一个人仅仅通过他的口音。
    举个例子，慢性胃炎是我这个专业里最常见的疾病。目前没有一个药可以单独治愈这种疾病。现实中，很多病人即便是长期服用三种甚至四种以上的药物症状仍然可能持续。但是通过详细的病史采集以及和病人在个人生活上的沟通，有些医生可发现病人症状的真实原因，比如亲人去世、睡眠障碍、吸烟酗酒以及没有必要的保健品等等。通过抛弃这些诱因，很多人的症状可以在不用药物的情况下消失。通过理解某种疾病，医生可以仅仅通过语言去服务病人。
    骗子却不是这么做的。他们不懂得医学或任何一种疾病。但是他们很懂得病人的态度。许多病人是在寻求正规医疗服务不满意后去找骗子帮忙的。由于受到医学发展和客观科学态度的影响，医生的阐述可能没有骗子戏剧化的语言吸引人。骗子们要做的只是让病人相信一些连骗子自己都不相信的东西。产品是否有效还是有害不是他们关心的焦点。这当然更不是医学。