After everything I've looked into regarding Traditional Chinese Medicine, I never until recently looked at the very foundations of belief and superstition that it was built upon in great detail. Two weeks ago I decided it was time to do just that.
Credit: dockedship, CC 2.0
The post is not by any means exhaustive - It couldn't be, and that's the point. It's unfalsifiable The long and short of it is that the complex web of fantasy tangled around itself in such a way developed over thousands of years, with red herrings and justifications for every dead end and flaw possible, that people can't help but doubt the doubters.
TCM is the master of pseudoscience, masked behind the shadow of culture and political sensitivity, boosted by historical propaganda and the perception of 'exotic' Orientalism.
So although I can't possibly cover everything, I thought it might be interesting to look at actual research that has actually been done by actual scientists trying to find validity to the ideas propagating since ancient times. Recently, Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign has started looming over the shoulder of academia, and is ready to set the strongest example to corrupt publications and researchers the world has seen to date. The CPC know that their money is going wasted on corrupt, biased and overall unreliable researchers, and now China publishes more papers than anywhere else on earth annually, it's time to maybe think about putting some actual quality behind those numbers. One can only hope. So let's see what they're up against, starting today with good ol' Meridian Lines:
Evidence for Meridian Pathways
When I Google the above phrase, I get this:
You might notice that I've actually taken a deep breath and visited these pages, and you also might notice the general theme off these websites:
Dailyhealth, ganlacupuncture, realnatural, buddhistdoor, upliftconnect
When I visit upliftconnect, I get this:
I found one academic-appearing website called 'actcm.edu' - Finally... except, it turns out this means 'American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine'.
I sense an agenda of bias in these results. takes a deep breath
Analysis
G & L Acupuncture states that:
Researchers are finding evidence of structures in the human body that could be analogous to meridians and some have demonstrated the existence of acupoints.
Their source is, interestingly, upliftconnect, who starts off with:
For centuries the ancient wisdom keepers and healers in several traditions had a keen understanding of the energetic body
Nice.
After blabbering on about MRI's and EKG's in the same way modern people spit out the word 'quantum' at every corner, they get to the 'research' from Seoul University which states it has identified a 'Primo-vascular system' which are said to be analogous to meridian pathways - something that a North Korean scientist claimed to have found 50 years ago in the form of ' tubular structures' both within and outside of blood vessels, around organs and under the skin.
This primo-vascular system is said to channel the flow of energy and information via biophotons and DNA.
I'll let that sink in a second. So let's take their word for it and move on. If you're sceptical, then just read the research yourself. In short, upliftconnect says that the Koreans injected 'special' dye that coloured the meridians (rather specific technology given you didn't previously know they existed). They know this worked because the dye didn't appear at non-meridian points. From my understanding, by using this dye specifically targeted to highlight the meridian pathways that they didn't know existed, they were able to take physical photos of the now tangible body system.
The rest of the article just tells you about Qi and how the body needs balance and so on. When I got to the end of the article, I couldn't help but notice there was only a single 2016 reference directing us to 'Slideshare.net', a website that basically allows you to upload powerpoints. This is 78 slides long. Well, I reverse engineered it and managed to find the actual paper. But we'll get back to that.
First, we need to figure out this 'Primo-Vascular System' that everybody is touting on about. How can it be that with all our modern technology, not a single scientist was able to detect them? The argument seems to be that they were so small, but can a single North Korean scientist half a century ago really trump all our knowledge and powerful electron microscopy?
Pixabay
We'll never know. The scientist in question, Bong-Han Kim, didn't publish any formal research, just some research reports, and nobody was able to replicate the findings. It wasn't long until his laboratory was closed and he mysteriously vanished, never to be seen again. Nobody had managed to find this Primo-vascular system ever since until some South Koreans claimed they had in 2002.
Aside from these, no other researchers in plants, animals or people (also animals) had managed to find them. Enter Dr Kwang-Sup Soh, who I have now seen dotted around every single area of research into meridian pathways. Apparently, there's proof now.
Let's ignore for the moment that the existence of PVS doesn't in any way confirm meridian pathways and shows no mechanism how this could ever be practically applied in medicine. Poking needles into the skin seems like an odd way to accurately target something we only apparently have proof of in 2016.
The paper itself is too boring to go into exhaustively, so I went to the discussion section where Kwang addresses the question of why nobody has ever seen them before. He explains that the meridian pathways have been mistaken for fibrin strings, frequently observed in surgeries and the like. Fibrin strings apparently naturally enshroud these pathways when attacked making them near impossible to observe which is why the harmless dye works so well.
He also points out they're small. He also said they're not that small, depending on what question he was answering. Even so, let's assume that there's nothing to 'debunk' in his paper, which you can take the time to read from the sources below.
What we have then, is a list of citations as follows:
- A 50-year-old scientist from North Korea who mysteriously disappeared when nobody could replicate his results
- A single South Korean scientist from 2016 who has his name on the handful of research showing positive results in this area.
In fact, when I look at a review of the last 50 years of research on the system, there he is again, Dr Kwang heading the credits. No matter how legitimate this singular scientist may appear, it's poor journalism when dozens of sites hitting the first page of google results claim there is 'finally proof' of meridian pathways, gloating about how 'western scientists admitted a mind-body connection', and so forth.
The existence of PVS is entirely unproven because it is yet to be replicated. Bong-Han Kim certainly didn't use modern dye microscopy to view some hidden vascular system, so it remains to be seen. As 'sciencebasedmedicine.org' points out, even if it were real, it 'wouldn’t begin to prove that acupuncture works.'
And this is totally true. There is no connection between PVS and meridian pathways other than them both being described as some kind of tubes in living things. But meridian pathways are supposed to be very well established and located tubes, tubes that are on diagrams (See first image) and taught to TCM practitioners to pinpoint with needles and massages and herbs and fire.
How can one extrapolate billions of tubules wrapped around organs and all to mean such historical claims are 'finally proven'?
Easy. By slipping a paycheck under the table.
References:
Slideshare presentation | G&L Acupuncture | Science Based Medicine | Bonghan Circulatory System as an Extension of Acupuncture Meridians | 50 Years of Bong-Han Theory and 10 Years of Primo Vascular System | Some more BS health site claiming the same nonsense
And yet.... Tcm works...or at least it did on me. It was funny falling asleep stuck with needles.
All you've really 'proven' with this post is that that explanation for it's mechanism of action isn't correct. However there's a vast amount of clinical data showing the efficacy of TCM.
Rather than declaring 'psudeoscience', we should be trying to discover WHY it works (after satisfying ourselves that it does work of course).
Homeopathy "works" too but only by placebo effect. That's why the bodies that govern (peddle) homeopathy have declared science an invalid way to investigate homeopathy. Very convenient.
Maybe if it is the relaxing, feeling that someone is caring for you, and stress relief of getting "treatment" that is all psudo science does for you then we could find a better way to deliver that without all the hype and BS and without the risk of people eschewing far more effective treatments and ending up dead prematurely (we all die). I'm thinking of Steve Jobs, Bob Marley, Steve McQueen, Eben Byers, Barry Sheene, Sylvia Millecam, ...
It is pseudoscience because whether or not it works, it doesn't follow the scientific method even closely. It pretends, but it doesn't do. As shown above and in all the other episodes of this series, it doesn't go through the rigorous protocol of peer review, replication and scrutiny that real science has to adhere to.
Something working is irrelevant in this case; acupuncture has been shown to be just as effective if you replace needles with toothpicks that don't penetrate the skin and acupoints with random points all over the body. You could just as well say toothpick-ology is a science and that we just need to figure out why!
So yeah this is what we tend to mean when we say pseudoscience.
Yeah, the massive amount of pseudoscience around TCM makes it difficult to find actual objective research or justify research funding.
Dis one cracked me up
LOL...
But they do practice these acupuncture stuffs and it works for them right? How is that? @least that what Chinese traditional medicine is all about.
Well, there ARE tcm things that work from time to time, but this occurred out of a 'trial and error' practice over thousands of years. In the mean time, more people have died from being poisoned and god knows what else as 'doctors' feed people random deadly plants and herbs until one happens to work. Then we forget about all those who died in the process and hand out a random mystical explanation as to why the one that worked, worked.
Meanwhile real scientists isolated the molecule in the plant, found that it can be found in all these other things, replicated it, checked it for other safety and side effect issues, wrote a publication about it, had it peer reviewed and its studies replicated and approved and send out to the pharmacies.
I've seen people poking needle at various points in their body; claiming that these acupuncture points, when properly poked, could bring therapeutic relief from some forms of diseases.
Or even stimulating the acupressure points.
The one that surprises me most is one marketed here in Nigeria. It's looks like a form of metal rod connected to a kind of computer system. They've made people to believe that, when you hold the metal in your hand, it would scan through your entire body and detect any hidden disease there.
And as funny as it sounds, this is gaining wide spread. It's so amazing how this kind of pseudoscience spreads so fast.
Nice piece buddy
Sounds new and exciting! Electronic super scan machine 2000x, get 'em while you still can!
I'd love to tour the pseudoscience around NIgeria =D
@samminator as pseudo as It looks its quite accurate how is that?.... Let me read this amazing post by @mobbs there might be answers
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I can't think of other small network of tubules rather than the lymphatic system,,
It's true that some patients were relieved after acupuncture but that doesn't mean it actually worked, none of the studies I know about described an effect stronger than placebos.. anyway the two studies you've talked about seem way suspicious,,,another theory is a stimulation of fibroblasts by the external invasion thus enhancing the regenerative ability,, this phenomenon is very obvious in tiger style kung fu fighters who showed increased bone density in their fingers after multiple microfractures but again none of this was proven,,, My opinion is that the whole concept of acupuncture is manipulating the naturel healing ability of the body,,, Nice post by the way ^^
Placebo does appear to be the ongoing theme. Then again I do need more bone density, maybe I should take up kung fu while I'm in the area!
Haha yeah you should but I warn you it's pretty tough :p
MAYBE the guy fled from North Korea and has now a new identity in South Korea.
Damn I have no idea why I didn't realise this... Though, the Kwang guy must be pretty damn old by now if that's the case...
Hello @mobbs
I salute your courage in going the extra miles to dig up all this thoroughly researched information to squarely challenge the veracity of the Traditional Chinese Medicine, disproving it via the most scientifically acceptable approach. What falsified parameters on which TCM are based.
Regards
@eurogee of @euronation and @steemstem communities
No matter how many extra miles I go, I'll never cover it all. I think I'm on the final lap of articles now! It'll be a relief when it's over, but also, it's been fun =)
Sure, man. More greese sir! ✌️
In the news media it’s pretty well-established that lies spread faster and further than articles debunking them. I’m not sure what the case in science is. At least the top scientific journals, for all their faults, seem to do a decent job of only publishing credible research.
Debunking bad science is a really important job, but not a pleasant one. It can’t have been fun reading through all those garbage articles
It's actually quite surprising how corrupt science can be. It's a great truth that the anti-science folk love to prey upon to conclude science is bunk. The reality is the scientists are, not science. Credible research happens because science has its own self-correcting mechanism that inevitably sifts out the crap but human nature persists because... money, and reputation.
So these ugly garbage articles can persist cause they don't have to go through the same crap. I'm sure you know all this. Just ranting. Argh!
My fast argument is very simple: if the TCM is really that good, why we can see that average life expectancy in China is only 76.1 (similar to Hungary, Argentina, Jamaica, Slovakia). And how is it possible that average life expectancy is 5 years more in Greece, Germany, Slovenia (also known as Slovakia). With such a great medicine, I would expect to see all the Chinese becoming the centenarians.
Scientific point: with the advancement of the Light sheet fluorescence microscopy I would be incredibly surprised that we missed anything imaginable in our bodies. Because now we can see how every individual cell is moving during the development. There would be some strange nodes, some strange spots - but we don't see them.
Actually, Chinese papers often do make claims that their approach to curing cancer, for example, has a 97% success rate. It's a wonder how they get away with it!
Light sheet fluorescence microscopy, though cool, can't compete with the concept of the meridian lines being too small to see, but not too small to see. This kind of logic is infallible, unfortunately.
Oh yes... The lines are too small to be seen using the microscope, but the "needle poker" can clearly see or feel where they are. Right...
That's not a very good argument.
If we made your country the industrial hub of the world and you threw away all the garbage in your own backyard and the air became unbreathable in many cities on many days, and tons of your population smoked cigarettes on top of that, what do you think that would do to life expectancy.