Can Eastern Philosophy Improve Western Medicine?
Posted by admin on Aug 6, 2009
Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/07/03/The_Human_Side_of_Medicine
Pathfinders Founder Tina Staley explains the goals of her organization, a health care non-profit that advocates combining western medicine with eastern philosophy and holistic treatments.
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White House Health Care policy adviser and NIH scientist Ezekiel Emanuel discusses high touch medicine with Royal Philips Electronics CEO Gerard Kleisterlee, and Pathfinders founder and director Tina Staley as part of the 2009 Aspen Ideas Festival. – Aspen Institute
Tina Staley, LCSW, is Founder and Director of Pathfinders, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to improving the experience of illness, healthcare, and healing for all cancer patients, their families, and caregivers.
Duration : 0:2:58
it’s not morality.
it’s not morality.
Conscience?
Conscience?
so what’s the …
so what’s the medical term for spirit?
Why can’t they use …
Why can’t they use medical terms instead of this New Age bullshit jargon?
I don’t think it’s …
I don’t think it’s literal.
Diverting money and …
Diverting money and time on such useless babble, instead of things we actually know works, would be almost criminal.
I know that when I’m old and dieing I would want a real doctor, who’s practice is based on fact, tending to me and not some chanting hippie who is more concerned with “healing” my aura than my body.
Ask any doctor and …
Ask any doctor and he/she’ll tell you that in addition to medication, if alternative therapies prove to be successful in allowing the patient to cope with his/her painful condition, then they’re all up for it.
Raising the “This new age nonsense will replace medicine and science” straw man, doesn’t prove anything. As a man of science, if these therapies don’t interfere with conventional treatment, I don’t care if a patient becomes a Satanist…
Also, anyone who’s …
Also, anyone who’s read Joseph Needham’s wonderful accounts of Chinese achievements, several accounts of Indian achievements (math, metallurgy, logic, astronomy, etc), the contributions of the Arabs to the spread of this knowledge, should know that we’ve been living in a globalized world of ideas for centuries. A Euro centric view of the world that begins with ancient Greece and ends with Nietzsche leads to intellectual stagnation… A lot of civilizations rival the Greeks in antiquity..
Well, no one’s …
Well, no one’s asking Eastern philosophy to replace Western medicine but it can, and has been proven to be an effective supplement. BTW Western philosophers have historically drawn extensively from Eastern philosophy, from the French and German enlightenment philosophers who drew heavily from Confucianism (Pierre Bayle, Voltaire, Leibnitz, etc) to the Romantic era English and German philosophers who drew heavily from Indian philosophy and logic.
WTF?! What spirit? …
WTF?! What spirit?
Can someone reveal to me the evidence for this “spirit” these retards are referring to?
woo woo woo believe …
woo woo woo believe in the magic force!
The last thing I …
The last thing I want when I’m sick in a hospital bed is that spaced-out crackpot spewing her verbal diarrhea. Keep her away from patients!
She is way out of …
She is way out of touch with the real practices in evidence based medicine… she is just repeating New Age mumbo jumbo… the only way to get their “holistic” alternative sold is by making a strawman of REAL medicine and science.
She didn’t say what?
She didn’t say what?
She was …
She was specifically talking about end of life and palliative care so I agree with her…there are many studies proving that it improves the quality of life during this stage, it’s basically just good common sense. There are also studies proving that the pos-operative of a patient can be influenced by what the doctors talked during the surgery…it’s all connected.
Alopathic medicine …
Alopathic medicine has embraced much of the Asian ancient philosophy when we study Acupuncture principles in Orthopedics. Homeopatic medicine is just an adjuvant, if the patient “feels” the need…just like some patients seek religious comfort during cancer treatment, Homeopathic medicine has this same purpose almost.
she didn’t say that
she didn’t say that
Although she wasn’t …
Although she wasn’t very specific I can see one productive outcome of her proposed techniques. If one is in a relaxed enough state that a doctor can be ured all symptoms are non-neurological (removing back pain was the provided example) then it is far simpler to treat maladies. That said, “Eastern philosophy” might not be the best way to achieve this.
Technology isn’t …
Technology isn’t western philosophy, technology is the product of western philosophy. Western philosophy includes determining the actual pathology of physical symptoms. If she wants to show us exactly how mood affects your physical symptoms, fabulous! If not, if all she wants to do is wave her hands around and make up, I have a problem.
I really, really have a problem with her use of the word spirit, something that has never been demonstrated….ever.
The study of how …
The study of how mood impacts physical symptoms is already being studied in fields like psychology and neurology. How behind the times this batty is.
She’s being disingenuous when she says she’s combining eastern philosophy with western, because western philosophy is all about discerning pathology. She still seems to think she can wave her hands around and make true. At best all she can demonstrate with all her gizmos is a ing correlation.
Well said, I don’t …
Well said, I don’t think there is a “eastern” way or a “western” way, it’s either medicine that works most of the time or doesn’t.
So many buzzwords …
So many buzzwords and BS coming out of this lady’s mouth. Being relaxed and positive is fine, but it is not a treatment. I wonder if these “philosophies” can stand up to a double blind, randomized trial.
These ’spiritual’ …
These ’spiritual’ huxters are no better than big-pharma! Lying about the efficacy of their treatments, hiding negative results and reccommending useless treatments in order to fill their pockets!
Short answer, No!
…
Short answer, No!
Any possible benefits will doubtless be dwarfed by the damage that has already started to happen to evidence based medicine by quackery and mis/dis-information from the terrible handling of medical issues by the media and the antics of the money-grubbing, pill-pushing alternative, holistic, homeopath, nutritionist quacks!
The answer: No.
…
The answer: No.
I’m all for making your patient feel as good as possible, trying to overcome the fear of death, etc….but any doctor claiming to be working on “the spirit” needs to stay far away from me on the operating table.
We don’t have a spirit, we don’t have a soul, we don’t have body thetans. We have a mind and a body: so far, that’s all we know. We don’t need make believe to make us feel better….at least not all of us.