Contradiction between Traditional Chinese Medicine and Modern Medicine in Understanding and Treating Parkinson’s Disease and Its Solutions ()
1. Preface
Parkinson’s disease is a common chronic degenerative disease of the nervous system. According to the most authoritative judgment of modern medicine, Parkinson’s disease is a lifelong disease that cannot be completely cured [1] . According to the fourth edition of the Chinese Parkinson’s disease treatment guidelines in 2020 of the Parkinson’s disease and motor disorders group of the Neurological Branch of the Chinese Medical Association [2] , there are currently six categories of drugs for Parkinson’s disease: anticholinergics; Amantadine; Dopamine replacement therapy; Dopamine receptor agonist; Dopamine decarboxylase inhibitor; Monoamine oxidase inhibitor; Among them, dopamine replacement therapy and dopamine receptor agonists are the most important ones. The above treatments are symptomatic and can only improve symptoms within a certain period of time, can not control the progress of the disease, and can not cure Parkinson’s disease. The understanding of traditional Chinese medicine on Parkinson’s disease is very different from that of modern medicine at first, and the understanding of Parkinson’s disease within the traditional Chinese medicine community is also very different. The vast majority of traditional Chinese medicine is affected by the way of thinking about treatment based on syndrome differentiation. Theoretically, it is necessary to divide Parkinson’s disease into different syndrome types, and the prescriptions and medicines are different between different syndrome types. In clinical practice, the TCM treatments of different Parkinson’s disease patients are similar but still different, and the patients are given decoction drugs, at the same time Chinese physicians are rushing for short-term therapeutic effect. In this way, it is difficult to see long-term effects. So that, it is easy to draw the conclusion that modern medicine cannot cure Parkinson’s disease and traditional Chinese medicine cannot cure Parkinson’s disease [3] . While I think that Parkinson’s disease is a disease with a single cause which is the wind movement caused by the deficiency of Yin. Although this is inconsistent with the understanding of modern medicine, I use the same prescription of Chinese patent pills to treat different patients, and these patients are finally cured after one to three years of treatment [4] . Through more than 20 years of clinical practice, I have repeatedly verified that this understanding of Parkinson’s disease is correct, and this treatment method is also correct. At the same time, it is recognized that there are contradictions in understanding and treating Parkinson’s disease in both modern medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. This article will deeply analyze and explore this contradiction, and propose new ideas for understanding and treating Parkinson’s disease, so as to contribute to the victory of human medicine over Parkinson’s disease.
2. Main Part
Now, once a patient is considered or finally diagnosed as Parkinson’s disease by a doctor, no matter whether the doctor is a doctor of western medicine or traditional Chinese medicine, or whether he is an expert, he will almost consider letting the patient take Medopa (Levodopa and Benserazide Hydrochlo-ride) tablets. Because throughout the international medical community, Medopa is the first choice for treating Parkinson’s disease. The mechanism of this western medicine is that it can directly supplement the dopamine level in the brain of Parkinson’s patients, and it works very quickly. The clinical manifestations of most Parkinson’s disease patients can be improved or disappeared in a short time. In order to make the therapeutic effect better or delay the wearing-off, some doctors ask the patient to take dopamine receptor agonists at the same time.
Because both patients and doctors regard short-term effects as the most important evaluation criteria for doctors’ medical skills, and the effects of Medopa and dopamine receptor agonists can satisfy patients and doctors within three to five years, and while the effects are in the honeymoon period, patients and doctors will have no doubt within three to five years. If after three to five years, the disease can not be controlled by dopamine and dopamine receptor agonists, doctors will explain to the patients with the continuous development of the disease. If the following drug adjustment does not work, the patient will be advised to consider installing a brain pacemaker and introduce the patient to neurosurgery experts who can perform DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation) or SCT (Stem Cell Transplantation). If the patient cannot afford the cost, then experts will feel very embarrassed. They will say that Parkinson’s disease is an incurable lifelong disease, which is exactly the situation of PD patients in the world nowadays.
After decades of clinical practice in treating Parkinson’s disease with traditional Chinese medicine, I have repeatedly proved that this is not every PD patients’ case. First of all, early Parkinson’s disease can be cured with traditional Chinese medicine. If the patient does not take Medopa or only takes Medopa for a short time, then it will be likely to fully recover. The conclusion of western medicine that Parkinson’s disease is impossible to cure is not an absolute truth that can be applied everywhere. In the scope of modern medicine, this conclusion can be true, but it cannot generalize other therapy, because modern medicine is not the only solution in the world that can cure diseases, traditional Chinese medicine can also cure diseases. Moreover, some diseases cannot be cured in the scope of modern medicine, which does not mean that traditional Chinese medicine cannot cure them. The thinking of traditional Chinese medicine and modern medicine are different because of the basic theory, the results may also be different. Taking the conclusion of modern medicine directly as the final conclusion is actually a prejudice. It is actually a big omission to infer the conclusion of human medicine according to the conclusion of modern medicine. In particular, most people will instinctively believe in authorities. The biased ultimate conclusion obtained by incomplete induction will seriously mislead people’s cognition, and the actual situation also proves that the conclusion obtained by this reasoning is not tenable.
Parkinson’s disease is first and foremost a chronic disease. Even if it is completely cured by traditional Chinese medicine, it can never be achieved in a short time. Chronic diseases must go through a long enough period of time, and it is the basic rule that they will gradually improve until it is finally cured. The first thing to do in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease with traditional Chinese medicine is that doctors and patients should be patient and persist in the treatment for a year to two years, or even longer, until they finally reach the result of real recovery and health. In this long process, it is impossible for patients to insist on taking traditional Chinese medicine decoction every day. No matter in terms of economic cost and cost, or in terms of compliance, it is unacceptable for anyone to let patients take traditional Chinese medicine decoction for one or two years continuously. Therefore, to cure Parkinson’s disease, even if it is an early patient, the decoction is also incompetent. This is the reason why traditional Chinese medicine doctors who want patients to take decoction to treat Parkinson’s disease can not and will not see the final result.
Moreover, the reason why Parkinson’s disease is determined as a disease is that no matter who is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, the lesions in their brains are the same. They are all degeneration of substantia nigra cells and decrease of dopamine transmitters in the brain [5] , which is the essence of Parkinson’s disease. Although there is no such term as Parkinson’s disease in traditional Chinese medicine, and there is no concept of nerve cells and neurotransmitters in traditional Chinese medicine. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, the nature of Parkinson’s disease does not vary from person to person. Although their symptoms may be different, these differences cannot determine the nature of Parkinson’s disease as a disease. The brain function is too complex, though all substantia nigra cells can produce dopamine, the functions of different areas are still different because of the intricate fibrous connections to different areas of the brain. In this way, the variability of substantia nigra cells in different parts can cause the lack of dopamine, and the symptoms may be different. Some patients tremble significantly, while others are mainly stiff because of myodystonoia, tremor is optional. The difference in symptoms of Parkinson’s disease is mainly caused by the degeneration of cells in different parts of substantia nigra. From the perspective of substantia nigra degeneration, all patients with Parkinson’s disease are the same, but the degree may be different. From the perspective of modern medicine, the nature of Parkinson’s disease is not different for different people. The essential attributes of a disease will not change with different patients. In this case, although the thinking methods of traditional Chinese medicine and modern medicine are different, this difference will not affect the essence of the same disease. In other words, the nature of a disease will not vary from person to person, nor from medical system to medical system. This is a concept that must be determined first.
In fact, there are three ways for Chinese medicine to recognize diseases. The first is that a disease only corresponds to one cause. The traditional Chinese medicine describes that as the root of the disease. In this situation, it can be treated, because as long as the cause can be eradicated, the disease can be cured, which has little to do with the individual differences. Dialectics is also needed at this time, but the dialectics at this time is to find the cause and treat it. It is not to say that different patients need to distinguish different syndrome types, which requires one person and one prescription.
The second situation is that one disease corresponds to multiple causes, which requires different treatments for the same disease. Even for the same disease, different patients may have different causes of disease, which requires analysis of each patient’s unique causes, and then treat individually. This is one of the most important characteristics for most people to understand that traditional Chinese medicine needs dialectical treatment. In this case, different patients need to be treated according to their own conditions.
The third situation is that one cause corresponds to several diseases. In this case, traditional Chinese medicine should treat different diseases at the same time. This treatment is for the same cause. At this time, we also need to be dialectical, that is, we can use the same prescription for different patients as long as we confirm that the causes are the same, so as not to be fooled by the different types of diseases.
Many patients, even traditional Chinese medicine doctors, misunderstand the dialectical treatment of TCM as that no matter what the disease is, it is different from person to person. One patient will have his own prescription. Distinguishing the syndrome types becomes a must. Almost every disease must have several syndrome types, and each syndrome type must have different prescriptions. The reason for this misunderstanding is that they completely ignored the first case, which is very important and cannot be ignored. There are many diseases with a single cause. As long as we find the nature of the disease and prescribe drugs for the single cause of the disease, we can certainly cure the disease.
Based on my own clinical practice, I have come to the preliminary conclusion that Parkinson’s disease is a disease with a single cause, and I have achieved the same effect in treating different patients with the same formula, which also confirms my judgment.
Based on my own clinical practice, I also preliminarily speculated that the cause of Parkinson’s disease is due to the obstruction of local free radical scavenging mechanism in the substantia nigra of the patient’s brain. The biochemical reactions occur in the human body at any time. Along with these reactions, many free radicals will be produced. These free radicals must be cleaned up at any time under normal circumstances, otherwise excessive accumulation of these free radicals will attack the cell membrane of normal cells, eventually leading to damage to the function and structure of normal cells, even degeneration and death. In the part of substantia nigra in the brain of patients with Parkinson’s disease, the free radical scavenging mechanism is obstructed and cannot be cleared in time. Free radicals accumulate excessively. These free radicals will attack the cell membrane of substantia nigra cells, eventually leading to the functional decline of substantia nigra cells and gradual degeneration and necrosis [5] [6] . Traditional Chinese medicine can first clear free radicals and restore the free radical scavenging mechanism. Thus, the cause of Parkinson’s disease is cleared, the diseased substantia nigra cells can be repaired, and their dopamine production function returns to normal. This is why traditional Chinese medicine can cure Parkinson’s disease.
For patients with Parkinson’s disease, there are three main potential hazards of Medopa: first, the function of body cells also has the same rule of using, discarding and returning. Although the function of substantia nigra cells decreases, it still needs to maintain the physiological function of producing dopamine to a certain extent, and the mechanism of synthesizing and secreting dopamine in substantia nigra cells needs to continue to operate, and once dopamine is supplemented through external sources, It is bound to feedback inhibit the dopamine synthesis function of substantia nigra itself. Over time, the physiological function of substantia nigra to synthesize dopamine will be almost completely lost. Second, when Medopa enters the process of catabolism in the brain, it will produce more free radicals, and the local freedom of the substantia nigra can hardly be eliminated. In this way, the newly generated free radicals during the decomposition of Medopa will overlap with the already over accumulated free radicals in the substantia nigra, as if to add insult to injury, which will cause secondary damage to the substantia nigra cells [7] . Third, it is impossible for exogenous dopamine supplementation to completely coincide with the human physiological regulation mechanism. In the long run, dopa may cause damage to dopamine receptors, reduce the sensitivity of dopamine receptors, and even gradually reduce the number of dopamine receptors [8] . Medopa not only aggravates the lesions of substantia nigra in the upstream, but also causes the lesions of dopamine transmitter receptors in the downstream, which is the main reason for the severe decline of the efficacy of Medopa three to five years later. In order to deal with the possible problems of dopamine transmitter receptor caused by Medopa, modern medicine has developed dopamine receptor agonists, which can only play a short-term effect. The function of dopamine transmitter receptor is limited. If it is forced to improve its sensitivity to dopamine by human stimulation for a long time, it will eventually lead to rapid failure of dopamine receptor after its function reaches the extreme. At this time, dopamine receptor agonists will also be completely ineffective.
In patients who take medopa and dopamine receptor agonists at the same time, the potential hazards of these two drugs will also overlap, eventually leading to the irreversible progression of Parkinson’s disease. Even though on the surface, the patient’s symptoms will improve significantly during the honeymoon period, in fact, the lesions in substantia nigra and the functional damage of dopamine receptor can only become more and more serious, and of course, the patient will not have a real turnaround. I found that if these drugs cannot be removed, no matter how long they are taken, no matter how long they take traditional Chinese medicine, they will never recover. The reason is that Medopa and dopamine receptor agonists have potential damage to substantia nigra cells and dopamine receptors. However, neither patients nor doctors have been able to consider the issue from a long-term perspective, which is actually one of the manifestations of the great limitations of modern medicine. However, until the achievements and conclusions of traditional Chinese medicine are recognized, it is impossible for western doctors to go beyond this limitation and re-examine the treatment of Parkinson’s disease with western medicine. The fate of patients with Parkinson’s disease is almost in the hands of western doctors. It is almost impossible for western doctors to think about problems from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine. Therefore, even though early Parkinson’s disease patients are expected to be cured by traditional Chinese medicine, they will instinctively accept the symptomatic treatment of western medicine to improve their symptoms within a certain period of time.
3. Summary
To sum up, just based on my own clinical practice for more than 20 years, it has been confirmed that Parkinson’s disease is not a lifelong and incurable disease. The reason why Parkinson’s disease can not be cured is that the belief that it can not be cured is widespread in the medical community and the majority of patients. First, there are limitations in modern medicine, and almost all Western medicine is difficult to jump out of the shackles of the thinking mode of modern medicine. The second is the widespread use of Medopa and dopamine receptor agonists, but the potential problems are neglected. To some extent, Parkinson’s disease has become a lifelong disease that can not be cured and is inseparable from western medicine, which is also one of the iatrogenic or drug-induced problems. Third, there are many misconceptions in TCM’s own understanding and treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Not only it is impossible to cure Parkinson’s disease with different TCM based on syndrome differentiation, but also traditional Chinese medicine decoction makes compliance decline. At the same time, using TCM cooperated with dopamine and dopamine receptor agonists while treating Parkinson’s disease leads to the lack of confidence of Parkinson’s disease patients. It is exactly because of these reasons that the world’s medical community still believes that Parkinson’s disease cannot be cured, but can only be treated symptomatically. With the continuous progress of the disease, the patient will gradually develop to the disability in a few years. If serious complications occur, the patient’s life will easily be endangered. Not only does modern medicine need to learn from the treatment methods of traditional Chinese medicine, but also the Chinese medicine community needs to introspect the misunderstanding of syndrome differentiation and treatment. Keep learning from each other in terms of cognition and treatment of Parkinson’s disease, and achieve the breakthrough in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.