Re: anyajb12..Re: Day 17, a few slight changes

uhmm where do you live?

I live in the states.. and it seems since there a bigger demand as far as alt medicine... that many TCM (traditional chinese med ) schools have now extended their curriculum to PHD's. Before it was just a masters of sciences. But now I think its great because I can specialize in internal med.. or womens health etc ( Im opting for the former). And now, at least in my area.. there are TCM doctors working side by side in HIV clinics.. even in some hospitals with Asian body work and what not. We're finally coming closer to working side by side.

My particular school has a double major with a BS in nutrition which I find important, then if you like you can go on and spend 2-3 more yrs to obtain your PHD and specialize.

I also plan on when I'm old and grey (haha) being a professor so I feel obtaining a PHD will open more doors for me. Plus you know.. I would like being called Dr. It just makes everything more concrete.

I do not condone drug therapy and have beef with western medicine, but I also believe there is a time and place for western meds. same with eastern, and I hope before I die I will see them easily working side by side to come together and treat the patient as a whole.

I'm doing a 6 month externship in Shanghai next yr as well.. which will be great for me to really see things in action where its practiced more.

There are also Naturopathy schools where you can obtain your ND, my mentor is finishing up his. There's also Osteopathic medicine.. which is probably the closest to a more western curriculum- they treat the body as whole and receive extra training in the musculoskeletal system - your body's interconnected system of nerves, muscles and bones to manipulate before and after injury. Its quite interesting and I personally trust them more than a chiropractor. They have better training and understanding, at least to my knowledge.

but I'm not too intune with what their curriculum is, since that's not my area.

TCM school is harder IMO then regular med school.. because the first two yrs are similar into all their cramming of 'general's but we also have to learn acupuncture, more on diet.. more on nerves.. herbs and how to make our own.. mandarin so we know what herbs we are dealing with and just an entirely different way of thinking, its difficult especially being brought up in a western world where everything seems so backwards.

I have some friends who are MD's and had an SO that was finishing up med school and it baffled me on how 'easy' and rush rush the curriculum is.. and these new doctors have no clue on bedside manners or how to think for themselves. Its not really hard, it just takes a lot of schooling and determination and memorization, its kinda sad to be honest. They literally are 'practicing'.

I enjoy it because we take a look at the patient as a whole.. their history.. life.. everything instead of saying oh you have this? well lets pop this pill and call it day to mask whats going on. I digress, but there will always be lazy people like that!

Hope this helped some, don't want to ramble too much! Tweet