Monday, July 4, 2011

Chinese Traditional Medicine & its effects on the environment

from http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jvPG9a4rTLoauac5FQb6LgcDvvVw

For many years, the Chinese have used rare species and plants for curing medicine. Why not use our everyday synthetic medicine, which is scientifically proven to work? Who knows, but the Chinese have it their own way. They have exploited the environment for thousands of years and continue to this day, killing thousands of animals to create medicines that are not even known to have significant biological effects. While researching my topic, I was horrified to find that the Chinese law enforcement agencies had found 173 bear paws transported in a van. Even more horrific is the fact that these findings are actually quite common. Despite the fact that stricted laws and penalties have been put into place to prevent the poaching of animals, it continues and this is quite an alarming thing to find out and must be addressed immediatly.

Alexander Torbov

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

To be honest, I'm totally against your idea on Chinese herbs. First of all, Chinese herbs are undeniable based on its thousands of years experience, instead of scientific prof, which, I believe, is more effective. We believe that natural staff like herbs or plants are totally innocent to our body, so that is why chemical medicines are repulsed by ancient Chinese people. Now, Chinese herbs are planted artificially and animals like snakes are raised domestically. Prescription like bear paws have already disappeared from modern Chinese medicine.

alexanderp113 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
alexanderp113 said...

I did not mean to offend you by my opinion, however i want to mention that there are certain aspects of chinese traditional medicine that you failed to mention, or that you were unaware of. Regardless of the many laws and penalties that the chinese govt. has established in order to prevent the illegal poaching of animals, the practice is still relatively healthy. I do not want the chinese to turn away thousands of years of tradition, and there is no doubt that many of these medicines have positive effects on the human body. However, at the same time, you cannot deny the effects of the drugs that pharamcuetical companies are making. To keep the tradition alive, the chinese can easily establish more humane ways to attaining the ingrediants that they require from animals. Many of the animals that are poached are just used for the attainment of some bodily fluids, organs, etc., while the rest of the body is left to rot. This problem can be allievated by perhaps stunning the animal, getting what your require, nursing it back to health, and then rereleasing it back into its natural niche. You mentioned that perscription bear claws have disappeared from chinese medicine, but in just 2009, a few years ago, a van was found with hundreds of bear paws. The illegal poaching of animals is not only morally wrong, but also is benefitting those involved in criminal activities. I also advocate the research of the effect of certain aspects of chinese traditional medicine, such as the use of tiger penis, etc. It seems to me that such a majestic and rare beast should not be sacrificed for the unsupported and questionable use in traditional medicine. Furthermore, i would also like to point out that not all chinese medicine is not grown naturally. In fact, in the recent decades, pesticides have been integrated into the growth of many of the herbs and plants that are prominant in these medicinal traditions. I do not mean to insult the thousands of years of history and tradition associated with Chinese Medicine, I am simply asking you, as well as other individuals to broaden their thinking.


Thanks,
Alexander Torbov and Muhammad Junaid

Anonymous said...

I'm not arguing that poaching of animals is alright for the medical use. It certainly should be abandoned. China has its tradition of eating bear claws for thousands of years. And it is totally legal in the ancient times. There is a saying in ancient China that A leopard never changes his spots. Although new laws are clear, it takes time to totally change the value of traditional Chinese, like Black people should be treated equally but till now, ethnic problems still exist. I want to say that people eating bear claws are not majority, like people have ethnic problems. Poaching is not only a Chinese issue. Link below shows bear poaching all over the world, in Britain and America. http://www.suite101.com/content/bear-poaching-in-north-america-a39871
Besides, I don't know if pesticide has something to do with herbs growing artificially.
If you want to criticize, I believe that the whole nations' self-consciousness should be your target. We have our own national situation and it could not be changed in the few years. But at least, "New" Chinese are trying their best.

Muhammad Junaid said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Muhammad Junaid said...

I'm sorry, I seem to have offended you. I was not insulting China and it's traditions at all, but I believe I have the right to state my opinion. My topic is on Chinese Traditional Medicine, so obviously I will focus on China. I understand that it takes time to change tradition, and because of that I introduced alternate methods in my previous posts.


Alexander Torbov and Muhammad Junaid

Anonymous said...

To be honest, I'm not offended at all. It's a lot of fun debating staff, at least for me. Of course, you have your right to state your opinions. What I hope is you could explore both sides of the issue and I'm really glad that you chose it as your topic. I think Chinese web pages have more resources you need for your topic. If you find it necessary, I could help you for that.
Thanks

alexanderp113 said...

I will definitely look at both aspects of my topic. I appreciate your offer for any help. If I have any questions/concerns I'll certainly stop by your room and ask you;)

Thanks!