The mother of a friend of mine had a bypass surgery on the New Year's Day, which resulted in a small wound 4 centimetres long lower in both of her legs.

Although her heart condition improved, the small wound in her legs remained open. The right leg was even more serious as the muscles withered and the bone was exposed. The complications mainly arose from blockage in the coronary artery in the leg.

In early March, the heart surgeon in charge had to ask for advise from other doctors specialized in wounds. After consultations, the surgeons suggested that the part of her right leg from the knee down be amputated, to prevent possible inflammation and septicaemia, which would cost her life.

The chief heart surgeon told my friend that he was sorry he could fix "the engine" but would have to cut at least "one wheel."

My friend decided against putting his mother through another surgery.

He sought advice from his friend, a leading doctor of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) at the Dongzhimen Hospital affiliated with the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.

The friend took his mother in mid-March and started a comprehensive treatment following the age-old theories and practices of traditional Chinese medicine.

By August, the wound in the left leg healed. Today, she is waiting for the scab to fall off from the right leg and expecting to return home in a couple of weeks.

TCM has been benefiting many people despite the introduction of Western medicine.

I am sure she would be aghast if she had followed the recent debate on whether TCM, which was developed along with Chinese culture and civilization, should be eliminated from the Chinese medical care system.

But the advocates who are for the idea seem very adamant and their single weapon is "science."

They argue that TCM is "unscientific" at best and "pseudo-science" at worst.

However, I suspect that the people who wave "science" as a weapon against TCM themselves have limited ideas of what the word "science" really is, even though they have received a good science education, some in the West.

The word "science" originates in Latin, meaning producing knowledge, according to www.dictionary.com.

The American Heritage Dictionary lists a range of definitions from "the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena;" "methodological activity, discipline, or study;" to "an activity that appears to require study and method" as well as "knowledge, especially that gained through experience."

By definition, there should be no argument about TCM, since generations of TCM practitioners over centuries have accumulated rich experiences and made TCM a knowledge and a science that hundreds of millions still seek for curing diseases and improving health.

They are right in their argument that TCM is not an "exact science," as "chemistry or physics, that deals with quantitatively measurable phenomena of the material universe" (www.dictionary.com) or "whose laws are capable of accurate quantitative expression" (Webster's Medical Dictionary).

They have good reasons to tell people that TCM may not cure all and that herbal TCM concoctions some folk doctors prescribe may not be as effective as proclaimed.

But they have been so autocratic that they forget that Western medicine, too, does not cure all, and that over the past few decades, many "scientifically"-approved drugs are banned as a result of serious side effects.

Despite all the unknowns and malpractices associated with TCM, I don't believe it is scientific to eliminate centuries' old knowledge, which helped sustain the livelihood of us Chinese in the past and still plays an important part in improving our quality of life.

Development in modern science has furnished us with ample equipment and methodology not only to create new medicines but also to dig deeper back into our past knowledge, such as TCM and other alternative medicines.

Being less expensive without developing addiction to the chemicals, alternative medicines such as TCM will be winning more popularity in the new century.

Email: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/02/2006 page4)