Oriental Medicine - Sold a Bill of Goods?
We took our daughter Joy to the Ulsan branch of the Hamsoa Children's Oriental Medicine Clinic the other day. Joy is quite small for her age, and doesn't eat well.
I was a bit hesitant, as I felt that if Oriental Medicine had anything substantial to offer, it would have been discovered and confirmed long ago by science (I need not say Western science because science, although originating in the West, is universal). The clinic itself did little to allay my fears. Beautiful as it was, it seemed to play on Korean parents' fears that their children are not tall enough. But, as worried first time parents, we were willing to look into anything that might explain why our daughter is not gaining weight.
We were told that Joy was in the zero percentile (0%) for her age. The doctor at the clinic did no more than take our daughter's pulse and ask a few questions of us, and then prescribed some medicine, conveniently produced by the same clinic itself. Two weeks worth of this medicine cost of 100,000 won (US$86.50), no small amount.
Today, we took Joy to the Pohang St. Mary's Hospital to look into the same problem. The doctor, a Korean, denounced Oriental Medicine as mere quackery. He prescribed no medicine and told us not to worry.
It seems we've been sold a bill of goods. Nevertheless, we will go ahead and give Joy the medicine, in hope that it will help her gain weight.
We took our daughter Joy to the Ulsan branch of the Hamsoa Children's Oriental Medicine Clinic the other day. Joy is quite small for her age, and doesn't eat well.
I was a bit hesitant, as I felt that if Oriental Medicine had anything substantial to offer, it would have been discovered and confirmed long ago by science (I need not say Western science because science, although originating in the West, is universal). The clinic itself did little to allay my fears. Beautiful as it was, it seemed to play on Korean parents' fears that their children are not tall enough. But, as worried first time parents, we were willing to look into anything that might explain why our daughter is not gaining weight.
We were told that Joy was in the zero percentile (0%) for her age. The doctor at the clinic did no more than take our daughter's pulse and ask a few questions of us, and then prescribed some medicine, conveniently produced by the same clinic itself. Two weeks worth of this medicine cost of 100,000 won (US$86.50), no small amount.
Today, we took Joy to the Pohang St. Mary's Hospital to look into the same problem. The doctor, a Korean, denounced Oriental Medicine as mere quackery. He prescribed no medicine and told us not to worry.
It seems we've been sold a bill of goods. Nevertheless, we will go ahead and give Joy the medicine, in hope that it will help her gain weight.
Redeemed by Our Savior, I work out my salvation with fear and trembling in Pohang, South Korea, where I live with my wife, daughter, and son and teach English at a science and technology university. Baptized a Methodist and raised a Missouri Synod Lutheran in Buffalo, NY, I spent six years as a guest of the Anglican Communion before being received by the Grace of God into the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church on the Feast of Saint Andrew, my patron, anno domini 2002.
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