Between about 1840 and 1950, medicine changed more than it had in the previous four thousand years. It is worth understanding why, because it explains the position traditional systems find themselves in now.
That last one is the real break. Every previous system, everywhere, relied on authority and accumulated experience. Both are unreliable, because people recover anyway, because we remember successes, and because we believe our teachers. The trial was a method for being wrong less often.
The World Health Organization estimates that a large share of the world's population uses traditional medicine, and its Traditional Medicine Strategy works toward regulation, safety and evidence rather than dismissal. The WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre opened in Jamnagar, Gujarat in 2022.
India regulates six systems through the Ministry of Ayush, with degree courses, licensed practitioners and a pharmacopoeia. China integrates its tradition into the state hospital system. Japan reimburses Kampo through national insurance.
In the West, "complementary and integrative" medicine has become common in hospitals, particularly in cancer care — not as treatment, but as support: acupuncture for chemotherapy nausea, massage, yoga, meditation, nutrition. That distinction, support alongside treatment rather than instead of it, is the one I think matters most.
Thirty years of reading this history has left me with three conclusions.
The first is that the old traditions were serious intellectual achievements made with almost nothing to work with, and deserve study rather than either mockery or credulity.
The second is that the great gift of modern medicine is not its drugs but its method — a way of finding out whether something works that does not depend on how confident the practitioner is.
The third is that almost everything that has ever reliably kept people well was available to everyone all along: clean water, decent food, movement, sleep, sunlight, company and rest. That is the whole argument of this website, and it is neither ancient nor modern.
This site is a personal account and a record of traditional practice, shared for information. It is not medical advice, not a diagnosis, and not a treatment for any disease. I am not a doctor.
If you are unwell — and especially if you have a serious illness such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease — please stay under the care of a qualified physician. Nothing here should replace or delay that care.