Session 6 - Biobusiness, Healthcare

Session 6 – Bio-business: Healthcare and biomedical

As topic shows, this session was about bio-business from the healthcare and biomedical point of view. This session was particularly interesting because of the depth and surreal atmosphere that surround biomedical advancement. If we were to estimate the progress of biomedical thus far, I will say it is hardly reaching the 1^st quadrant of an exponential curve. And that is why it is so mysterious and full of new surprises and developments.

Despite so; the way Western medicine develops has always been through facts and chemicals. Many medical practitioners still reject the use of traditional or alternative medicine. It is of course understandable given the controversy of the study results thus far showed mixed results regarding the effectiveness and success rates of these alternative medicine. However, because of this, they might be missing out on some very critical clues that might exist in alternative medicine. Take the example of Tongkat Ali by Professor Gurinder, the traditional Malay medicine that boosts virility. Most modern people took it as old folk’s tales and dismissed it as superstition years back. But now, researchers discovered the value behind this old medicine, proved it and promoted it to be a highly-valuable medicine now. This example clearly shows the wisdom left behind by our ancestors. They were not able to name the compound responsible for this miraculous effect as we can now. But they were the ones who applied their daily observations into practical treatments before we do. If we were to dismiss these old wisdoms, how much valuable resources are we losing? 

As compared to New Western system, traditional medicine does not follow the Western convention of x-ray, chemicals, etc. Thus, statistics are often more inconsistent and less accurate. However, this does not necessary mean that they are less effective than the usual treatment. One article in The Straits Times by Senior Editor Ivan Ho brought up a point where research showed that bogus acupuncture produced the same results of pain reduction as real acupuncture. While one can assume that with this report, it shows that acupuncture only has a placebo effect, I prefer to defer my judgment. Many other reports on the other hand has proved the effectiveness of acupuncture, as Professor Gurinder pointed out German researchers have found that drug injected in these acupuncture sites can produce up to 60 times effect. In fact, I will prefer to conclude that acupuncture can be considered as an extraordinary form of treatment with substantial psychological and physical benefit. After all, there are many people in the world who swear by the alternative medicine that treated them. 

The problems with alternative treatments are their abstract concepts that we humans are unable to grasp so far. These superstitious feeling however, might be dispelled eventually as we explore more and understand the basis for such abstract concepts. Thus, I believe there is a huge potential there as we study the basis for these alternative treatment, we might discover a whole new angle of analyzing our body anatomy. Apparently, China shares the same belief. There have been an increasing number of Eastern-Western fusion treatments and researches and if true, the medical edge will belong to those who embraced such possibilities.