Since the ancient times, Korean Medical
Doctors (or Traditional Korean Medicine Doctors) have used the excrement of
various animals including humans as medicine. Based on their traditional remedy,
“According to the classic literature” as always cited by the Korean Medicine
Doctors, every type of excrement is proven to be efficacious and should not be looked
down for no specific reason.
Then, why not government control? It is
somewhat puzzling to see that the Korean Government actually controls the
quality of such “crap”. Government currently regulates standards of herbal
medicine according to <Korean Pharmacopoeia> or <National Standard of
Traditional Medicinal (Herbal and Botanical) Materials>. In order for Korean
Medicine Doctors to use the medicinal herbs written here, they must be supplied
through a company that has been certified by GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice).
Natural substances not specified here can be used at Korean Traditional
Doctor’s discretion without no government oversight.
It may be shocking to find out that the
animal excrement is also specified in <National Standard of Traditional
Medicinal (Herbal and Botanical) Materials>. They have used it for centuries.
They are listed as Trogopterus xanthipes (or excrement of giant flying
squirrel), or as Vespertilio superans (excrement of Vespertilio orientalis) and
silkworm manure. Let alone it looks and sounds disgusting to see “crap” in
medicine, would it be ok to use these “materials” without sound verification?
Every time scientists point out that the Korean Traditional herbal medicine must be verified, the
Korean Medicine Doctors claim that Chinese/Korean traditional medicine has
passed ‘the test of time’ and is already under governmental management.
Recently, the Korean Medical Association (the normal doctors’ Association) has
suggested that herbal medicines ingredients should be disclosed to patients as
normal doctors do. Prescription for the patient to know and track what they are
being treated with. The Korean Medicine Doctors Association (the Traditional
doctors’ association) refuted with scorn that they are ‘already under strict
management of the Korean Food and Drugs Administration and is only prescribing
herbal medicines listed in Korean Pharmacopoeia and every herbal medicine has
passed rigorous inspection and quality testing.
However, it seems disgusting that feces is
listed as ‘normal’ pharmacologic agent. It also does not mean that Vespertilio
superans has been tested for its safety. It has been previously found out that
in purity analysis, there were notions that such contaminants as ‘no more than
15.0% is sand and other foreign materials has been mixed.’ This is what the
Association of Korean Medicine Doctors (the traditional Korean Medical doctors)
means by ‘quality inspection.’ Patients are worried about whether the
Vespertilio superans is effective as medicine and safe to consume, and they are
making fun of the Korean Traditional Doctors saying that the Vespertilio
suprans only have less than 15% sand. Imagine if Tyrenol has 15% of sand as its
ingredient.
If you search for the term feces in the
<Home Medicine Integration> published during the Joseon Dynasty (or the
15th to 19th century medical book),, 159 sentences are
searched. Our ancestors used various form of animal excrement as medicine
including humans, dogs, cows, doves, cats, and horses. They have believed that
various form of animal feces can cure disease in various conditions. That was
ages before modern integration of safety and efficacy in medical field and few
centuries before modern drugs testing was introduced.
One can only wonder then why doesn’t the
Korean Government only regulate the feces of flying quarrels, baby bat, and
silkworms? Why doesn’t it regulate other animals’ feces? It is only natural to
think that the KTM doctors who believe in their literature to use and utilize such ‘crap’ is as effective and
safe in treating what feces are meant to treat. Why limit on only squirrels,
baby bat, and silkworms? Why not put human feces or dog feces, as prescribed in that literature, as ‘medicine’? As a matter of fact, there
is no governmental regulation to ban the KTM doctors prescribing human feces or
dog feces to treatment because it was once on the literature. When I-sbm’s staff asked Government reuglators in the Ministry of
Health & Welfare, they answered vaguely. ‘No regulation to prohibit the
usage of human excrement or dog excrement in KTM’.
Many asks that whether the feces can really
be used as a prescription medicine. According to recent article released in
<Oriental Medicine News>, Ulsan City in Southern part of Korea has
implemented a city wide health program to treat 115 high school girls with dysmenorrhea
in underprivileged area – with not NSAIDS or soft tissue relaxant but with
oriental herbal medicine mostly containing Trogopterus xanthipes (or the
excrement of giant flying squirrel).
http://www.akomnews.com/?p=391618
In order to use such extreme form of drugs
as herbal medicine, not only the effectiveness but also the safety of such prescription
must be scientifically verified before prescribing them to the underprivileged
girls. At least, it is ethically sound the patient should know that they are
being prescribed with excrements of animals to treat their disease and let the
patient decide whether they want to be in such treatment.
It could hardly be imagined that high
school girls have had information about the ingredient of the drugs, they’d
refuse to consume such ‘medicine’. Could KTM doctors convince those girls to
consume drugs containing feces? I guess not.
(Some have argued that getting expensive
kopi Luwak, the part-digested coffee eaten and defecated by Asian palm civet
(Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) is no more disgusting than consuming drugs
containing animal feces. Let them know that in that kopi Luwak case, the feces
is not consumed with coffee, but only the coffee beans washed of feces is used
to brew the coffee. Moreover, the coffee drinkers drink for their exquisite
taste, not for their medicinal efficacy. It is a different matter from using
without patient knowledge of medicine which main ingredient is the feces itself
and drinking partly digested coffee with prior knowledge that that coffee has
been through palm civet’s digestive tract.)
- Institution of Science-Based Medicine
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기