Systemic biologic study on traditional Chinese medicine--a short-lived fad or a long-term policy?

Abstract

The research of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has failed to achieve major breakthrough, especially on some important and fundamental medical problems and concepts. One of the reasons for such failure is that the methodology used in the TCM research follows basically the path of partitioned reductive analysis, which is unable to capture practically the characteristics of TCM scientific system, such as the holistic and dynamic nature of diseases, and the interaction among various biological components. The systemic thinking and strategy of the systematic biology and its aim at grasping integral function have provided unprecedented enlightenment for the modem TCM research. To conduct a systemic strategic reductive analysis on human body and diseases under the guidance of holistic view will be an utmost important way for developing TCM towards the future of healthcare. The modernization of TCM does not have to follow the partitioned reductive approach, which has been practiced in the development of modern science in recent centuries. Instead, it should proceed in a "top down" way of systemic research by firstly investigating and understanding the systemic information, followed by a layered excavation on local information, so as to stride over the gap between the traditional medicine and the future medicine.