老中医还有用吗

我这几个月一直腰疼，去医院查了好几次，医生都说没什么问题，最后我去看了一个老中医。

I've had back pain for months now. I went to the hospital several times and the doctors kept saying nothing was wrong. In the end I went to see an old traditional Chinese medicine doctor.

老中医给你看病，是不是就是先把脉，再看看你的舌头，然后开一堆很苦的中药？

When the old TCM doctor examined you, was it just taking your pulse, looking at your tongue, and then prescribing a pile of bitter herbal medicine?

对，他先给我把脉，又看了我的舌头，然后开了一副中药，让我每天煮着喝。特别苦，我喝了三个星期，腰真的一点一点不疼了。

Yes. He took my pulse first, looked at my tongue, and then prescribed a batch of herbs for me to boil and drink every day. It was really bitter. I drank it for three weeks, and my back genuinely eased bit by bit.

你现在不疼了，我真替你高兴。不过我得说一句，喝了中药以后好了，不代表就是这中药有疗效。

I'm really glad you're not in pain anymore. But I have to say one thing, feeling better after drinking the herbs doesn't prove the herbs are what worked.

为什么不代表？我疼了好几个月，一喝这个中药，三个星期就好了，你说这是巧合？

Why doesn't it prove anything? I was in pain for months, and three weeks after I started this medicine it was gone. You're saying that's a coincidence?

有可能是巧合。很多病本来就会自己慢慢好，也许你的腰刚好到了该好的时候，同时你又喝药、又多休息，好几件事一起发生，谁知道到底是哪一件起了作用。

It's possible it's a coincidence. A lot of ailments just gradually heal on their own. Maybe your back happened to reach the point where it was going to heal anyway, and at the same time you were drinking the medicine and resting more. Several things happened together, and who knows which one actually did it.

那照你这么说，我这病是自己好的，中药只是刚好和我同时发生？

So by your logic, my back healed on its own, and the herbs just happened to coincide with it?

我没那么绝对。我是说，一个人喝了药感觉好一点，这件事本身证明不了什么，得找很多病人来验证，对比喝药和不喝药的两组人，才能说清楚这药到底有没有疗效。

I'm not being that absolute. What I'm saying is, one person drinking a medicine and feeling a bit better doesn't by itself prove anything. You need many patients to verify it, comparing a group that drinks the medicine against a group that doesn't, before you can really say whether it has a curative effect.

可是中药已经用了几千年了，这么多人喝了都说有疗效，这些经验难道一点用都没有？

But traditional Chinese medicine has been used for thousands of years, and so many people who've taken it say it worked. Does that much experience really count for nothing?

经验有用，可是经验也会骗人。不过我也得承认，有的中药材，后来确实是被实验室把里面的成分提炼出来，才证明它真的管用，这样的例子这些年也不止出现过一次。

Experience has value, but experience can also deceive you. Still, I have to admit, some traditional herbs, it was only after a lab later extracted the compound inside them that it was proven the herb genuinely worked. That kind of example has come up more than once in recent years.

你看，你自己都承认，中药里真的有管用的东西。

See, you're admitting it yourself, there really is something in traditional Chinese medicine that works.

我承认的是，实验室证明了那个成分管用。至于把脉、看舌头这一套，到底能不能看出病，我到现在也说不清楚，还没有人拿它认认真真验证过。

What I'm admitting is that a lab proved that particular compound works. As for the whole business of taking the pulse and reading the tongue, whether that can actually detect illness, I still can't say for sure, and no one has seriously verified it.

可是要是以前的人没有发现这些药材能治病，实验室也不会想到去研究它们。

But if people long ago hadn't discovered that these herbs could treat illness, the lab would never have thought to study them in the first place.

这句话我没法反驳。也许中医厉害的地方，是几千年攒下来的经验，能告诉科学家该往哪儿找；西医厉害的地方，是能把那个东西到底是什么、为什么管用，讲清楚，讲到能验证。

I can't argue with that. Maybe what traditional medicine is good at is the thousands of years of accumulated experience, which can tell scientists where to look. And what Western medicine is good at is being able to explain exactly what that thing is and why it works, clearly enough that it can be verified.

那你到底承不承认把脉能看出病？

So do you actually admit that taking the pulse can detect illness, or not?

我说不清楚。我只知道你现在不疼了，这个我是真高兴，至于是不是把脉把出来的，我证明不了，也没法否认，我们俩谁也说服不了谁，这个我早就想通了。

I honestly can't say. All I know is you're not in pain now, and I'm genuinely glad about that. As for whether it was the pulse-taking that found it, I can't prove it and I can't deny it either. Neither of us is going to convince the other, and I made my peace with that a while ago.

那就先这样吧，我下个月还要再去看他，你要是好奇，可以跟我一起去看看他怎么把脉。

Let's leave it there for now. I'm going back to see him next month. If you're curious, you can come with me and watch him take a pulse.

行，我正好也想亲眼看看，把脉到底是怎么回事。

Sure, I'd actually like to see for myself what taking a pulse is really about.