What is it about?
This article looks at the Tibetan medical conceptualizations of blood and 'chuser,' the latter of which is a composite term for a subset of interstitial, cerebral spinal, intra- and extracellular, and pre-lymphatic fluids, as well as co-morbid edema conditions. This article builds on an earlier analysis of how biomedical cancer maps into the Tibetan medical nosology through the lens of the etiologic roles of and distinctions for blood and chuser.
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Why is it important?
Understanding the role of blood and 'chuser' in the development of a set of chronic illnesses such as cancer, helps build bridges between the Western medical and Tibetan medical perspectives to facilitate greater collaborative research. Building dialogue across these two distinct intellectual traditions of medicine allows for further insight in understanding approaches to such serious life-limiting disease.
Perspectives
I hope this article provides readers a window into the nuances of a Tibetan medical understanding of cancer etiology and chronic illness more generally as it tracks the development of dysfunction through physiological pathways in the body distinct from that of Western medicine, but with correlating relations. It shows the complexity of conditional influences that incite dysfunction and irregular growth in the body, including the compounding effects of qualities related to social relations, environmental conditions, diet, behavior, mental patterns, and exposures to toxic input and stress -- physical and mental, as well as constitutional dispositions from inherited sources.
Tawni Tidwell
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Blood and Chuser across Research Paradigms: Constitutive Links in Mapping Biomedical Cancer onto Tibetan Medical Nosology, Asian Medicine, June 2020, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341451.
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