What is the Essence of Medicine?

The author analyzes the problem of “what is medicine and what is the essence of medicine”, From China’s six medical academicians’ understanding of medicine and finally thinks that the essence of medicine should be: To keep the sick person healthy and not sick by medical means, and to restore the sick person to a healthy life.

Essence of medicine; Healthy; Medical academician; Question; Sick

I have asked many people in different professions a question about “what medicine is and what the essence of medicine is?” There are doctors, nurses, cooks, farmers, athletes, police and students, and some philosophers and religious people. Most people have similar answers, and only a few say different answers. Most people’s answer is “cure the sick and save people, serve the people”, only a few people answered “medicine is humanistic care “,” medicine is disease prevention “,” medicine is multidisciplinary integration “,” medicine is to persuade people to be good “,” medicine is a profound knowledge, is a summary of practice”.

From my thinking point of view, to understand this problem, we must first analyze the causes of it. When human beings experience the pain and death caused by various diseases, they spontaneously germinate the idea of relieving pain, sustaining life, curing disease and prolonging life span, so they form the present medicine in the exploration of generations. Therefore, medicine is a subject about production practice and solving health problems. It is the unity of natural science and social science. The contents of medicine include botany, biology, philosophy, military science, astronomy, history, natural science, psychology, sociology, anthropology and theology. It is because disease causes pain and death that medicine is available, but the core value of medicine should not only be to treat sick people, medicine should pay more attention to people who are not sick. The reasons are as follows: First, the sick are transformed by the un-sick, the un-sick is the majority (Figure 1); second, the original intention of medicine should be to reduce illness or not sick, health is its pursuit; third, medicine should be a subject of disease prevention, health, enjoyment of life, life extension, the core is “preventive treatment of disease”; fourth, medicine should be a mentor to promote human health, not a nanny to clean up the health mess.

In China, academician Lanjuan Li believes that the development of medical science cannot be separated from multidisciplinary cross- discipline; academician Qide Han believes that medicine must be narrated, narrative medicine first emphasizes the narration of the doctor; academician Shusen Zheng advocates seven division rounds, doctors, pharmacists, nurses, dietitians, psychologists, rehabilitators, pain teachers and so on to consult together, respectively, to provide patients with psychological, nutritional, health support, reflect the multidisciplinary cooperation between medicine; academician Fazu Qiu believes that medicine must have a holistic view of disease, disease in the overall situation to think; Academician Mengchao Wu believes that medical treatment is not only human “disease”, but also “person” of disease; academician Daiming Fan believes that integrated medicine is a new medical system. Because of the academicians “what is medicine, what is the essence of medicine?” The deep discussion of this problem has developed the modern and diverse medical system in China.

Finally, to sum up, the comprehensive analysis believes that the essence of medicine should be to keep the people who are not sick healthy and not sick by medical means, to restore the sick people to a healthy life, and then not to be sick.

Figure 1: Essence of medicine.

Thank you very much, Secretary-General Huawei Luo, Standing Committee Member of Zhejiang Science and Technology Association. In his lectures, I learned about the dedication of medical academician to medicine and the research on the essence of medicine, which inspired me to ponder the question of “what is medicine and what is the essence of medicine”.