Robert Gish

I read this book as a nurse working with hepatitis C patients, and as someone without any knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). I'm not sure who the book's ideal reader would be, but I don't think it's me or my patients. It takes the unusual approach of alternating chapters or half-chapters between Dr. Gish, a GI/hepatology physician of some renown, and Dr. Cohen, a Chinese medicine practitioner at a clinic that sees some of the same patients. The two halves have virtually nothing show more in common: Gish's side is more or less like other mainstream books on the subject, although not the best-written of them (that's probably [book: Living with Hepatitis C: A Survivor's Guide]), while Cohen starts every section with something along the lines of "In TCM, [whatever organ, cell, or other concept Gish just explained] has nothing to do with this disease; it's an imbalance between [nondescriptive name of some principle in TCM] and [another one of those]"... basically a lot of terms that, to anyone who hasn't studied TCM, will just sound like gibberish and not really give any basis for understanding what the doctor thinks you should do. Now I know that that's more or less how even the simplest "Western" medical teaching would sound to someone who's never heard of any of its concepts, but the fact is that just about everyone here has heard of at least the very basic ones, so it's possible to describe even something as complicated as the immune system in simple terms and, if necessary, explain how those concepts can be tested and applied. Gish sort of does that, but - at least for me, and I think for any reader without that training - Cohen doesn't. I'm left with the impression that they have two totally contradictory approaches, and it's not clear whether they really think there's a way that they can both be accurate, or whether they've just decided not to argue. In any case, I'm not sure what a patient would take away from the book itself; it seems more useful as a guide to further reading, or an incentive to ask your doctor more about everything. show less