California, 11th Jan, 2018 - SCU's faculty was pleased and proud to participate in the first Forum for Traditional World Medicine. Held in Shanghai at Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the two-day conference brought together an international group of traditional medicine practitioners from a wide variety of disciplines.

Traditional medicine is the application of native pharmacopeia, interventions, and methods that have survived for thousands of years, treating illness and injury. However, these have been rigorously suppressed in favor of the Westernized allopathic tradition of medicine, the medical-industrial complex, and the pharmaceutical industry.

During the conference, the wide group of traditional medicine practitioners discussed that despite evidence that - for instance - curcumin is an antiproliferative that is useful in the treatment of leukemia, Western medicine persists in labeling thousands of years of Ayurvedic teaching as "alternative medicine" or less politely as "myth." It is only recently that understanding of medicine has expanded to include traditional practices from across the world as having therapeutic value beyond the condescending label of "complementary medicine" that is given when practiced alongside the allopathic tradition.

Understanding Traditional Medicine

Traditional medicine is traditional for a reason - it has shown effectiveness, and provided the basis for modern medical knowledge. Where patients come to traditional and alternative medicines, they are often dispirited and depressed on top of being ill, feeling isolated in the Western-based allopathic medical system, and needing holistic care for their bodies and spirits.

The first conference of its kind to explore not only the practice of traditional medicine, but the reality of politics and policy surrounding traditional medicine and a plan for pushing back against the hegemony of Westernized delivery of medicine. The delivery of traditional medicine faces a number of obstacles in establishing itself due to training, licensure, practice, and service standards that are structured to elevate the medical-industrial complex where patient care takes a back seat to patient treatment.

About Us

Since its founding, the Southern California University of Health Sciences has valued and fostered a culture of open inquiry, research, and scholarship that enables our graduates to serve the needs of their communities as integrative healthcare professionals. We always seek evidence-based care and are focused on patient outcomes, diversity, leadership, and excellence in the field. Partnering with a distinguished academic institution and other practitioners to further the cause of traditional medicine and modern science is full in keeping with our mission, visions, and values.