In this blog post, I will examine whether the core theories of Korean medicine, the theory of yin-yang and the five elements and sasang- medicine, have sufficient scientific evidence from the perspective of Popper’s theory of falsification.
When I was young, I wanted to be taller, so I went to a Korean medicine clinic run by a famous Korean medicine doctor on TV for a while. Before making a diagnosis, I took a few tests to see which traditional Korean medicine ingredients would work for me. The tests were simple. First, I lay down and the doctor would place traditional Korean medicine ingredients on my solar plexus and measure the strength of my arms with his own arms to see if the traditional Korean medicine ingredients would work for me based on the strength of the arm. At the time, I remember being amazed by the whole process of the test and believing what the oriental doctor said. But as a result, I didn’t grow a single inch, and it became an opportunity for me to question oriental medicine.
Oriental medicine is a type of medicine that has been developed in Korea since ancient times. Also known as Eastern medicine in response to Western medicine, it has developed through interaction with the medicine of other countries in East Asia. Because Korean medicine views the human body as a microcosm, its basic theory is the theory of the five elements based on yin and yang, which is the principle of the operation of the universe. The theory of Korean medicine’s view of nature, the physiology and pathology of the human body, and diagnostic and therapeutic drugs are all explained by the theory of the five elements.
The theory of yin-yang and the five elements is the most important theory that forms the basis of traditional Chinese medicine. Here, yin and yang are the basic systems applied when looking at something, and they refer to the same thing but being observed as yin and yang to recognize the relative differences. For example, the outside of the body is yang, the inside is yin, and the upper and lower parts belong to yang and yin, respectively. Furthermore, physiologically, fever and increased blood pressure are considered to be positive, while decreased blood pressure and a slowing of the pulse are considered to be negative. In this way, yin and yang interact with each other to regulate the body. When the relative equilibrium is broken, problems arise, and it is the job of traditional Korean medicine to correct these problems.
Meanwhile, the five elements refer to the five elements that make up the universe: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Like yin and yang, these five elements also maintain balance through a cyclical process of creation and destruction. In this regard, traditional Korean medicine uses the principles of the five elements of harmony and opposition to resolve pathological phenomena. For example, the liver is in a mutually complementary relationship with the heart, and the liver and the spleen are in a mutually restrictive relationship.
However, since the basic principles of this type of oriental medicine cannot be disproved by Popper’s theory of falsification, it can be defined as unscientific. In this article, I will discuss the unscientific nature of Korean medicine as a whole by presenting some of its important aspects as unscientific. First, looking at the position of Korean medicine, it claims that all parts of the human body can be matched with yin and yang, and that when this harmony of yin and yang is achieved, health is achieved and any disharmony can be resolved with Korean medicine. However, the idea that the human body is made up of yin and yang is a very unscientific claim.
For example, if the reason for getting sick is because the body lacks energy, then all diseases can be explained by energy. This theory can explain everything from a mild cold to a disease like cancer, but it is not scientific because it cannot be verified. Freud’s theory also falls into this category. His theory that “sexual desire” is the cause of behavior is unscientific because it cannot be disproved. Freud published a theory in the early 20th century that the mind’s ills could be solved through psychoanalysis. He said that the hurtful memories experienced in the past are trapped in the unconscious realm deep in the consciousness, and that they do not disappear completely but instead sink into the unconscious and affect consciousness and behavior in various forms. Therefore, to cure mental illness, he said that one should bring up such suppressed memories and reintegrate them with the current memory to cure them. However, in modern times, his psychoanalytic theory has been criticized as unscientific and belonging to the category of humanities rather than medicine.
From this perspective, the claim that the human body is composed of yin and yang is a very unscientific claim. For example, suppose there is a patient with a fever and high blood pressure. According to the theory of yin and yang, this patient has yin energy that is stronger than yang energy, which is why he has problems with the balance of yin and yang. To treat this problem, he is trying to reduce his yin energy through the treatment methods of traditional Korean medicine. However, there is no way to know whether this treatment method reduces yin energy or, conversely, increases yin energy and reduces yang energy. Even if it reduces yin energy, there is no way to know how much it reduces it. “Like a nose ring for a nose and an earring for an ear,” one can explain any disease in terms of the size of yin and yang, but like Freud’s theory presented earlier, it can only explain the afterlife, but not predict or solve the future. In addition, contrary to the well-known theory of yin and yang, the inside of the body is yang and the outside of the body is yin, and fever and high blood pressure are yin, while low blood pressure and a slow pulse are yang, so everything is explained in the same way, making it a theory that cannot be disproved in any case. Similarly, the theory of the five elements cannot be disproved, and as a result, the theory of the five elements, which is the foundation of Korean medicine, can be considered unscientific.
When we look at the Saengsan medicine founded by Lee Je-ma in the late Joseon period, it is even more clear that it is impossible to disprove. Saengsan medicine is a theory that divides people’s constitutions into four characteristics: sun, moon, yang, and yin, and treats diseases according to people’s characteristics. It says that even if the same symptoms are present, the treatment method that suits each person’s constitution should be used to maximize the effect. However, it is impossible to disprove the idea that people’s constitutions can be divided into four different types. For example, according to Tae-Yangin medicine, the Taeumyeon type is one of the four constitutions, and it is said to be a constitution with more fire and less water based on the theory of yin and yang and the five elements, compared to the other constitutions. However, it is impossible to disprove this because the idea of fire and water is very abstract. Moreover, the standard for dividing these people into different types of constitutions, which is that they have large livers and small lungs, is very vague, and the external description of these people, which includes many people with a sturdy physique and a lot of weight but also some gaunt people, cannot be disproved because it can include any person.
Finally, I would like to discuss the unscientific nature of Korean medicine’s treatment methods. There are many different types of Korean medicine treatments, but the most well-known is acupuncture. The principle of acupuncture is said to be to help the circulation of qi and blood through the treatment of meridians. The qi and blood referred to here are the energy sources that supply energy to the organs, and it is said that the idea of them was inspired by the wisdom gained from everyday life. However, the qi and blood are impossible to verify, so it is impossible to disprove them, and like the theory of qi and the theory of Freud, this is also a non-scientific theory.
In this article, I discussed the unscientific nature of Korean medicine from three aspects. First, I examined the impossibility of disproving the theory of yin-yang and the five elements, which forms the foundation of Korean medicine. Second, I refuted the theory of Ije-ma, which was derived from this theory. Finally, I talked about acupuncture, the representative treatment method of Korean medicine. As such, it can be seen as a medical practice that is not scientific because the impossibility of disproving it has emerged in various elements that can represent Korean medicine. Of course, this is not covered in the main text, but there may be elements of Korean medicine that can be disproved from the perspective of Popper. However, as mentioned earlier, it was possible to conclude that Korean medicine is unscientific because the basic principles or representative treatments that can represent Korean medicine are unscientific. Therefore, this paper hopes that readers will keep this in mind and find it helpful when choosing between Western medicine and Korean medicine for the treatment of diseases in the future.
