First of all, I am not in Medicine nor in Traditinal Chinese Medicine. My personal opinion on both of them is not informative and therefore I am not going to share my thoughts of both subjects.

But in respect to the relationship between therapy and theory, I would say in many scientific fields especially those with close relationship to or heavily relied on observation and experiment, trial and error is a very important means and breakthroughs may happen before theories. However this fact does not imply that those subjects do not have a systematic theory.

At the same time, those who practise TCM diagnose before providing prescription, which simply indicates that practices are based on theory. Furthermore, we should always remember that traditional medicine is a subject with thousands of years' history. On the other hand academic research 50 years ago or even five years ago may not stand in some fields nowadays. I am sure TCM, as it stands, is not a rigorous one.

As far as how TCM works is concerned, you have a wrong assumption that all diseases in the past appeared at the same time or appeared before TCM was established. Do you really think that it was such a static world until we were born? Do you really believe that NEW DISEASE is a 20th century term?

Finally, about the mechnism of human body and the mechanism of disease, I do not know. But I would rather believe that the nature is not so simple as what we believe. There is just too much we do not understand and sometimes some thoughts may not become a rigorous theory not because those thoughts are wrong, but the present technology development can not provide useful analysing tool or methodology.

A 1 litre cup with 500mm water in can be both interpreted as a half-full cup or a half-empty cup.