Western Medicine Versus Eastern Medicine: Do Both Have a Common Root, Scientific Background, and Worldwide Recognition?

This review is designed to initiate a discussion we believe is necessary for the biomedical community, because of some recent evidences for existing of a new body anatomical system, or the primo vascular system (PVS), which could be the missing link in the scientific explanation of the unknown mechanism of action of acupuncture. Some important questions for the medical society, (eg, What is the main source of the mistrust of Western medicine toward traditional Oriental medicine and could it be overcome? or Is the PVS a real one and what is its distribution, formation, and function? or Are there scientific proofs for intimate relationships of the PVS with meridian system and whether the PVS would be the physical basis of meridians?) are deeply studied and appropriately answered. Various pieces of knowledge are now combined to achieve a better understanding and to provide an acceptable explanation about the functions of such new system and to explain the functional path used by traditional Eastern medicine to cure diseases. Some possibilities to use this PVS for development of some innovative therapies to treat some diseases are also discussed (eg, pharmacopuncture as a new innovative drug delivery method that combines acupuncture therapy with medication by injecting pharmacological substances into target acupoints).