Alt Med - Acupuncture (5 of 20)

(from PT and Alternative Medicine)

History

Crude, non-systematic needling was noted in China in the 1600’s.

A Frenchman, Georges Soulie de Morant, was the first to use the term “meridian” and to equate qi with “energy” — in 1939.

The Chinese government tried to ban acupuncture several times, between 1822 and World War II.

Mao revived it in the 1960s as a cheap way of providing care to the masses; he did not use it himself because he did not believe it worked. It was Mao’s government that coined the term “traditional Chinese medicine” or TCM.

A widely circulated picture of a patient allegedly undergoing open heart surgery in China with acupuncture anesthesia was shown to be bogus.

As acupuncture increased in popularity in the West, it declined in the East. In 1995, visiting American physicians were told only 15–20% of Chinese chose TCM, and it was usually used along with Western treatments after diagnosis by a Western-trained physician. Apparently some patients choose TCM because it is all they can afford.

In surgery in China today, acupuncture is used along with conventional anesthesia and/or pre-operative medication, and it is selected only for patients who believe in it and are likely to have a placebo response.

Support

no research has ever been able to document the existence of acupuncture points or meridians or qi.

It has been shown to “work” (placebo effect?) to relieve pain, nausea, and other subjective symptoms, but it has never been shown to alter the natural history or course of any disease.

Studies have shown that acupuncture releases natural opioid pain relievers in the brain: endorphins. Veterinarians have pointed out that loading a horse into a trailer or throwing a stick for a dog also releases endorphins. Probably hitting yourself on the thumb with a hammer would release endorphins too, and it would take your mind off your headache.

Some research of acupuncture for pain relief finds traditional acupuncture effective, but so is a sham form. The sham form involved :(1) the insertion of needles but not into traditional "energy"/chi points on "meridians“ or (2) the use of toothpicks instead of needles.

Summary

Acupuncture is no more effective than traditional “counter-stimulation” procedures (i.e. rubbing, tapping, shaking, heat, cold, etc.)