I know little to nothing about this practice and I don’t really care that much to sift through thousands of websites worth of information. Not to mention it’s going to be hard to find a source I trust enough to give me reasonable information.
Basically, have any of you tried it or know someone who has tried it. My sister is trying it for some post-pregnancy related issues. I work in a medical research lab and have a knee-jerk “you’re so full of shit” whenever my sister does something like this (often).
Also, does anyone know what the general feeling among western medicine practitioners is? The AMA? What is your feeling? Has anyone had good experiences with this or any related healing procedures? Do you think it might just be all in your head? I’m curious.
Please don’t tell me this topic has already been covered in the past. At this point I’m sure there is a SD thread on everything. I don’t care.
I worked in an acupuncturists’ clinic (at the desk) for about 6 years, and I studied Traditional Chinese Medicine (the diagnostic framework, but not acupuncture itself) for 4 years.
My perception: sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve seen a diabetic’s necrotic (dead) foot restored to pink healthy tissue, and I’ve seen asthmatics ditch their inhalers and migraine sufferers throw away their meds. I’ve myself helped to turn breech babies without touching the mother’s belly. On the other hand, there were some people who came back week after week and never seemed to get any better. I think many of them simply liked the excuse of lying still for half an hour and feeling peaceful - and if they want to pay for that and aren’t destitute, fine.
The National Institutes of Health support acupuncture being used in conjunction with Western medical treatment, but maintains that the mechanism of it’s effectiveness has not been well explained within the framework of Western medicine. Not surprising. Their statement reads:
The AMA, not surprisingly, doesn’t like it one bit.
I personally suspect it works, in the most Western terms possible, via a combination of nerve stimulation and placebo effect. But please understand that I don’t say “placebo effect” as a denigration. I think that if there is such a thing as a placebo effect, we ought to be exploiting it, not dismissing it. But that’s a whole 'nother debate. The TCM explanations are functional, not mechanical, in nature, and have to do with moving qi, or energy/matter, around the body.
Bottom line? If it works for your sister, it works. Period. Statistics and studies are nice and all, but they say nothing about whether any treatment will work for that one patient right there. *If *it’s “all in her head”, so what? If sitting quietly with needles in her is what she needs to engage her own healing powers of her mind, then great. Obviously she can’t do it alone, or she wouldn’t be ill.
The general TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) rule of thumb is that for every year of illness, expect one month of treatment - that’s one month Chinese style treatment, where you might get needled every day. So she should give it some time, but not too much time. More than a month without any improvement probably means the practitioner isn’t right for her, or her condition won’t be improved by acupuncture.
Several months there was a program on UCTV (University of California TV) entitled
“The Bain of Pain is Mainly in the Brain” I can’t remember the name of the MD who presented it, nor can I find a reference on the UCTV site. I have googled it with no results so this may be a worthless post.
This was an excellent presentation and explained pain, its causes and treatment very well. The Doctor opined that Acupuncture was not a viable alternative to pain relief. He felt that Hypnosis was the only practical non-pharmaceutical alternative. In his presentation, it is clear that he felt that the source of pain is registered (occurs) in the brain, not in some other area of the body. I’m not a MD, I can only relate what I saw and/or heard
I find the attitude towards acupuncture here in the US odd, but I suppose it’s a cultural difference. I had a friend back home who was getting an MD in Eastern Medicine, and after she started taking acupuncture courses she always carried those needles around and use them for headaches and cramps (the way most of us take painkillers). I have a fear of needles so never let her try them on me, but our other friends did and said they worked fine.
Acupuncture is pretty widely accepted in Korea, and it’s mostly used for long-term, non-fatal problems (like if you have indigestion regularly, or have a bad back, or have severe cramps during your period). Of course, you need a degree to practice, just like doctors trained in Western Medicine. I dunno if that’s how it works here. Most people use a mixture of both. Few people would rely on Eastern Medicine for a broken leg, or cancer treatment, for example.
One of my mom’s cats gets acupuncture for his arthritis, and it seems to make a big difference. I don’t think the cat likely ever believed that having needles stuck into him would be good, so it’s probably not a placebo effect.
Mrs Marcus has just finished a course of six treatments. Within 24 hours of the first treatment, severe lower back pain that she had been waking up with had gone and has not returned since. Remaining treatments were ok but no further spectacular success.
In the UK acupuncure is accepted by the medical profession and is available (in some areas)on the National Health Service as an adjunct to physiotherapy. I doubt if many doctors buy into the theory behind it but they accept the empirical evidence of its successes in areas - like long term back pain - where conventional medicine is pretty hopeless.
If I could find an acupuncturist around here that was reputable shut up I would go in a heart beat.
As some one who has migraines, tinnitus and tendonitis, and a bit of a free spirited, think for yourself kinda gal, I’ll try anything. I don’t see how accupuncture is worse for you than popping meds daily.
I’ve had great results from acupuncture. The first time I went was for severe pain from a couple of neuromas in my foot. The pain was terrible (I mean, really, sometimes I was in tears it hurt so bad) and I had to use a crutch to get around because it hurt more to put weight on my foot. My podiatrist suggested I try acupuncture because he didn’t want me to have surgery. Hell, I definitely did not want to have surgery, especially after he told me what the recovery period would be like and that I could get more neuromas in the future. Anyway, it worked. After several visits the pain was gone. No surgery!
I have had acupuncture for a lot of things since then, from back pain to tendonitis. It has always helped. Sometimes the needles hurt, when inserted in certain points, like near the thumb. But usually it’s no big deal. Compared to surgery… no-brainer.
I am always encouraging people to try it. When somebody is complaining about carpal tunnel or shoulder pain or something and thinking about having surgery, I tell them to try acupuncture first. Surgery is a huge deal and I think it’s taken a little too lightly. Why not consider some alternatives before accepting the risks of operations, infections, and pharmaceuticals?
I found both acupuncturists I have seen by asking people I know for recommendations. That worked out well for me.
My dad is a chiropractor who also does acupuncture. I’ve had varied success with it. Once, shortly after I got married, I got these unbelievable stomach/back cramps. I toughed it out for a while, then called my dad (it was to the emergency room if he couldn’t help). My husband had to practically carry me to the car…horrible, unrelenting pain until the needles went in and then instantly no more pain. Completely gone. It was the strangest thing (medically) I’ve ever experienced.
He’s also done acupuncture on my husband (I can’t remember what the problem was, but the acupuncture helped). Acupuncture needles, or at least the kind he uses, are very thin and just barely tapped into the skin through a plastic tube. You barely feel them going in unless it’s a sensitive spot. They are only in the skin 1/16th of an inch or so, but the needles are about 2.5" long–about half of that is needle and half is thicker for gripping (like this) . When he put one on a certain spot on my husband’s back the needle started out barely under the skin (as normal) and was drawn into the skin completely up to the gripping part over the course of about 15 minutes. No pressure was applied, the needle just gradually went farther and farther into the skin (I watched). He said it didn’t hurt, and my dad said it’s pretty common for that to happen.
Other times it has provided me with temporary relief from minor pain, but no lasting effects, and sometimes it does nothing for me. I’ve never needed long term treatments because I’ve never had chronic pain, so I can’t comment on that. FWIW, my dad doesn’t charge his regular patients for acupuncture treatments.
Try going to the website of the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) They have a link where you can search for certified practitioners in your area. Anyone certified by NCCAOM has completed rigorous training and taken a national test which is, my acupuncturist friends tell me, rather difficult. Many of them took two tries on either the written or the practical to pass, and they’re all fantastically good acupuncturists, so I trust that test and that certifying body a lot.
I had acupuncture for some time to help with a skin problem, this was combined with some herbal medicine from a Chinese Medicine practitioner in the UK. The whole thing worked really well and my skin improved dramatically, which I was very pleased about.
I’m not sure if it was the herbal stuff or the acupuncture or both, but the results were quite amazing. If nothing else, I enjoyed the hour of relaxation and the peace during my acupuncture sessions, must have reduced my stress levels if nothing else!
While the jury is still out on whether acupuncture provides any substantual benefit beyond that of a placebo, it should be noted that the basis for the practice is based on an anatomical map of the body which cannot be shown to exist, and has provided no useful information or predictions on how biological principles work.
The ancient Chinese who developed the original system had a phobia about disection and dreamed up a theory of body internal workings that seems to make sense unless you actually open it up. Then it becomes obvious that the theory is oriental hogwash.
Note that improvements in medical imaging (CAT scans, etc.) have not revealed the existance of any elements of the Chinese theory, but strongly refute it. The more we learn about the body, the less likely this 2000 year old fantasy is valid.
I have been getting treatments for my phantom limb pain (medicines do not affect it at all). I have had a couple of minor relapses but nothing like what I was going through just a few months ago. After 20 years of mild to unbearable pain its a welcome relief. Helped my back pain too. Also, someone mentioned the 30 minutes of peace. My practioner does 1 hour and 15 minute sessions, they are very relaxing.
I’m in no position to debunk acupuncture as a whole, but this seems like a physical impossibility. The whole foot was dead, like ready to be cut off and it was restored? Or healthy pink tissue grew in under dead tissue and the dead tissue sloughed off?
Even with my limited medical knowledge, that seems like quite a feet, I mean feat. Care to give us a cite from a reputable medical source backing up that astounding claim?
No, this is not GQ, but unless you are trying to be funny, that’s a claim that no one should accept without sufficient evidence, no matter what forum you frequent.
The foot was blue and purple, with large spots of black and grey. There were several open, unhealing sores on it (common in diabetics, I hear.) When the needles were removed, the blood that spotted up at each point was the thickest stuff I’ve seen, and very very dark. (Note: you don’t always bleed with acupuncture, but sometimes you do, usually a drop or two. This guy bled a lot.) His doctor, who came in with him several times during the course of his treatment (because he was shocked that it was changing the foot), used the word “necrotic” to describe the foot - IANADoctor, and am not qualified to diagnose such things. He mentioned to me that it had been that way for nearly a year and he was pushing the patient to have it removed, but the patient was resisting.
Over about 6 months, the foot, from the ankle down, became normal flesh colored. The blood decreased in volume and in viscosity, and also became a more lighter normal red in color. The black spots went away, but whether the tissue remained and turned pink or whether they flaked off like scabs, I do not know. My job was to remove the needles after the treatment and to schedule appointments, not to talk to the patient. The doctor was quite astounded, and sent a lot of his other patients to us for treatment after that.
I do not know if his doctor tracked the treatment for a case study or had it published anywhere. My acupuncturist employer did not.
