http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/31/NSGDOIM5RJ1.DTL&type\
=books-
an article quoting Wallace Sampson, MD, and below are some responses
of
mine:

"There are two major misconceptions about acupuncture, Sampson says, and
both contribute to the misunderstanding of its worth as medical treatment.
First, most people assume that it's an ancient Chinese cure that has
existed, unchanging, for centuries. Not so, says Sampson, noting that
"acupuncture was formalized in a complex way over the past 100 years, mostly
in Europe and France and after the Communist takeover in China. Before that
time there was no consistent formalization of acupuncture points or what
each place was supposed to do. It was largely regional, and the thinking
varied from city to city."

Comment: no one assumes that Acupuncture has gone unchanged for centuries.
Like western medicine, it has gone through trial and error, evolution, and
different degrees of standardization. If one is to fault acupuncture for
being non standardized, the same argument may be made against western
medicine! As for being regional, one must understand that TCM places much
more emphasis on environment and diet and lifestyle than western medicine.
As those variable vary from city to city, so must treatment. Migraines in
the cold north usually have different etiologies than the warm humid south,
for example, necessitating different treatment.

"The other mistake people make about acupuncture, Sampson says, is that it
offers specific cures. "It is nonspecific," Sampson says. "If it has the
effect of, say, releasing endorphins through the application of needles,
well, many things release endorphins -- a walk in the woods, a 5-mile run, a
pinch on the butt.""

This is a valid attack on acupuncture ONLY if JUST releases endorphins. It
doesn't. Can endorphins alone explain stroke recovery? can it explain
immediate relief of muscle spasm?

"Clinically, it has been shown that acupuncture can have counter-irritative
effects. The basis for this is simple: If you have a headache and someone
applies pressure through needles to your arms and neck, you get distracted
from your headache. "It has no effect on disease process," Sampson says,
"but it can affect perception of symptoms through these nonspecific devices,
such as attention diversion or the desire of the patient to please the
treater and feel benefits."

Again, such ideas are INSULTING to the patient. Acupuncture can relieve
pain that the pills cannot. Who are we to deny that it works? I treat
patients with acupuncture and there are indeed tangible results such as
lowered blood pressure and cholesterol levels. A person wish frozen
shoulder can have IMMEDIATE and LASTING relief sometimes just after one
session. It would be a tragic slap in the patient's face to say this is
only due to him wanting to "please the treater".

""I look at it this way: what if acupuncture didn't exist?" he says. "Would
medicine or society be any worse off? If no one knew about it, nothing would
change. You would still have ways to apply counter-irritation, through
massage or rubbing."

If acupuncture didn't exist, then many people would have kidney and liver
failure from too much drugs. People would spend more time and money on
rehabilitation for stroke. And more people can't sleep well at night.

"In general, he says, one of the biggest problems with the whole notion of
"ancient Chinese medicine" is that it falsely pits itself against "Western
medicine."

In reality, it is the bigots such as Sampson who falsely pits Chinese
medicine with Western Medicine. Many people like myself integrate the two
disciplines with little problems - most coming from the aforementioned
bigots. I work in the Philippine General Hospital. I work in a
Rehabiliation Clinic. No clashes so far! In fact, I can help keep stroke
patients compliant with therapy!

"Western medicine, on the other hand, has grown up as the world rejected
those ancient notions."

I ask, so why are so many patients and practitioners embracing these
"ancient notions" again?

Dr. Philip Nino Tan-Gatue
Department of Family and Community Medicine
University of the Philippines College of Medicine


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