Is acupuncture a belief system? Do you need to change your beliefs or ideas about the world for it to work? Of course not. At its root, acupuncture is a system of healing that is very grounded and pragmatic.
At Innova Acupuncture, we try to maintain that sense of balance and grounding. Our goal is to focus on three things: what you want, what you need and how to get results quickly. When I go to my mechanic I don't need to know all the things he did to make my car run well. I just want to know it runs well. When someone walks out of my office, I'm interested in them knowing that their hip pain is gone, or that their knee injury is healing faster.
I'll always take time to answer questions about what I did for those patients interested in learning more about their body, but I don't expect my patients to be physicians or philosophers just to get better.
New Scientist recently published the results of a study about healing spinal damage using acupuncture. The study showed that the participants "in the acupuncture group also had less nerve cell death and lower levels of proteins known to induce inflammation after spinal cord injury and make neural damage worse."
Did it work because they believed in it? Well, in this study, the test subjects were rats, so I'd say their belief system didn't really come into play. Check out the article and see what you think.
5 comments:
Hi, Daniel! I was skeptical about acupuncture at first. But that changed when my brother had an injury on his left arm during his rugby game.
He stayed at the hospital for almost 2 weeks and suffered intense pain. One day, my uncle visited my brother and suggested consulting a chiropractic (Brooklyn Park MN) practitioner.
Three days after my brother was released from the hospital, we went to the chiropractor (Brooklyn Center MN)) who was referred by my uncle. We asked questions about his healing procedures and I was surprised that he also practices acupuncture. The chiropractor explained the practice of acupuncture well and other healing therapies he's offering. With that, I now understand acupuncture better. My brother has already undergone to massage therapies and some acupuncture sessions.
Today, my brother is fully recovered he can play rugby again!
Hi Daniel, I saw your article and found it really interesting as I often have the same issues in my clinic - the theory can be a bit off-putting for some. I think the key thing to remember is that acupuncture and Chinese Medicine are pre-scientific and are a based on practical observation over thousands of years. In this respect the theory may not explain the way that acupuncture works from a scientific perspective. However, it does offer an important road map for practitioners on how tie the thousands of years of observation together. In following the theory it means we can come up with the appropriate diagnosis and treatment plan to get a good result for our patients,
Sam Corban from New Zealand
I recently came across your blog. I have seen here great discussion about acupuncture. I found really interesting information to this post. I am completely convinced with his thoughts. I will stay in touch for more information. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Daniel, thanks for this. I think it's so important to demystify acupuncture and have an almost cold-headed approach to reassure people. You would be great as a guest-blogger at diyacu.com - I notice you haven't posted in a while but would you be interested? Thanks, Andrew.
Hi Daniel, I think this is a great topic. I do practice acupuncture in Florida and try to educate people on daily basis. I became a member of chamber of commerce in my town and that was a great opportunity to explain and share many things about acupuncture and chinese medicine. Today one gentlement asked me what is my reaction to those who are so sceptical about it? My answer was that who never try it is very closed mind. If there is a chance that you can feel much better and without any side effect, on my opinion those who never try are the only loosers... Acupuncture is great!
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