(This is based on a post I made on KenpoTalk. I welcome comments)
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Ok, I can't find my original notes, so I did some new digging.
My desire for a better approach to the ideas of the traditionally trained doctors I've encountered began several years ago. They informed me that I would have to deal with certain pains. They offered expensive pills to take to hide the pain...pills that had some nasty side effects associated with them, including foggy brain (sorry, don't know the clinical term). More recently, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. My traditional solution? Here, eat this chemical and see if it works (oh and heres all the side effects it can cause you). I also have several herniated disks (from a car accident). Both my traditional doctor and my chiropractor (remember, chiropractors are also considered quacks. My neck and back tell me otherwise) have recommended that rather than going under the knife (the only solution traditional medicine can offer me, besides pain pills to mask the pain and poison my body further), that I seek the services of a TCM trained acupuncturist. I've been researching that option and checking out my local options and will be making a visit shortly.
I am tired of doctors prescribing the "pill of the week", who don't understand half the side effects it can cause (I asked 1 doctor a few years back if the pill they were prescribing had any side effects. He said "nothing major". I looked it up and read the paper I got with it. I dunno about you, but I would call loss of sex drive, irritability, and kidney failure to be major.) I can take 2,000 mg of ibuprophen for my headaches, or I can do acupressure, and other non-toxic herbal treatments. I prefer the latter as kidney failure is not on my lists of things to experience.
TCM practices have been working in China for 2,000 years. Studies on how the bodies neural pathways are layed out have found that 2,000 year old meridian charts are very similar in these "modern scientific" charts. In addition, acupuncture is approved by the FDA, the National Institutes of Health list is as safe and effective, and
Traditional medicine has it's place. It's foundations go back just as far, with many of the basic techniques and tools having been devised in the Greek and later Roman eras. There are things a needle in the arm cannot cure. Unfortunately, todays traditional medicine relies on surgery and chemicals to treat patients problems, often times with tragic results. How many drugs have been pulled from the market after being fast-tracked through the FDA? How many needless surgeries are performed each day?
Traditional medicine says "you have a pain. here, hide the pain with this pill, and hope you do not pee blood."
TCM says "you have a pain. Let us remove the source of that pain and restore you to balance."
I seek balance over illusion.
My research is below. One can read through these Government and Educational Institution resource sites and decide for oneself if TCM and Acupuncture are valid options for their health care.
From NCCAM, National Institutes of Health
Is acupuncture safe?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved acupuncture needles for use by licensed practitioners in 1996. The FDA requires that sterile, nontoxic needles be used and that they be labeled for single use by qualified practitioners only.5
Relatively few complications from the use of acupuncture have been reported to the FDA in light of the millions of people treated each year and the number of acupuncture needles used.
Does acupuncture work?
According to the NIH Consensus Statement on Acupuncture, there have been many studies on acupuncture's potential usefulness, but results have been mixed because of complexities with study design and size, as well as difficulties with choosing and using placebos or sham acupuncture. However, promising results have emerged, showing efficacy of acupuncture, for example, in adult postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and in postoperative dental pain. There are other situations--such as addiction, stroke rehabilitation, headache, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, osteoarthritis, low-back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma--in which acupuncture may be useful as an adjunct treatment or an acceptable alternative or be included in a comprehensive management program. An NCCAM-funded study recently showed that acupuncture provides pain relief, improves function for people with osteoarthritis of the knee, and serves as an effective complement to standard care. Further research is likely to uncover additional areas where acupuncture interventions will be useful.
For acupuncture information: http://www.acupuncture.com/
American Academy of Medical Acupuncture
http://www.medicalacupuncture.org/
NCCAM, National Institutes of Health
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/
British Acupuncture Council
http://www.acupuncture.org.uk/
Article on treating sports related injuries with acupuncture
On treating Migranes
Gynaecological Disorders
Articles evidencing the existence of energy meridians
(Compiled from the internet by Fred Gallo, PhD)
http://www.emofree.com/Research/meridianexistence.htm
==
Ok, I can't find my original notes, so I did some new digging.
My desire for a better approach to the ideas of the traditionally trained doctors I've encountered began several years ago. They informed me that I would have to deal with certain pains. They offered expensive pills to take to hide the pain...pills that had some nasty side effects associated with them, including foggy brain (sorry, don't know the clinical term). More recently, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. My traditional solution? Here, eat this chemical and see if it works (oh and heres all the side effects it can cause you). I also have several herniated disks (from a car accident). Both my traditional doctor and my chiropractor (remember, chiropractors are also considered quacks. My neck and back tell me otherwise) have recommended that rather than going under the knife (the only solution traditional medicine can offer me, besides pain pills to mask the pain and poison my body further), that I seek the services of a TCM trained acupuncturist. I've been researching that option and checking out my local options and will be making a visit shortly.
I am tired of doctors prescribing the "pill of the week", who don't understand half the side effects it can cause (I asked 1 doctor a few years back if the pill they were prescribing had any side effects. He said "nothing major". I looked it up and read the paper I got with it. I dunno about you, but I would call loss of sex drive, irritability, and kidney failure to be major.) I can take 2,000 mg of ibuprophen for my headaches, or I can do acupressure, and other non-toxic herbal treatments. I prefer the latter as kidney failure is not on my lists of things to experience.
TCM practices have been working in China for 2,000 years. Studies on how the bodies neural pathways are layed out have found that 2,000 year old meridian charts are very similar in these "modern scientific" charts. In addition, acupuncture is approved by the FDA, the National Institutes of Health list is as safe and effective, and
Traditional medicine has it's place. It's foundations go back just as far, with many of the basic techniques and tools having been devised in the Greek and later Roman eras. There are things a needle in the arm cannot cure. Unfortunately, todays traditional medicine relies on surgery and chemicals to treat patients problems, often times with tragic results. How many drugs have been pulled from the market after being fast-tracked through the FDA? How many needless surgeries are performed each day?
Traditional medicine says "you have a pain. here, hide the pain with this pill, and hope you do not pee blood."
TCM says "you have a pain. Let us remove the source of that pain and restore you to balance."
I seek balance over illusion.
My research is below. One can read through these Government and Educational Institution resource sites and decide for oneself if TCM and Acupuncture are valid options for their health care.
From NCCAM, National Institutes of Health
Is acupuncture safe?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved acupuncture needles for use by licensed practitioners in 1996. The FDA requires that sterile, nontoxic needles be used and that they be labeled for single use by qualified practitioners only.5
Relatively few complications from the use of acupuncture have been reported to the FDA in light of the millions of people treated each year and the number of acupuncture needles used.
Does acupuncture work?
According to the NIH Consensus Statement on Acupuncture, there have been many studies on acupuncture's potential usefulness, but results have been mixed because of complexities with study design and size, as well as difficulties with choosing and using placebos or sham acupuncture. However, promising results have emerged, showing efficacy of acupuncture, for example, in adult postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and in postoperative dental pain. There are other situations--such as addiction, stroke rehabilitation, headache, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, osteoarthritis, low-back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma--in which acupuncture may be useful as an adjunct treatment or an acceptable alternative or be included in a comprehensive management program. An NCCAM-funded study recently showed that acupuncture provides pain relief, improves function for people with osteoarthritis of the knee, and serves as an effective complement to standard care. Further research is likely to uncover additional areas where acupuncture interventions will be useful.
For acupuncture information: http://www.acupuncture.com/
American Academy of Medical Acupuncture
http://www.medicalacupuncture.org/
NCCAM, National Institutes of Health
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/
British Acupuncture Council
http://www.acupuncture.org.uk/
Article on treating sports related injuries with acupuncture
On treating Migranes
Gynaecological Disorders
Articles evidencing the existence of energy meridians
(Compiled from the internet by Fred Gallo, PhD)
http://www.emofree.com/Research/meridianexistence.htm
