Alternative Meds

Ronalda Mcquinn

ENG 112

April 6, 2006

Acupuncture Verses Pain Medicine

Using acupuncture as an alternative medicine in some Health Conditions may be an advantage as opposed to treating some conditions without the use of modern medicine. Alternative medicine is a general term, which the definition can be very controversial to some professionals and patients. It has many different techniques for preventing and treating certain illnesses. It has along with many other therapies, been a part of Asian cultures and has just recently been integrated into the United States.

Acupuncture has been a strong component in china, and can be traced back to their health care system for at least 2,500 years ago. From the years that China has been using this form of procedure to treat varies of health related issues has shown that it is an important tradition in their culture and proved that it works. From this aspect it has been, shown acupuncture has gained respect from other cultures as well as the United States. To get a better understanding of this procedure it is helpful to know a little of the background on Chinese medicine and what they call the art of the procedure. It is said that they believe from the Asian culture that health is achieved though the balance of the opposing forces between "Yin" which is the spirit and "Yang" that is the blood. The attraction between them creates an energy called "Qi". This energy flows to all parts of the body through channels, which are known as "Meridians" the pathway that runs along the surface of the body and then branches into the body's interior. An imbalance in these forces then occurs and that is what is to be believed to cause illness and disease. When needles are inserted the acupuncture points along the meridians, balance and a person's health is then restored.

Sir William Osler, who is referred to as the Father of Modern Medicine, introduced acupuncture to American doctors. He is known by a quote he said that is now in a classic medical textbook that was written about a century ago, " For lumbago, acupuncture is, in acute cases, the most efficient treatment." (Osler) but the first time that acupuncture really got noticed here in the United States was back in 1972, by a reporter named James Reston, from the New York Times. He was assigned to go and cover President Nixon's, which is now historic trip to china. While there during his stay, Reston became ill and was taken to one of their hospitals, he then learned that he had to have and emergency appendectomy. After surgery, he was treated with acuputure instead of powerful pain medicine for the postoperative pain that he endured. With this treatment, he found that he had no need for the pain medicine, which is generally admistered after surgery here in the United States. He then published his report in the New York Times following his arrival back home. The report of his experience with acupuncture caught the interest of many American doctors who wanted to see how the Chinese used acupuncture as an anesthetic. So many physicians and non- physicians went to train over seas, while some remained here in the United States and trained with acupuntistis in many Asian communities.

Traditional acupuncture is what is generally performed now in offices across the United States. It involves the insertion of stainless steel needles into various areas on the body. Sometimes a low frequency current may also be applied to the needles to produce greater stimulation. Then there are other procedures that are either used separately of along with the acupuncture. They include moxibustion, which is the burning of floss or herbs that is applied to the skin: injection of sterile water vitamins, homeopathic solutions through the inserted needles: laserpunture that is acupuncture used with laserbeams: auriculotherapy which is the placement of needles in the external part of the ear: and acupressure is where they use manual pressure during the treatment. When treatment is, admistered it is applied to the acupuncture points, which are located throughout the body. There were originally 365 of these points, that corresponded to the days of the year, but that number has increased over the years to about some 2,000 points. Some acupuncturists place the needles at or near the site of the disease, whereas others select points of the basis of symptoms, in traditional acupuncture, a combination of the points are generally used during treatment.

Acupuncture is used to treat many conditions today, but note that it should not be considered for all conditions, some require other means of treatment by a medical doctor, that is lifetreatening if not properly treated. I found from The World Health Organization, a list of different medical conditions that can and has benefited from the use of acupuncture. This list includes prevention and treatment of nausea and vomiting; treatment of pain; addictions to alcohol, tobacco, and any other substances; pulmonary problems such as asthma and bronchitis; and rehabilitation from neurological damage, such as a stroke. There are also other conditions that are more commonly treated by acupuncture. Some of these included are: allergies; anxiety; depression; myofasical and low back/neck/shoulder/knee pain; musculoskeletal conditions such as fibromyalgia , headaches, fatigue; high blood pressure; and coughing. Like in other treatments though, there will always be some people that are poor responders to specific acupunctures procedures. The amount are people that are poor responders is low, as suggested by animal and human laboratory and clinical experiences which show that the majority of the subjects tested do respond to acupuncture.

There are many advantages to acupuncture. One is that it can and has been proven to treat so many illnesses. Some of the illnesses that it has treated have failed to respond to treatment with modern medicine and other varies producers. One illness is fibromagalyia. This is a condition that affects many Americans, including myself. It involves widespread muscle pain and some joint stiffness. No day is the same also, one day you may be fine and the next can hardly function. Another way to explain this condition is you have many flu like symptoms like aches and tiredness. There is no cure for this condition and it does not respond well to modern medicine either. It also casuses a lot of patients