Acupuncture Wins Western Medical Approval

Our understandings are always liable to error. Nature and certainty are very hard to come at, and infallibility is mere vanity and pretense. -- Marcus Antoninus

This ancient Chinese technique of sticking needles into the skin to relieve pain, nausea, and many other ills has finally won the endorsement and approval of western medicine. Acupunture has long suffered keen skepticism from the traditional western medical profession.

But now there is a growing and strong body of scientific evidence -- brain scans, ultrasound, and other "scientific" techniques -- showing that acupuncture triggers direct, measurable effects on the body, including perhaps activation of precisely the regions of the brain that would be predicted by ancient Chinese theory.

Acupuncture, an extraordinarily safe technique, has been in used for centuries throughout Asia. And according to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a government agency, some 8.2 million Americans now use acupunture on a regular basis. Even some insurers are now paying for acupuncture treatments.

And in light of the recent FDA recall of painkillers Vioxx and Celebrex, this news that acupunture works and is a viable treatment, is great news for millions of Americans now faced with finding new pain relief in the wake of the recall.

[Acupunture] "never fails to make me feel better -- more mellow and more energized. I used to think this lovely state was mostly due to the placebo effect." For decades western medicine has been sharply skeptical about acupunture and its benefits.

Researchers at the University of California at Irvine, have shown that when a needle is placed in a point on the side of the foot that Chinese theorists associate with vision, sure enough, the visual cortex in the brain ''lights up" on functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, though the cause and effect are not totally clear.

"Neuroscientist Seung-Schik Yoo of Brigham and Women's Hospital has shown that when a needle is placed in a point called pericardium 6 on the wrist, known in Chinese medicine as a sensitive point for nausea, the part of the brain that controls the vestibular system (which affects balance and nausea) lights up on scans."

"While much about acupuncture remains mysterious, at least to Westerners, a great deal is becoming clearer, thanks to an explosion of studies using Western scientific techniques." And in deed, it seems that ancient Chinese theory as practiced and predicted is for real! To read more about it: Medical Research Shows Acupunture Works