Depression, Xanax, Xanax addiction

Alternative Addiction Treatments: Acupuncture

Description, Pro’s and Con’s

Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medical technique for unblocking chi (ch’i or qi) by inserting needles at particular points on the body to balance the opposing forces of yin and yang.

Chi is an energy that allegedly permeates all things. It is believed to flow through the body along 14 main pathways called meridians. When yin and yang are in harmony, chi flows freely within the body and a person is healthy. When a person is sick, diseased, or injured, there is an obstruction of chi along one of the meridians. Traditional Chinese medicine has identified some 500 specific points where needles are to be inserted for specific effects.

Acupuncture has been in practice in China for over 2,000 years (though some think it has been around for 4,000 years). These days, the needles are twirled, heated, or even stimulated with weak electrical current, ultrasound, or certain wavelengths of light. But no matter how it is done, scientific research can never demonstrate that unblocking chi by acupuncture or any other means is effective against any disease. Chi is defined as being undetectable by the methods of empirical science.

Empirical studies on acupuncture are in their infancy. Such studies ignore notions based on metaphysics (such as unblocking chi along meridians) and seek to find causal connections between sticking needles into traditional (or nontraditional) acupuncture points and physical effects. Even so, many traditional doctors and hospitals are offering acupuncture as a “complementary” therapy.

The University of California at Los Angeles medical school has one of the largest acupuncture training courses in the United States for licensed physicians. The 200-hour program teaches nearly 600 physicians a year. According to the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture, about 4,000 U.S. physicians have training in acupuncture.

In March 1996, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classified acupuncture needles as medical devices for general use by trained professionals. Until then, acupuncture needles had been classified as Class III medical devices, meaning their safety and usefulness was so uncertain that they could be used only in approved research projects. Because of that “experimental” status, many insurance companies, as well as Medicare and Medicaid, had refused to cover acupuncture. This new designation has meant both more practice of acupuncture and more research being done using needles. It also means that insurance companies may not be able to avoid covering useless or highly questionable acupuncture treatments for a variety of ailments. Nevertheless, Wayne B. Jonas, director of the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, has said that the reclassification of acupuncture needles is “a very wise and logical decision.” The Office of Alternative Medicine is very supportive (i.e. willing to spend good amounts of tax dollars) on new studies of the effectiveness of acupuncture.Â

It is possible that sticking needles into the body may have some beneficial effects. A common claim of success by acupuncture advocates is in the area of pain control. Studies have shown that many acupuncture points are more richly supplied with nerve endings than are the surrounding skin areas. Research indicates sticking needles into certain points affects the nervous system and stimulates the body’s production of natural painkilling chemicals such as endorphins and enkephalins, and triggers the release of certain neural hormones including serotonin. Other theory’s suggests that acupuncture blocks the transmission of pain impulses from parts of the body to the central nervous system.

There are many difficulties that face any study of pain. Not only is pain measurement entirely subjective, but traditional acupuncturists evaluate success of treatment almost entirely subjectively, relying on their own observations and reports from patients, rather than objective laboratory tests. Furthermore, many individuals who swear by acupuncture (or therapeutic touch, reiki, iridology, meditation, mineral supplements, etc.) often make several changes in their lives at once, thereby making it difficult to isolate significant causal factors in a control group study.

Some of the acupuncture studies supported by the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health try to mimic traditional control group studies, but no control study will reveal if chi was unblocked or if yin and yang are in or out of harmony. Control studies using objective measurements of treatment success could determine, however, how much of the success of acupuncture is due to nothing more than subjective assessment by interested parties. Such studies could also determine whether any effects of acupuncture are short-term or long-term.

Acupuncture is not without risks. There have been some reports of lung and bladder punctures, some broken needles, and some allergic reactions to needles containing substances other than surgical steel. Acupuncture may be harmful to the fetus in early pregnancy since it may stimulate the production of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and oxytocin, which affect labor. There is always the possibility of infection from unsterilized needles.* And some patients will suffer simply because they avoided a known effective treatment of modern medicine.

Â