Acupuncture: Better than drugs

"Ninety percent of drugs only work 30-50% of the time". Those are the words of a senior executive in Glaxo-Smith-Kline. He continued his balloon popping with the statement "Drugs work, but they don't work on everybody".

For many people the effectiveness of drugs are a given. Their is an underlying thought that, "of course they work". I think many people would be surprised that the extreme majority of drugs work at such a modest rate.

Acupuncture also works. It works on rats, rabbits, dogs, cats, primates, horses, and humans. You don't have to believe in anything to get results, just ask the rabbits. It changes blood chemistry, gene transcription, and endocrine and brain activity. It results in both short term and long term improvements in patients without side effects. Patients in large studies consistently report improved energy, mood, quality of life, less sick days, and decreased health care costs.

It is not the same as a placebo. MRI evidence definitively shows different areas of the brain are effected during true needling than during placebo needling. Even fake acupuncture is nothing to sneeze at. It works better than drugs sometimes, just lightly stimulating someone in non-traditional points has outperformed standard care in some studies.

Because the fake acupuncture(shallow needling, non-traditional points) works so well, it sometimes steals the headlines and people can be confused. A study will say that acupuncture performed no better than placebo without noting that the so called placebo worked better than drugs or standard care. It's no shame to lose a battle to fake acupuncture. It works too if you apply the same standard as drug companies where 50% is a success, which it is. I should note, acupuncture works far better than 50% in many studies for a variety of conditions.

In general, the classical description of acupuncture is confusing, at best, to the general public. I've seen many people glaze over when I start talking about Qi and channels. The modern description gives lots of facts but still lacks the holistic big picture. I have my own way of describing it. Please bear with me as I guide you through it.

All life forms respond to stimulus. If you grow one tomato in a hot house and another outside, the outside tomato will have much stronger and heavier vines due to the effects of the wind. If you lift a weight with one arm but not the other, that arm with weights will respond with growth. A new technique in knee surgery is to lightly tap or irritate the ends of the bones to activate a natural healing response to aid in cartilage regeneration. All of these are examples where a non-harmful stimulus results in a positive effect on the organism. Acupuncture works on the exact same principle. It is a light, non-harmful stimulus that produces a positive effect in a subject. Just like with weights, if you do it once not much change will occur. If you complete a course of treatment over several weeks a major change can occur. And, just like with weights, the effects are widespread. If you weight train, then it isn't just your muscles that change. Everything improves; bone density, tendon strength, cardiovasculature, nervous tissue, overall sense of well being, etc. The same is observed in acupuncture patients. There is a systemic change and not just a local or short term change. It actually helps to transform the organism. Which we are doing all the time anyway but acupuncture just gives that natural process a major supercharge.

Hope this helps,
Best,
Patrick Paine L.Ac