A Matter of Omission
Dear Editor:
I read with interest the latest (May) issue of Acupuncture Today, but I have a small bone to pick regarding AT's front-page reporting of the Lee, et al. survey comparing Western medicine- and Oriental medicine-trained physicians' knowledge of and experience with CAM. The "belief in efficacy" percent ratings for various CAM practices seemed surprisingly high for U.S. physicians. Then I noticed from the article's title that all physicians surveyed were in Korea. This important piece of information should have been included in AT's summary.
All the best for continuing a valuable service to the acupuncture community.
Richard Hammerschlag, PhD
Research Director, Oregon College of Oriental Medicine
Portland, Oregon
Editor's comment: We agree with Dr. Hammerschlag's assertion that the physicians surveyed in the Lee study were from Korea should have been displayed more prominently. We apologize if our readers may have been misled by the results of the study as presented in the graph.
Acupuncture Today welcomes your feedback. If you would like to respond to an article, please send your comments to:
Acupuncture Today
ATTN: Letters to the Editor
PO Box 4139
Huntington Beach, CA 92605-4139
You may also send your comments by fax (714-899-4273) or e-mail (editorial@acupuncturetoday.com).
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
| Digital Exclusive
One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
| Digital Exclusive