Tag Archives: Links

The Science of Acupuncture

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For a long time now, I’ve been trying to figure out how to explain the legitimacy of acupuncture despite the limits of science in explaining how or why it works. The fact that acupuncture is effective in treating animals, which is evidence that placebo effect is not the only thing at play here, often falls on ears that are not open (this was brought to my attention by Michael Smith a founder of NADA).

The folks at City Acupuncture of New York did an excellent job and covering this topic here, sometimes it best just to leave it to the pros.

Pain-management

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This is a topic far beyond my current capacity to write about, I bring it up because someone else did an incredible job shining some light on the topic.

I strongly encourage people to read this: http://www.communityacupuncturenetwork.org/blog/pain-management

The Latest from the Wall Street Journal

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The Wall Street Journal recently featured an article about Acupuncture and Science. It’s a fair article and worth reading; it acknowledges the scientific research, the successes, and the skeptics. I have my own take on Western Scientific Research being applied to different system of approaching the world, a system that is scientific in its own ways. I haven’t yet been able to articulate all of my thoughts and feelings in a clear and coherent way. I’m not the only one faced with this challenge, and I’m fascinated by how much faith and power people have put in the hands of Science.

Science is an incredibly powerful tool and it’s brought us to the amazing world we live in today, but it too has its shortcomings and can be manipulated. I personally spent 4 years of my life learning how to approach the world and think like a scientist, and to this day I use that training to better understand the world around me, and to solve many of life’s puzzles. I’ve also spent time learning other ways to think about and approach the world, and I try to approach the world with an open mind and somehow still hold on to my ability to think critically.

I don’t yet feel ready to delve any deeper into discourse on how to engage Eastern and Western philosophies and medicines. But I always love to hear about resources and personal experiences and thoughts.

For now we can as individuals make the choice to embrace a medicine that has thousands of years of empirical experience behind it, or wait until modern science can further explain/confirm/deny it’s efficacy.

I’m not worried either way, and I’ve clearly made my decision.

Mindful Medicine Worldwide

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A few weeks ago (wow, time flies by fast!), a woman came to our school to talk about an organization she founded call Mindful Medicine Worldwide. It’s an organization that’s setting up integrative clinics all over the world, and they also require of their volunteers to engage in a mindfulness practice of some sort (which personally I think is really awesome).

One of the unique thing about this organization is that volunteers don’t have to pay to participate. Some organizations (like Acupuncturists without Borders) require a large donation from people who want to donate their time, this really limits who is able to participate. They do require participants to cover the cost of airfare and fundraise for medical supplies (fair enough, and they match the money you raise).

I mostly just wanted to spread the word about this organization. It’s an opportunity I hope to one day participate in.