Dear Patient,
Last week, Time magazine featured an article about the benefits and growing popularity of acupuncture in the US. It’s always exciting to those of us in the profession when a widely read publication features such a positive story about our medicine. More awareness brings increased access, and everyone benefits—patients, the healthcare system, society.
Like many articles about acupuncture, this one mentions some of the latest research, such as an NIH study showing the benefits of acupuncture for pain relief, and for symptoms associated with cancer treatment. Conversely, it also mentions the inherent shortcomings in acupuncture studies—poor design, lack of standardized protocols, and substantial variations in factors like point selection, treatment frequency, and needle retention time.
I get why these concerns matter. Evidence-based medicine depends on rigorous standards of proof. But my heart breaks a little when I see efforts to force this vast, ancient medicine into a modern biomedical shaped box. It feels a bit like trying to cage a wild mythical creature.
Acupuncture studies reinforce what we already know: that it works. It works for migraines and allergies and lower back pain. It works for symptoms and syndromes and diseases that do not yet exist. We know this because it’s been working for centuries. It taps into unfathomable depths of healing potential within each of us. It defies efforts to be quantified or measured because it is infinite.
But it’s hard to say all of that in a scientific paper. And I do think there’s a place for research. It gives us glimpses of what happens physiologically when a needle enters the skin. It builds awareness and acceptance.
Acupuncture research studies usually end in the same way—with a call for further research. And these future studies will probably again confirm what we already know—that acupuncture works, and that it is a medicine of many, many variables, which makes it almost impossible to classify and order and standardize. Even as more is revealed by the latest research, some part of it will always remain a mystery.
Love and gratitude,
Your Acupuncturist
I’ve been treating a variety of conditions with acupuncture for over 10 years. Trigeminal neuralgia, hormone imbalances, fatigue, inflammation, lower back pain, poor circulation in my legs….acupuncture is the perfect approach to balancing the body throughout a life time. Imagine that lifetime of optimal wellness beginning in the womb?🥰