Health: Acupuncture Now

RCS Posts: Health with acupuncture, cheaper and better and politics.                          

 

 

             It the wonderfully effective practice of acupuncture were to become common in the United States, the cost of healthcare there would drop. That is, improved healthcare care could very well become more affordable. People in the US could pay less for improved healthcare and become more able to pay for that care.

                Cheaper and better seems a good deal.

                The profession of anesthesiology could suffer because of the ability of acupuncture, in very many cases, to handle pain more safely, effectively, and with less expense. 

                MDs (medical doctors), anesthesiologists, and many drug manufacturers form a group not interested in supporting the use of acupuncture. They have strong reasons for that lack of support, mostly economical reasons. The AMA (American Medical Association) has shown itself to be not interested in promoting acupuncture. Healthcare users are the ones to be interested in bringing it to their own countries, but have been slow to learn about it; slow to learn because there have been few teachers and little information available.

                With these little essays on acupuncture, I hope to educate myself and others on the topic. For the good effective use of acupuncture we benefit from our understanding and that of professionals in the field.

                With increased use of acupuncture the huge amount of drugs American MDs prescribe would probably be less. Fewer prescriptions could mean less profit for drug manufacturers and a saving for many of us. So, we may add drug manufacturers to the group of those not interested in supporting the use of acupuncture.

                Drug manufacturers have been interested in politics. They have formed and use powerful lobbying organizations in Washington. Drug companies contribute large sums of money to selected kinds of research. They have invested little in acupuncture. It seems safe to say that drug manufacturers are unlikely to support a health system which is not founded on drugs.

                So, an active part of the medical establishment establishment has acrually organized to resist the use of acupuncture in the US.

                For the individual the use of acupuncture could mean significantly lower medical costs and better health. What can the individual do about the use of acupuncture and the better of our health care system? Something, but not much. However, individuals can do all that is necessary. Note the letter "s" i have affixed as the last letter in the word "individuals." Individuals know how to co-operate and can act together effectively. They can even join an organization.

                Greater use of acupuncture leads to significantly lower medical costs and to healthier health care. Acupuncture is a safer way to handle pain than is the use of drugs.

                There is more we can do, and more we can learn. We are many and can co-operate.

                 The French, Russians, and others have encountered resistance to the practice of acupuncture of acupuncture, but have overcome much of it and are learning more of the practice and have been benefiting from it since about 1960. Even the Chinese have experienced some resistance related to the social changes there in recent decades. However, now the Chinese are now benefiting nicely from their use of acupuncture. Their excellent training has been renewed and continued research supported. There is wide active co-operation practitioners of acupuncture and the practice of western style medicine in use in China. Nearly all of china is now benefiting from better healthcare and more affordable costs from that co-operation.

                In the United States about 20% of the costs to individuals for many procedures to to the anesthesiologist and his monitoring equipment. Monitoring is important, but can be excellent at lower costs. As we learn more about acupuncture, its safety, the way it can shorten hospital stays, and its chances for reducing insurance fees, the more interesting it looks.

                It seems to me that we have much to gain from the practice of and further research in our use of acupuncture and that we are not doing enough to avail ourselves of important benefits.

                I have said that acupuncture reduces and stops much pain in ways safer than those now common to us. When we look into the wonderful ways it can supplement our present healthcare by successfully treating and healing many ailments in ways our present system has had little success, it seems to be an area of healthcare we must explore.

                You can begin to do something now. You can co-operate, team-up, partner-up. You can check around for good information about acupuncture near you. You can begin to separate the nonsense from good sense available online. You can share with family and friends the information you have and about where you lack information. You can ask people, that you know are interested in health, about where you can get more information.

                 You could look around to see if there is a practitioner near you with a good reputation. You might speak with that professional and ask him about his training and what he can do for you and yours. Or you may even be able to discover an organization interest in acupuncture which you can access. You could ask them what they are doing and think over their answers. You could check-out my other posts on acupuncture.              

               There may not be much you can do on your own and you really don't have to do anything. Still I believe that you can find that which you can do. We can learn a lot. We can help others around us just by raising our own awareness of the practice of acupuncture. 

                If you find anything to report to us here, click on "comments" just below.

                Thanks for reading.     

 

 

                                                    RCS 

                 

                

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Acupuncture: Historical Notes

 Acupuncture; history notes

 

                Are we too superior in our conceits to recognize the ability we ought to see in others?

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                I write here in hope that we may more enjoy the fruits of acupuncture. The French and Russians began to enjoy those fruits of the acupuncture part of Chinese Health Care many years ago. Our AMA has not pointed us to a legal road to making acupuncture an active part of our health care system. It  that seems finding and setting up that road is up us, we the people. 

               

                 The people of some countries have struggled a bit with deciding how to regulate acupuncture, bur most have allowed it legal practice. Russian elites have demanded it. Chinese demand that extensive education and careful oversight of the the practice be established and maintained. European countries have demanded that all acupuncturists be medical doctors as well. Some of them have neglected the supervision of its teaching.

 

                Some knowledge of the history of acupuncture may prove of help to to us. Allow me to pass on some of that history which have begun to learn.

 
Before 900 AD                

                A medical school was established in China during the Tang dynasty before 900 AD. Its name, translated to English can be, the Imperial Institute of Physicians. The college trained 350 students at a time in herbal medicine and surgery. Herbal medicine seems to have been the more important part of the instruction. Surgery was mainly limited to fractures, skin diseases, and wounds.

 
600 AD                

Tang emperors also organized the nation's doctors into the grand Medical Service. It will be great when we can organize our healthcare to include the best of the kinds available in other countries. The development of organized healthcare in China began at least as early as 600 AD. Certainly we ought to be able to improve and extend our healthcare in the near future.

 
About 700 AD             

    Chinese health care was regulated and delivery improved beginning in about 700 AD. Prospective doctors underwent rigorous examinations. Future doctors were examined on their familiarity with the principles of acupuncture and its diagnosis and techniques, also on the best written works. 

 

                Chinese controlled the quality of their health care then and now. There were and are laws prohibiting the practice of healthcare and cure without licenses.

 

                    

According to surviving healthcare books and documents from as far back as the Tang, a variety of maladies were treated. their practice dealt with tuberculosis, goiter, rickets, beriberi, dropsy, Cholera, dysentery, measles, smallpox, and leprosy.

As we begin to use our choice of the very best European and Asiatic healthcare, we can learn from and adopt some of their methods of  control and safety. There  is much of value we can learn if we would. We can learn to benefit from acupuncture as have the French, and Russians, and others. Our healthcare professionals have much to teach others.

Let's get back to the Tang dynasty way of dealing with acupuncture. On the second day of their examinations was a demonstration of one's effectiveness of dealing with the needles of acupuncture. A great deal more of Chinese history is becoming available these days and the Chinese share share much of their modern healthcare understanding, knowledge, and techniques. We can learn from them and help them to learn from us.

 Acupuncture points

                In 1027 AD the sung dynasty emperor, Je Tsug ordered Wang Wei, a noted acupuncturist and sculpture to cast two hollow figures with the acupuncture points points marked by their names and small holes. The figures were covered with wax and filled with water. These figures were used to train and test students. Similar figures are used by students and teachers and students today, Since the Sung dynasty only about a dozen points have been changed, added, or deleted. I understands that a total of about 365 points are used today. For the interested person there is much historic and present day information available online.

 
 Chaing Kai-shek              

 During the reign of Chaing Kai-shek, western medicine was extolled and acupuncture was repressed and schools closed. Still, the Chinese people looked to their traditional medicine. Thousands were killed by quacks and the untrained in the use of traditional medicine. Many came to doubt their ''medicine."

When the communist consolidated power acupuncturists began to use the needles where they were most likely to be used correctly, on themselves. A graduate from their schools may have pricked himself ten thousand times refining his skills and touch until teachers and testers were sure of his ability. There remained much to be learned of diagnosis.  

 

                Now, acupuncture has been modernized by Chinese doctors also trained in western medicine. Acupuncture is used extensively. Electronic needles are used, and their use has moved into most modern Chinese medicine. 

 "Head Zones"

                In 1893 Sir Henry Head, a British nerve specialist, noticed that some patients suffering from diseased gallbladders and kidneys felt pain in parts of the body far from from the stricken organs. The pain was external, on the surface of the skin, and a specific disease always resulted in pain from the same place. Think of the diagnostic possibilities, Some wise doctors have been trained in "Head Zones."

German doctors soon began to use their knowledge of "Head Zones" to deaden areas of the skin to relieve pain in internal organs. Does that remind you of anything in particular?

 

                Some American doctors add to this practice by injecting these surface areas with chemical Anesthesia to get the same result. American doctors were amazed to find that their injections in Head Zones not only relieved pain, but in many cases cure diseases. Head Zones have been too largely forgotten, but there is still a bit of ongoing work being done in the U.S. and elsewhere. 

 

            By the way, the areas of the skin Dr. Head linked with the gallbladder and kidneys are the same ones acupuncturists use today and the same ones they have used for many hundreds of years.

 

                I believe that we can benefit from careful training of good acupuncture practitioners in the U.S. I believe we would benefit even more by good appropriate oversight of those practitioners and of all physicians and health practitioners. For developing appropriate training of acupuncturists in the U.S. we could increase exchange of healthcare practitioners between China and America.

 

                

            Thank you for reading

 

 

                                                                                                RCS 

Lebanon: Not Blown Away

RCS Posts history:

                    A look at Lebanon. Long a seat of world culture has passed through enormous changes and is now nearer than every to being blown away.

                    Divided, dominated, and blown up. Is that a way to describe Lebanon? Is that what we know of this Mediterranean country?

                    Lebanese are the people of Lebanon. The Lebanese deserve to be honored for who they have and for who they are. They merit our moral support for the building the nation they can be on the world stage and for the beauty and goodness they may provide us.They can also be profitable people with whom to do business.

                This tiny and durable country has a history of contributions to our world. Its people have been for their cosmopolitan diversity of culture, including religion. They are a modern republic and the smallest recognized sovereign state on the mainland of of the Asian continent. And I thought it was in North Africa. I have much to learn.

                    There is strong evidence of a rich, well developed culture going back to 6,000 BC. More recently Lebanon was a seat of Phoenician culture. That maritime culture was active there from about 3,200 BC to539 BC and shared that culture from Lebanon, around the Mediterranean, and beyond the Pillars of Hercules to as far as Ireland. In 64 BC, the region of Lebanon came under the rule of the Roman Empire, where it became a leading center of Christianity.

                    Mount Lebanon was home to the early Maronite Christian Church and maintained its identity through the Arab conquest. The Druze took over the Maronite homeland. The Druz are, to this day, a small but important presence in Lebanon. Druze are considered to be an Abrahamic religion which is neither Muslim nor Jew; not Christian either. Maronite Catholics and the Druze are considered by many to be the founders of modern Lebanon. Druze are only about 6% of the population today and are not Jew, Christian or Muslim. Still they may be more important to their country then their number suggests.

                    Lebanon was conquered by Ottoman Turks in the 1600th century and remained under their dominion for 400 years. At the end of WWI, they came under the French Mandates. Under that mandate, Lebanon grew a bit but it did not grow more united.

                    From 1975 to 1990 there was a bloody civil war in Lebanon, which led to the country being occupied by Syria and Israel.

                    Despite all the divisions and dominations, this 4,000 sq mi republic lives. There has never been a republic like it. It is accepted within international law as a “unitary, parliamentary, multi-confessionalist republic.” It seems that “multi-confessionalist” refers to the countries acceptance of many religions, but that is not completely correct.

                    Others have called Lebanon “a parliamentary, democratic, republic,” but add “within the overall framework of confessionalism.” This is beginning to look like a discussion in political philosophy! It seems that “confessionalism is a form of consociationalism in which the highest offices are proportionally reserved for representatives of certain religious communities. “Confessionalism, it appears, is a mix of politics and religion which usually entails distributing political and institutional power proportionately among confessional communities. We begin to get the picture. “Constitutionalism” is a form of power sharing sharing in a democracy. The goals of consociationalism are: stable government, the survival of democracy, and the avoidance of violence. Seems “tough row to hoe.” It has worked.

                    Lebanese are respected in Europe, the Arab world, and around the world for their culture and there continued existence as a nation. Lebanon has also been known for its large and influential diaspora. When it has had less need to struggle against foreign intervention, it has promptly become a stable financial power. It has profited from tourism and had busy agricultural production. Its people would appreciate the opportunity to do more. Left to guide itself it came to rank high on the U.N. human development index. It was a founding member of our United Nations.

                    I like to look at the depth of our cultures. Lebanon has been around for a long time. It is mentioned in written history from about, at least, 5,600 BP. It is mentioned in Sumerian tablets and in the Epic of Gilgamesh. It was the center of the Canaanite City States. Byblos kept records of dealings with Lebanon. The Bible contains references to to Canaan Lebanon. This little country can be called a source of cultural influence on Greek, Jew, and Phoenician, and to much of Western culture as well. And, as I am beginning to understand, a home for the Christian, Muslim, Druze, and more.

                    I have mentioned that the capital city of Lebanon is Beirut, haven’t I? When France was a diplomatic center of the world and the people of Paris were called the most cosmopolitan, those people of Paris call the people of Beirut cosmopolitan.

                    I know we can let Lebanon be, if we will. Maybe there is even an approriate way we could be supportive.

 

                                                                                                                RCS