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| Image by NYCTCM via Flickr |
In a desperate attempt to avoid sinus surgery, or major "remodeling" as the surgeon calls it, I listened to friends and went to this Taiwanese trained acupuncturist to see if she can help me. I had been to a few people who had taken courses at massage school or in another aspect of training. I had never found it successful so I have been wary and wanted to go to someone who trained in Asia and was very credentialed.
Conventional, allopathic medical authorities seem split about it. " There is general agreement that acupuncture is safe when administered by well-trained practitioners using sterile needles, but not on its efficacy as a medical procedure." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acupuncture seems like a well researched Wiki.) In other words it probably won't kill you.
Whether acupuncture and the other practices that go along with it like herbal medicines, allergy testing, moxabustion are efficacious is harder to determine due to difficulty in designing tests that would a But with Acupuncture, I believe that a practice this old and so institutionalized must do some good. And heaven knows, conventional medicine isn't necessarily efficacious or entirely safe either (read the warnings on the drug advertisements).
This past summer I had major allergy testing both on my skin and blood tests. Not only were the tests negative, they showed absolutely NO sensitivity to anything. This was a welcome surprise because while the milk allergy I was diagnosed with as a baby abated I was never quite sure. And, I was gleeful to be told cats were not an issue.
So, I expected pulse diagnosis but what I got was my practitioner thrusting a vial of some liquid wrapped in a plastic bag into my left hand and repeatedly pulling on the fingers of my right. She said it was cat and I was allergic to them. She wasn't interested in the fact that the only time my sinuses don't bother me is when I wake up and have been sleeping in with my cats on the bed too. In fact sometimes I wake up stuffy in houses where there are no cats or other animals.
Since she used the medical term "allergy" I can only assume she is referring to "allergy" as we understand it—conventionally.
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| Image via Wikipedia |
As she told me that all the medical tests for allergy were hooey and inaccurate, I found myself thinking well why is this accurate then? I am not even touching the allergen, and indeed you would be careful that there were none of the allergen on the package in case someone has=d a severe allergy. I also learned my tongue is "square" and that means I have allergies and my body is toxic and I must clear it.
Now I have searched for that online and while I have found several alternative medicine sites that talk about the use of the tongue in diagnosis, none mentions square; they talk about cracking and coating and bite marks, even flabbiness, but not one thing said "square."
I believe that an elimiation diet can tell you food that troubles you, even without allergy or sensitivity in the way most westerners see allergies. And, the idea that there are channels of energy running through the body makes perfect sense to me. But allergy testing by finger strength determined pulling is no more accurate than any other test. It's much like saying there is a cat down the hall and if your fingers weaken you are allergic to it. It was a vial of clear liquid in a ziplock bag.
I was trained in scientific method. One thing I know is that if you have multiple methods of testing showing the same result then there is higher confidence that that it is as the test shows. While traditional acupuncture has stayed the same for centuries, allopathic or conventional medical science has improved its methodology significantly. Testing improves because scientists are trying to disprove theories to advance understanding.
The allergy testing done this summer is much more accurate than the one I had eight years ago. And when I was diagnosed with celiac disease the test didn't work if you had been gluten free for some period. A week ago my new gastroenterologist told me that is no longer the case; now they can tell even without the antigen.
This kind of practice is the kind of hocus pocus which makes medical science doubt the efficacy of alternative or traditional medical practices.
I certainly don't think conventional Western Medicine is the definitive and entire answer to the science of health, and I think that billions of people and around the world have shown there s some efficacy in acupucture, and I must say that I am breathing better tonight on my 25 hours without dairy but, I believe the conventional tests because they were exactly in concert and have undergone years of testing in the lab and the field. They were also conducted independently and the results were not subjective. Medical tests are not perfect, that is why you have to confirm the results with a second test. That is science.
If this doesn't help, My PCP wants me to see a naturopath. Then it's onto the snake charmer...
