I was wondering (acupuncture)

[Wind]

I was wondering if anyone here has ever had accupuncture?

[shooraijin]

Yes, I have -- I had it done as part of a unit on Eastern medicine I took in medical school, as well as acupressure. I've changed the thread title to be a little more descriptive.

[bigsleepj]

A lot of scientist see accupuncture as pseudoscience, which means to their minds it probably doesn't workHowever from most people I've heard who had it, it does apparently work. I suppose it depends on what you want to treat, though.

[Wind]

It works and I had it yesterday when I went to my family's chinese doctor and I had to get a needle right in the middle of my forehead and I flinched so much i have knotted muscules right in the middle of my forehead
((I was wondering where the accupuncture in quotation marks came from))

[Slater]

So, Shoo... how well did it work?

[Wind]

It works really well you just can't flex your muscules when you have needles in your body or it hurts really bad, but otherwise it doesn't hurt, if you remain as motionless as possible

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Before I say it's not a good idea since it's Easter religion and chi and all that, I don't think just the idea of acupunture is harmful to people's spirituality (only the philosophy behind it).

[Aka-chan]

I've had it; my great uncle does it and he let my try. It worked surprisingly well and was actually kinda fun. ^__^

[shooraijin]

Please note that my perspective comes from someone who was trained in Western allopathic medicine (i.e., your "normal" American doctor), so keep in mind my opinion of it comes from that point of view.

I think that acupuncture and acupressure definitely have applications for musculoskeletal pain syndromes -- acupressure was like being run over by a steamroller with spikes followed by a goosestepping marching band *groans*, but it really felt tremendously good when he was done grinding me into ground beef. If for no other reason than the catharsis of banging all the trigger points and tension out of your muscles, I can definitely see how it will grant people temporary relief.

I tried acupuncture and acupuncture with electrical stimulation at several points, including in my knee, on my legs and flank, and my ear. Again, I think the electrical and physical stimulation of nerve endings probably has quite a bit of benefit for pain control.

Where I am unconvinced is the liberal application for everything else -- I have great difficulty seeing the way it could affect diabetes, or high blood pressure, or saving someone who's having a heart attack. There are distinct pathophysiologies you can change with medication, and I can't see a neurologically mediated way of controlling them even with electro-stim or directly manipulating points with the needle. Furthermore, there are no controlled studies to back this up either.

All that to say that I don't think acupuncture or acupressure are in any way harmful if done by a qualified practitioner, and for many kinds of chronic disease may be a useful adjunct.

By the way, there's really very little religion involved -- in fact, my course was taken at a Seventh-Day Adventist university and the practitioner was Christian. The point charts and meridians are just that, maps and charts on a wall, and their insertion and operation are purely clinical.

[Scribs]

I have not tried it, and probably never will. I really hate the idea of being stuck with needles. The meer thought of it makes me uncomfortable.

[Sammy Boy]

My dad had acupuncture before, it helped with his pain.

I had acupuncture once when I was sick, it didn't do anything really. I do think that the doctor I saw at that time was somewhat unqualified, so there's a fair chance it may have contributed towards it not working, but that's not to say it would have certainly worked if the doctor was.