Acupuncture again

I wrote a while back about my husband getting a couple of acupuncture treatments for pain. One worked really well and the next not so well. He had a serious problem in his neck that acupuncture wasn't going to cure, but the fact he got some pain relief for a while, until he had surgery, is terrific. He also quit smoking more than 25 years ago as a result of a single acupuncture treatment. I underwent acupuncture myself recently when I had a bout of pretty crippling back pain. In conjunction with some therapeutic massage, it worked.

Today the Washington Post ran an article saying 38% of adults use alternative medicine. It goes on to quote someone from the Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, who says, "Acupuncture is a placebo. Homeopathy is one step above fraud...The fact that they are so widely used is evidence for how gullible large segments of our society are." Huh. Hmmm. My choices for pain relief were drugs and/or a cortisone shot. Which might or might not work. I took a chance on the acupuncture, sure, but it wasn't drugs pouring into me.

If you read the article, make sure you read the comments as well. There are a lot of believers out there and, as I say, thousands of years of Chinese medicine can't be wrong.

Acupuncture

Here's a mannequin from the History of Medicine Museum in Paris that I think is pretty neat. If I read the French correctly, the label says it shows acupuncture points. The other picture is a close-up of some cards that are in the case with the mannequin.

For those of you without personal acupuncture experience and perhaps doubt that it really can work, let me tell you it does. My husband always said he'd quit smoking when cigarettes hit $1 a pack. Of course, this was a very long time ago, and also of course, easier said than done. But he heard about a doctor in Austin or Houston, I don't remember now, who performed acupuncture and for $50 decided to give the guy a try. The doctor put one little staple-looking thing in Bob's ear, in that ridge of cartilage, put a piece of tape over it, and told him to leave it until it fell out. About a week later it did, but from the time the staple went in, Bob never smoked again. He said the cravings came and went in a flash, more quickly than he even had time to think about them, and gradually faded away. Amazing, isn't it? I'm a believer.