September
2001
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EAST
MEETS WEST
Acupuncture Gains
Credibility in Mainstream Medicine
CHANGZHEN GONG, PhD
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE (and acupuncture) is a comprehensive medical model that
includes an underlying philosophy, an educational structure, diagnostic methods,
and treatment techniques. It was developed over a period of several thousands of
years in a culturally rich, but largely agrarian society. Recently, this medical
model has been transferred from the low technology culture of traditional China to
the high technology culture of the West, where it has met with both acceptance and
resistance. Some Western-trained physicians are very enthusiastic about the benefits
and potential of Chinese medicine, while others wonder whether acupuncture is anything
more than an example of the “placebo effect.” Some, indeed, even believe that acupuncture
is nothing but a hoax that has been perpetrated on us by Chairman Mao.
After traditional Chinese medicine (and acupuncture) gained a foothold in the West,
there was a demand for scientific studies that would either prove or conclusively
disprove the success stories that acupuncture enthusiasts were claiming. Skeptics
were sure that the bright light of scientific methodology would show that Chinese
medicine, and especially acupuncture, was all “smoke and mirrors.” Significantly,
the scientific studies have uniformly backed up the claims of Chinese medicine, lending
support to those who wish to take the best of conventional and complementary medicine
and integrate them.
As a profession, acupuncture has firmly footed in the American culture: 15 million
Americans visit acupuncture practitioners every year; more than 70 schools teach
acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine; more than 10,000 acupuncturists have
been certified by the National Commission for Certification of Acupuncture and Oriental
Medicine; 3,000 physicians provide acupuncture services; 40 states and District of
Columbia license acupuncture.
Further, many physicians now acknowledge the many health benefits of acupuncture.
“I can’t see a better solution to long-term chronic pain. There is no question in
my mind that acupuncture is safer than surgery or drugs because it stimulates the
natural chemical changes of the body,” says Dr. Bruce Pomeranz, a neurosurgeon and
professor at the University of Toronto, who has authored 46 papers on acupuncture.
Dr. Andrew Weil, a leader in the field of integrative medicine and director of the
Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, believes that traditional
Chinese medicine complements conventional Western medicine, particularly in the areas
of detection and treatment of the subtle stages of illness, diagnosis and treatment
of functional illness, and the diagnosis and treatment of illness which lacks associated
structural change.
Official recognition
Over the last 20 years, there have been a number of official validations of acupuncture.
The civil action, H-77-999, U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas,
July 1980, is a landmark case in the United States. The court states that the right
to receive acupuncture treatment is a fundamental personal right: “Acupuncture has
been practiced for 2,000 to 5,000 years. It is no more experimental as a mode of
medical treatment than is the Chinese language as a mode of communication. What is
experimental is not acupuncture, but Westerners’ understanding of it and their ability
to utilize it properly. Finally, as has been discussed…all of the evidence adduced
before the Court indicates that acupuncture, when administered by a skilled practitioner
for certain types of diseases and dysfunction, is both a safe and effective form
of medical treatment.”
In September 1993, the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) at the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) issued four Exploratory Grant Awards to different modalities of traditional
Chinese medicine, including acupuncture, t’ai chi and qigong. More research dollars
have been granted to the research on acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine
since then.
The world health community, including the World Health Organization, is greatly
interested in finding some hope for AIDS patients based on traditional Chinese medicine.
The largest Western-based study on applying Chinese herbal medicine to the treatment
of AIDS is underway at the University of Zurich. The research project is directed
by Rainer Weber, director of the Infectious Diseases Department at the University
Hospital, and is funded by a $250,000 grant from Switzerland’s Foundation for AIDS
Research. This is a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, and is expected to take
two to three years to complete. Two hundred HIV-positive subjects will take part
and receive herbal formulas for six months. Both Western and Chinese medical criteria
will be used to evaluate results, and the results will be analyzed by statisticians.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the important position that traditional
medicine has in many societies, and how effective it can be in maintaining the health
of those societies. In 1991, the 44th World Assembly urged its member states to increase
activities that would lead to cooperation between traditional medicine and conventional
(Western) medicine. Since 1979, based on clinical experience and controlled studies,
the World Health Organization has developed a list of diseases for which acupuncture
could be a safe and effective treatment, which includes sinusitis, bronchial asthma,
conjunctivitis, duodenal ulcer, constipation, headache, migraine, trigeminal neuralgia,
“frozen shoulder,” “tennis elbow,” sciatica, low back pain, and osteoarthritis.
The Masters-level program in acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine offered
at AAAOM starts three times a year at the beginning of the winter, summer, and fall
trimesters. Applications are now being accepted for the fall 2001 trimester that
will begin Sept. 4, 2001. AAAOM is located at 1313 Fifth Street SE Suite 115, Minneapolis.
To request information from the American Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
(AAAOM), please call 612-379-3865 or see the website: www.aaaom.org.
Changzhen Gong, PhD, MS, is the president of American Academy of Acupuncture and
Oriental Medicine and executive director of TCM Health Center. Dr. Gong came to the
United States with a Fulbright Scholarship. He is the author of many articles for
the public on traditional Chinese medicine. He can be reached at 612-379-3865.
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