Why Acupuncture Plays Nice With Others.
By Emma Suttie, D.Ac, AP
Acupuncture is very friendly and does not compete. There are no unpleasant side effects, and it uses the body's own energies to rebalance and heal. It really is the perfect system. Needles are inexpensive and portable, making it widely accessible both socioeconomically, and geographically. There are many stories of tiny acupuncture clinics springing up in remote parts of the world, helping hundreds of people who might not otherwise have access to medical care. These are only some of the reasons why I am so in love with it.
Setting up Western medical clinics in remote and impoverished parts of the planet is considerably more difficult. Equipment and supplies, as well as expensive drugs are needed which often makes running them cost prohibitive.
Acupuncture is a complete, superhero system on its own, able to treat limitless ailments - but also combines with every other modality, from massage to oncology to mental health, to compliment and improve their effects. I have worked in many multidisciplinary clinics over the years, sharing patients with other doctors. Sometimes the acupuncture was used to reinforce the treatment a patient was being given and sometimes, it was used to combat the negative side effects of treatments and medications. Every time, it was inserted seamlessly into a patient's treatment to make it better. Acupuncture plays nice with others.
There is often skepticism from Western doctors when they hear they will be working with an acupuncturist. There is sometimes even eye rolling, the raising of eyebrows and dramatic sighing. I admit, this used to be difficult to deal with, and made the interaction heavy right from the start. But in my years of clinical practice, I have learned something (I hope more than one thing), and that is that there is something that knocks out the opponent that is skepticism and doubt - results. Over and over again, acupuncture is able to treat patients, and resolve their problems, and, when this happens enough, the doctors start believing that it might actually be the acupuncture doing it.
This is sometimes a difficult thing for a doctor who studied Western or Allopathic medicine to grasp because it is completely outside their experience and frame of reference. Western medicine is a method based on science, using things that can be seen and measured. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine are based on an unseen energy called Qi which is responsible for many processes vital to life and existence. It cannot be put under a microscope, in a vial, or measured in a laboratory test.
When acupuncture or Chinese medicine is combined with other modalities, Western medicine or otherwise, the results are awesome. Chinese medicine is only one tool used to treat and heal the body, mind and spirit. Western medicine is another. My thought is that when dealing with the human body or anything else, don't you want to have as many tools at your disposal as possible? I think so, and for me, acupuncture will always be one of them.
