Acupuncture Real or Pseudoscience?

Acupuncture is perhaps the most visible and well known form of traditional Chinese medicine to the west. The image of a patient stuffed full of needles is an intriguing one, and people are often curious to know how anyone could believe that illnesses and injuries could be treated with such a curious practice. However, as any trained acupuncture practitioner knows, the placement of the needles is not random, but is rather based on thousands of years of theory that forms the basis for the entire tradition of ancient Chinese medicine.

There has been a huge upsurge in alternative therapies in the west in recent years. Part of this is undoubtedly due to the skyrocketing cost of health care. However, there is also a deeper, more subtle reason for this new interest. Many feel that the west has lost touch with the spiritual dimension of life, and the deconstructionist theories of modern medicine are one of the best examples of this. Traditional Chinese medicine and other holistic therapies are becoming popular as a means of restoring what many view as a lost sense of balance to western society.

While the reasons for the interest in acupuncture and other forms of holistic therapy are easy to understand, the real question of whether or not acupuncture and other types of traditional Chinese medicine are effective in a medical sense remains at issue. Many claim that any improvement in a condition treated by acupuncture is actually due to the body's natural healing abilities possibly combined with a placebo effect.

Numerous scientific studies have attempted to determine whether or not acupuncture is effective in treating diseases and injuries. The results of these studies have been mixed, and the other side often blames the results on preconceived ideas held by the experimenters.

The reason for this sharp conflict between acupuncture and traditional western medicine is based on the fact that the two traditions have entirely different theoretical underpinnings. Western medicine views the body as a massively complex machine. As such, the body is composed of component parts that must work together in order to function properly. In this view, diseases can be isolated to certain body components and treated at the component level. In other words, if one experiences kidney failure, then the kidneys should be treated. Likewise, those who are having trouble with their eyes should have their eyes treated. This is so obvious to someone who has grown up in a western culture that any suggestion otherwise seems silly. Nevertheless, the traditional Chinese view of the body is quite different. Traditional Chinese medicine views the body as an emergent phenomenon greater than the sum of its parts. Disorders are caused by blockages or imbalances in energy flow. Therefore, treatments need not be localized at the point of disorder--rather they should be located at the point of the blockage causing the disorder.

It seems unlikely that eastern and western medical traditions are going to find common ground in the near term. Nevertheless, acupuncture is growing in popularity and seems to be here to stay.

Holistic Health and Beauty Therapy

From the Industrial Revolution onward, it seems that the west has become increasingly enchanted with the progress of science and technology. There is good reason for this--science and technology have revolutionized the way that we live and the quality and quantity of life is unquestionably higher than what it was in times past. However, many have suggested that we have gone too far in our pursuit of science and have left older, alternative ideas in the dust. Many of these ideas are being rediscovered and applied to an increasingly interested society. Eastern ideas of health and beauty are becoming popular as are new age means of treating the whole person. Holistic health and beauty therapy has arisen as a popular supplement to the standard science based treatment options that have been available for years.

One popular form of holistic health and beauty therapy is aromatherapy. Many practitioners believe that certain scents are conducive to certain bodily reactions and, in this way, may be used to treat diseases or promote general health and well being. No one can argue that the sense of smell is our mostly strongly associative. It is amazing how often one smells a certain aroma and is transported back to another place and time where the aroma was encountered. There are real scientific explanations for this fact. The sense of smell is our most basic, primitive sense and is in many ways "hard wired" directly into the brain in a way that the other senses are not. For this reason, many people believe that aromatherapy is a valid and effective holistic health and beauty therapy.

Another popular form of holistic health and beauty therapy is herbal medicine. For years, naturally occurring herbs have been used to treat almost any illness that you can imagine. While no one is sure how our ancestors came by this knowledge, the fact that it has been used successfully for so long attests to its benefits. Many doctors have become aware of herbal therapies and are offering them in conjunction with standard medical practices. A word of caution--since herbal remedies are not regulated the way other medications are, you are never sure that what you are getting is what is advertised. Also, many herbal remedies can interact with other medications, so be sure to consult with your physician before trying an herbal holistic health and beauty therapy treatments.

Holistic health and beauty therapy is an increasingly popular alternative to the purely scientific medicine of the west. While some may doubt its efficacy, no one can doubt its popularity. Be sure to consult with your physician before beginning any herbal based holistic health and beauty therapy to make sure that the herbal treatments you will be using do not interact with any medications you may be taking.