Several key points affecting the clinical effectiveness of acupuncture

Several key points affecting the clinical effectiveness of acupuncture

Phd Win Huang
Many patients often ask me, “I have been acupuncture many times, the effect is not obvious, what method do you use to treat?” I generally answer them, “Chinese medicine treatments include acupuncture, massage, Chinese medicine and orthopedics and so on, and I also use acupuncture and other traditional Chinese medicine methods to treat some problems.” The patient was puzzled. “I have already had acupuncture, and there is no obvious effect. why do You still give me acupuncture?” Such patients are not aware of the key points in the clinical effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture. It is always believed that acupuncture is putting a needle in the acupuncture points. As we all know, choosing acupuncture points and manipulation of needles are the basic factors of acupuncture effective for acupuncture and moxibustion, and it is a technology that every Chinese acupuncturist must can use everyday. Acupuncture does not mean that it can cure all diseases. Anything has it’s advantages and disadvantages, and acupuncture Chinese medicine is no exception. Let me briefly talk about a few key points affecting the clinical effectiveness of acupuncture. Let Everyone knows what kind of technology and knowledge structure the true “high quality acupuncture Chinese medicine practitioner” is.
First, acupuncture’s indications. In acupuncture textbooks, acupuncture can treat hundreds of illnesses, and the World Health Organization has released the best indication for acupuncture. That is to say, acupuncture is not a cure for all diseases.If the disease is not the acupuncture’s indications, doing acupuncture for several months or a few years, still can not cure this disease. Therefore,choosing acupuncture’s indications for acupuncturist is a key point in the clinical effectiveness of acupuncture. Just relying on the diagnosis of a former doctor, or the patient himself said that he is suffering from some problems,then thinking of an acupuncture indication, it must be not the an high quality acupuncturist. The the best acupuncturist must be familiar with the two sets of diagnostic systems of Chinese medicine and Western medicine. A patient comes to see a doctor, no matter what other doctor diagnoses the disease, or the patient says that he/she is suffering from a disease, he/she must be carefully diagnosed to judge whether the patient is suitable for acupuncture treatment. I have treated a patient with low back pain, severe low back pain, stiff waist in the morning, difficulty in turning over. I used acupuncture and other methods to treat the lower back pain, but he didn’t get better. he want to continue acupuncture treatment. I asked the medical history in detail and gave a careful physical examination. I suspect that he had “ankylosing spondylitis” and suggested that he went to see specialist and do MRI, blood tests, and finally diagnose the AS. Low back pain may be an indication for acupuncture. The low back pain of ankylosing spondylitis is not the best indication for acupuncture.
Second, the aid of other medical treatments is another key point in the clinical effectiveness of acupuncture. Acupuncture is only one of the traditional Chinese medicine treatments. It is true that this kind of treatment can be used to cure many diseases. For relatively complicated and difficult cases, it is difficult to achieve the expected therapeutic effect with acupuncture alone. If other Chinese medicine treatment methods, such as osteopathy, massage, cupping, Chinese medicine, etc., are used to assist acupuncture treatment, some problems will be solved. Such as low back pain is caused by “half dislocation of the SI joint”, simple acupuncture may reduce low back pain, sometimes low back pain will disappear, but if patient is too tired, or meet cold ,the low back pain repeated attacks, if acupuncturist use orthopedics to correct the subluxation with acupuncture, the low back pain will no longer Occurrence; such as low back pain caused by “gluteal fasciitis”, combined with massage techniques may be more completely treatment of low back pain; if the body of patients with low back pain is “cold constitution”, accompanied by symptoms such as limbs cold, acupuncture At the same time with the Chinese medicine “Sini San”, the back pain is cured faster and more completely. I have treated a female patient with recurrent episodes of low back pain for five years,about four to five times of low back pain every year. She was treated in many clinic for her low back pain. When she came to New Zealand to take care of the daughter who gave birth to a child, her back pain occurred again. she went to the emergency department of the Auckland Hospital. There is no abnormality in X-ray examination, and an anti-inflammatory drug is given. Lying in bed she can’t move, then come to our clinic for acupuncture treatment. After acupuncture a few times, the back pain is relieved. At the time of the consultation, the patient was obviously afraid of the wind, cold, and feeling waist cold, It was like a waist in the ice water. it is the typical “body cold syndrome”, I suggest to combine the traditional Chinese medicine “Gan Jiang Yu Shu Tang”. After acupuncture combined with traditional Chinese medicine treatment, the back pain disappeared. After returning to China, the Chinese medicine was continued. Her daughter informed that the low back pain had not occurred in the past six months.
Third, the wisdom of the doctor. The patient’s illness is not as clear as written in the textbook. Some patients’ syndromes test the wisdom of the doctor. I have encountered a patient with “left eye pain” and the family doctor introduced him to an ophthalmologist. Ophthalmologists gave careful eye exams and used the most advanced ophthalmic instruments, and no problems were found in the eyes. so the patient is suffering from eye pain and come to our clinic for acupuncture treatment. I checked that the patient felt hypersensitivity in the left head, and the occipital nerve was tender. I suspected that he was “occipital neuralgia.” After the treatment of the head “Meihua needle”for three sessions, the left eye pain disappeared . The patient is a neuroreflex eye pain. If I take acupuncture and acupuncture points according to the textbook for eye pain, maybe I can not help the eye pain patient. Now I am treating a patient with knee pain. The family doctor suspects a knee sprain and recommends acupuncture treatment. The patient also thought that he sprained the knee joint when he was running a half marathon. The former doctor treated the knee sprain and the pain was not relieved. I examined in detail that there was no tenderness and swelling in the knee joint, but I found tenderness in the buttocks and nervous muscle mass, so I suspect that the hip muscle injury stimulates the sciatic nerve and causes knee pain. I took the  “HuanTiao” point. When the second acupuncture, the patient told me that the knee joint is not painful. If I also take acupuncture points for knee sprains in textbook, my treatment results will not be much different from the previous doctors. The clinically difficult diseases are not solved simply with acupuncture,because they really need the wisdom of the doctor. Involved in deep medical knowledge, rich and practical clinical experience, high understanding of medical skills and high sensitivity to disease.
Choosing suitable indications for acupuncture, using other treatment methods of traditional Chinese medicine accompanying with acupuncture, and exerting the wisdom of the doctors are the key points for achieving the ideal acupuncture effect. (PhD Win Chinese Medicine Clinic www.drwin.co.nz 1054 New North Road Mt Albert Auckland 098150518 0211793736)