I confess to being a glutton for doubt. I love reading about medicine, physics, math, biotech, etc. What we continue to learn through the hard sciences is amazing to me. Well, some of what I read is how acupuncture is a sham/quackery/deceptive. A good summary against acupuncture as a valid form of therapy can be found here. I expose myself a lot…maybe too much…to these articles and reviews. It’s rough going carrying this doubt, so why do it?
My plans to become an MD changed in college, a story I’ll get to later. But up until that point I was a “scientist,” debunking with the latest medical or biological article the cultural remedies and thoughts on health from my Latino culture. I thought, “Who believes in aires anyways?” (“Aires” are how Latinos explain sudden and sharp musculoskeletal pains, usually on the back or ribs, but anywhere really.) I never left that “scientist” part behind.
But I changed directions in college leading me to be an acupunk. Since then I have given and received acupuncture treatments and have noted interesting and powerful results in myself and others. I have stopped my back pain with 3 needles at my elbow. I have helped a mail carrier pre- and post-surgery to lessen his often incapacitating back pain so that he could function in daily activities. I have helped a woman reduce her almost incapacitating anxiety to such low levels she says she forgets sometimes she ever was anxious. All this with 2 cent needles. I’m not cherry picking favorable results and forgetting my failures. They will be addressed in the future too.
But in light of my own successes and those of my fellow acupunks, I still doubt. I doubt when I read another study showing that “real” acupuncture is no better than “sham” acupuncture, meaning that the results of acupuncture are simply placebo effect (this one although older is one of many). I doubt when any of my patients (returning or new) don’t get the results we’re looking for. I doubt and for a while that doubt did a great job dropping my morale and making wonder if I had made the correct decision in opening up a CA office. The doubt was strong enough to lead to some adverse physical effects.
But then I see my patients and hear from them that the pain is gone within a few minutes of needle insertion or that they are able to function 10-30% better after a few treatments or that the chief complaint is no longer the chief complaint and could we work on something else. How do I tell them that according to these scientific studies that are coming out that they are faking themselves into this much pain since these 2 cent needles got rid of it? In the end I can’t do this. All I can do is celebrate their improved health alongside them.
So if the proof is in the experience, why do I insist on subjecting myself to doubts? I don’t know; I still don’t have a good answer to that. I guess I’m just testing my mettle, tempering my will. By the way, mettle is defined as: A person’s ability to cope well with difficulties or to face a demanding situation in a spirited and resilient way. Cool word; I didn’t know its exact definition until now.
