|
|
|
| Sunday, 26 June 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Medical acupuncture - a misnomer Not many decades ago the 'ever-wise' in the western world pooh-poohed acupuncture as mere superstition and looked at acupuncturists as the shamans of Asia. Many decades later it is a different story now, with mushrooming acupuncture institutes, societies and associations splattered across the western world and graced by eager western physicians and western medical entities with even universities offering courses in acupuncture. Acupuncture has come a long, long way and has now come to stay. From a simple folk medicine practised by humble physicians thousands of years ago in rustic villages in Asia to a scientifically established neuro-humoral mechanism - it has indeed come a long, long way and verily deserves to stay for the benefit of mankind. But, an emerging feature, particularly in the western world, that is quite disturbing is the strong propensity of western medical entities to eliminate the traditional practitioners of acupuncture. By coining a new term called "Medical Acupuncture", these entities glamorise acupuncture and make it their own by adding a veneer of acceptability by using the new term. The traditional acupuncturist is thus being marginalised - his days are not long and his breed too would disappear ere long! For thousands of years, much before the advent of western medicine, acupuncture prevailed. The sick were healed by traditional acupuncturists. Very strangely, the once barefoot doctor trekking through remote villages in ancient China to heal the sick has now elevated himself to a Medical Acupuncturist wearing a stethoscope over a white coat in a clinical setting - and is raking in the shekels, for, acupuncture is now big business in the western hemisphere. With acupuncture now becoming a money-spinner, western doctors embrace acupuncture with zeal and zest after passing a Licentiate or Diploma course in acupuncture. With western universities too embracing acupuncture, the traditional breed has not long to live, as his practice would soon be outlawed as quackery! That would be a sad mother of paradoxes indeed!! Acupuncture is a system of medicine that requires no basic medical degree to comprehend and practice, as what is taught in the modern day medical schools and what makes acupuncture are worlds apart. They are two different systems of therapeutics in toto. Thus to keep away traditional acupuncturists from practising acupuncture would be akin to an astronomer practising astrology wanting to keep traditional astrologers away! Most often the acupuncture that is being practised today in the western world by "Medical Acupuncturists" is NOT traditional, classical acupuncture but shot-gun, palliative acupuncture that brings about only short term palliation than long-term good. Gone are: the classical Pulse Diagnosis, which is an intricate system of holistically assessing the bio-balance in the twelve organs (Chinese anatomy), the therapy administered as per the Organ Clock, which produces a more lasting effect, the diagnosis of a derangement by the interpretation of skin/tissue colour, eye diagnosis, nail diagnosis, face diagnosis, smell and tongue diagnosis, the pathways adopted to manipulate Qi (vital energy) and Blood Stasis, the appraisal of the status of Yin and Yang of an organ (Excess or Deficiency) or its nature in a disorder, the putting to use of the concepts of Wind, Damp, Cold, Heat, Dry etc. In its place has come the westernised system of sticking a few needles at certain acupoints to bring about short-term relief. It is not dissimilar to the western system of palliation sans permanent cure. This system makes the patient make more visits. More visits, more the shekels! There is the detrimental aspect to consider as well. A "Medical Acupuncturist" would treat a local condition to bring relief to the patient from pain or from an inflammatory condition, whereas a traditional practitioner adopting classical acupuncture diagnosis in holistic terms would observe a deeper imbalance, for example, in hepatic function. Whereas the "Medical Acupuncturist" would address the manifest, local condition palliatively by shot-gun method, the traditional acupuncturist would go deeper and save the patient from a more serious pathology affecting the liver that may develop later on in life. It is indeed a shame and saddening to see an eon old therapeutic system that has deep metaphysical connotations and encrusted with subtleties based on Taoist philosophy subjected to degradation by its practice within western parameters that smothers and kills its very essence-for the sake of a few shekels! What will become of the traditional acupuncturists, for, they are the only bastion against this mercenary onslaught by "Medical Acupuncturists", who can then very deservedly be called quacks akin to an acupuncturist practising a little bit of palliative western medicine? Dr. Mass R. Usuf |
|
||||||||
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
