Traditional versus modern Acupuncture

1. WESTERN CONCEPTS OF REFLEX DIAGNOSIS AND THERAPY

The body is a unit. Each organ and part belongs to the whole and can influence the whole. The peripheral, central and autonomic nervous system, together with the endocrine system controls the harmony of the whole.

American, German, Scandinavian, Eastern European and Soviet (as well as Oriental) research in recent years has confirmed the enormous potential measuring deviations in of the autonomic-endocrine system as a diagnostic aid and of stimulating the system to obtain therapeutic results.

Research with infra-red thermography, Voll-Akabane-Ryodoraku measurements of altered sensitivity at peripheral points etc has confirmed the diagnostic claim of TCM: that organs project information of their dis-ease to the periphery via the autonomic nervous system. Clinical detection of the altered sensitivity aids in diagnosis. Any method (including AP) which speeds up the return to normal sensitivity is a good therapeutic method and monitoring the speed of return to normal sensitivity has prognostic value.

2. COMPUTER DATABASES

In every sphere of technology the computer is used to store vast amounts of data. The stored data can then be sorted, searched, analyzed and output (to screen, printer or graphics plotter or screen) as required. Many serious students of AP have observed the variation between texts mentioned in the last section. To overcome the difficulty and to assist in their final selection of points, they have cross-referenced every indication given for every point in as many authoritative sources as possible. This was usually done on a card-index or loose-leaf notebook system. When presented with an unfamiliar problem (say post-CVA aphasia), the practitioner could consult the card or loose-leaf for "Aphasia" and visually assess the most important points by frequency-ranking methods. This procedure can take lO-20 minutes for each condition in a good database. This system worked very well for static databases (i.e.) ones which were not altered by additions or deletions. Every time a new reference goes in or out, the ranking would possibly change. Furthermore, the manual system was rather inflexible, for instance, if a researcher wished to examine the most frequently used points for "head" (using all the conditions coded under "head") it could take hours to get the result.

This is a simple problem for modern computers. Having collected data from >50 textbooks and many clinical articles on AP over the past 10 years, I have stored it on computer. The database has >1170 clinical conditions and can generate prescriptions for any or all conditions. Every point listed anywhere in the source material is output and the score is also output. One can see at a glance how well or how badly the point is represented in the database. One can also see how often the condition is cited; conditions with very few citations are less likely to respond to AP therapy than those with many citations.

3. COOKBOOKS

Cookbooks usually provide instant details of the ingredients needed to prepare the required dish. They are used mainly by cooks who (a) have bad memories or (b) have not tried to prepare the dish before. Either way, they are very useful and many an enjoyable meal was prepared in this way. Really expert cooks however, through experience and good memory, seldom need to refer to the cookbook.

Cookbook AP is basically "prescription AP". It is suitable for statistical medicine (standardised approach to all "similar" cases). It is quite unsuitable for difficult, complicated or atypical cases, especially in man. To treat such cases successfully by AP would require a deep study of the classical concepts. Having said that, Cookbook AP is ideal for routine and simple cases. It is the quickest, least painful way of introducing busy professionals to the AP techniques. Whether right or wrong, many busy professionals are not prepared to devote the effort and time to a deep study of AP. Without the cookbook approach, most of these would never be able to attempt AP therapy, except for the simplest type (TP therapy or Ahshi therapy).

The main problem with Cookbook AP is which book to use. None of the AP texts available (even the most comprehensive ones, such as the "Essentials of Chinese AP", "Barefoot Doctor's Manual", "Acupuncture, a Comprehensive Text" or "Current AP Therapy") lists all the conditions which can be helped by AP, and there are considerable differences within and between texts. Thus, the serious student is forced either to construct a personal database (as already discussed) or to purchase a commercial card-index database (such as that by Shenberger). The latter is good but is very incomplete - being based on only a few textbooks.

At this time, micro-computer AP databases are available commercially.

One way to use the cookbook method is to select the 6 or 7 points with the highest scores. I have discussed this method with several highly trained and skilled AP practitioners. There is general consensus that while this will give useful clinical success ratios, it will not achieve the success ratio which would be possible if the points were selected from the cookbook not only by their scores but also keeping the Classical concepts and the laws of choosing points in mind. This pre-supposes that the user knows these concepts. Thus, in summary:

Cookbook + little AP knowledge = good clinical success

Cookbook + good basic AP " = better clinical success