One question always leads to another
When discussing acupuncture, the question that I probably encounter most often is,
‘Can acupuncture treat [insert problem here]?’
This is usually swiftly followed by,
‘So what point do you use for that then?’
In general people are aware that acupuncture can treat bad backs, headaches and tennis elbows but may have never heard that it can treat depression, anxiety and matters of the spirit. Although interestingly, this being Glastonbury, I have also heard the opposite, in that some people were unaware that it can treat physical symptoms!
To be honest with you though, and I may be a bit biased, there is very little that an acupuncturist shouldn’t be able to attempt to treat. Chinese medicine has an all-encompassing theoretical framework that when taken completely on its own, can explain pretty much anything that happens within the body. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a problem can always be successfully treated, but if the practitioner is skilled enough then it should at least be explainable.
Being an acupuncturist is a bit like being a detective. You start the diagnosis process as soon as someone walks through the door, or even before that, when you speak to them on the phone. All the senses are used, from listening to the tone of someone’s voice, to feeling the qualities of the pulse and to looking at the subtle shades on someone’s face. (Although this can sometimes be a little disconcerting when sitting on a bus and someone’s face is telling you that their kidneys are about to pack up!)
The investigation continues in the form of a consultation and questions are asked, ranging from the health of the Mother during conception, right up to what they had for breakfast. No stone is left unturned. Once all the information has been gathered and correlated, a map of person’s internal energy system can be assembled and the imbalances can be noted and then, hopefully, rectified.
Which leads us on to the next question…’So what point do you use for that?’ Oh if only it were that simple.
As it’s the season (Wood energy is on the rise), let’s take headaches as an example. In the West we have very little differentiation between types of headache and generally an all-purpose painkiller is prescribed. However in Chinese medicine it’s a bit more complicated. First the location of the pain is needed. Is the pain on the front/the back/the sides/behind the eyes/right in the middle? All of these locations will pertain to a different meridian and therefore a different point will be used to treat it. Also the nature of the pain needs to be ascertained. Is it a dull ache or a sharp stabbing pain? Is it better or worse with pressure? Is it therefore, deficient or excessive in nature? These too will change the nature of the treatment.
And perhaps most importantly and where Chinese Medicine and Western medicine differ the most, is that the pain is really just a symptom of an imbalance. If we treat the pain without treating the underlying pathology then it will surely come back and we haven’t done our job properly.
So as you can see it is very difficult to answer questions about Chinese Medicine with a concise answer. Where as in the West the answer may be as simple as ‘Ibuprofen’, within acupuncture I often can’t help but answer a question with another question….Which was not unlike the situation on the bus when I asked the guy if he knew that his kidneys were in trouble!