A UK study conducted at the University of York, Department of Health Studies revealed promising outcomes of acupuncture treatment in Vancouver for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
The report from the study typically includes the pandering that relegates any treatment deemed unconventional or alternative as complementing standard medicine. However, the study actually showed intriguing results.
A total of 233 patients suffering from IBS symptoms for an average period of 13 years participated in the study. The symptom severity scores of these patients were 100 or above. They were divided into two groups with one group receiving conventional medical treatment for 10 weeks and the other treated with one acupuncture session per week also for 10 weeks.
The patients who were administered with acupuncture experienced a more significant decrease in their symptom severity scores and more importantly the results lasted through follow-up tests during the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth month post treatments.
What is not clearly understood is why did the report deem acupuncture to be an ideal complement to conventional treatments when the subjects had been taking these treatments for at least 13 years in a nation that provides healthcare to all its citizens without them paying out of their own pockets? Clearly, this shows that conventional medicine did not work for these patients.
Because Western medicine has little to offer patients with severe IBS symptoms, it’s not unusual for them to resort to careful watching of their diet to keep their symptoms from reappearing and to help them cope with their problem better.
In the treatment of IBS, Chinese medicine practitioners also recommend to their patients the management of stress and to observe what they eat. A lot of practicing acupuncturists in the States claim really get good results with Chinese herbs and acupuncture to balance spleen and liver Qi in the treatment of IBS.
What is Acupuncture?
For a lot of Westerners, the concept of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) may be a bit difficult to understand. This is especially true for Western-trained practitioners who find the theory and basics of 5,000-year-old medical tradition quite alien to what they have been taught. Ayurvedic medicine and TCM are founded on essentially the same paradigms that are totally different to Western medical theories.
When certain herbs are prescribed by a TCM practitioner, diagnosis can be made based on Qi and organ energy functions instead of physical or biochemical. Acupuncture works by activating the qi energies to remove blockages to their flow along properly identified energy channels or meridians.
Rather than undertaking invasive biopsies, X-rays, and lots of blood tests, practitioners of TCM have been trained to locate excess, blocked, or low, qi and understand how it affects health by observing the quality of your pulse through palpation.
These practitioners will also closely observe your tongue and notice signs that are oftentimes ignored while regarding your symptoms.
Their ability to correctly read your symptoms based on these unique TCM diagnostic procedures is amazing. These professional can even determine how your health will end up before the technology of Western medicine’s can. Diagnosing at the subtle energy levels of qi can determine a health problem before it turns into a full blown physical reality.
From the results of those Chinese medicine diagnostic procedures, a treatment plan consisting of Chinese herbs and acupuncture is drawn up. It may take multiple visits to the acupuncturist’s office and weeks of herbal and acupuncture treatment to come up with really significant positive results which is why most Chinese today are relying more on Western medicine to help relieve their conditions as quick as possible. More often than not, Chinese medicine leads to outcomes that include actual improved health and a lot of times, even a cure.
Big Pharma, the FDA, and AMA make sure their toxic monopoly over America’s healthcare system continues. The type of healthcare system that has been set up actually creates more sickness than it cures. And even though they are less expensive, the insurance industry nevertheless refuses to cover those “alternative” health practices.
In western medicine, patients may experience some relief from their symptoms and think they are cured while experiencing the side effects of antibiotics, toxic pharmaceuticals, radiation from X-Rays and CT scans, and reactions from the toxic injections associated with MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).