How Effective Is Acupuncture?

A few years ago, my friend was slouching his way in the city streets when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“My brother. What’s wrong?” The man who tapped him asked. “I have been walking behind you watching you drag your feet for the past few minutes. What’s the issue? Do you have a problem with your back?

“Oh brother, yes….” My friend answered flinching. “You have noticed eh…? I have been having issues with my back for a while now. Been from hospital to hospital. Specialist to specialist. And nothing! The medicine I have in my house could fill a whole truck!”

“What else have you tried?”

“Traditional medicine hasn’t helped me either. I have had these old men scout deep forests for I don’t know what herb and what root and still nothing!”

“I knew it! I used to have the same issue that’s why I asked.” The man in the street pointed out.

“Really are you sure? And you seem ok now. Very upright.”

“Yes, I am perfect! Better than before even. If you are interested I could guide you to a place where you could be helped. The place that I went to.”

“Really! Tell me! My friend Charlie quipped with interest.

At that point anything that could seem to be a possible solution to his problem was welcome.

It was risky to take pointers from strangers in the streets. You really can’t know who to trust. But not even the rampant scams sweeping through the city would scare him away from the chance of getting better. At this point, Charlie had reached his elastic limit.

The man in the streets then explained to my friend about a practice called acupuncture. He briefly told him the process and procedures he had gone through, gave Charlie the location of the acupuncture place in the city and shared his number for any further questions.

The two strangers then parted ways.

The sessions

The next morning Charlie was quick to visit the acupuncture place. He met this old Chinese man who listened, examined him and was willing to help with the issue.

The Chinese acupuncturist didn’t instruct Charlie to do away with his medicines straight away. He just told him that with time, he would not find the use for them.

And that is exactly what happened!

After at least 3 months of sessions and approximately $1000 later. Charlie was fully healed.

The old Chinese acupuncturist had used a mixture of acupuncture and aculaser to achieve this.

“ I couldn’t even have sex!”

“ I couldn’t even have sex!” Charlie jokes when he remembers that period of his life. “ Nothing! I would just look at my wife like a statue. I wanted it. Really bad. But I couldn’t! You could have given me the most beautiful woman in the world and I’d just sit there gaping like an idiot! You know you need your backbone to give it good to a woman right?”

I always laugh when he tells this part of the story. The man truly loves his sexy time. So I can imagine what it might have felt for him to be physically unable to.

“Just laugh.” He taunts when I do. “ Back problems are no joke! I couldn’t even drive properly or play with my children! I had so many drugs with me at all times I could have been mistaken for a peddler. Painkillers like you have never seen… I don’t even want to remember that!”

How real is it?

“And do you think acupuncture is real alternative medicine?” I asked him recently.

“I cannot tell you whether it is real or not. What I can tell you for sure is that acupuncture and aculaser are what helped me get better. I was struggling, had lost all hope and was getting worse every day. It was also very costly to keep going to all these doctors… especially when seeing no results. I was drained mentally, physically, emotionally and financially. Acupuncture was my saviour.

I have even sent several people to the clinic through the years and they always come out fully healed. My sister had a neck problem recently and I sent her there. She is now fully recovered and living her life like it never even happened. ”

“Do you think the practitioners are qualified?”

“Well, the old Chinese guy didn’t seem to know what he was saying most of the time. Particularly on the science stuff. You could ask him a question and he would stutter through an answer. But he seemed to know what he was doing as within a few sessions of visiting him I was starting to feel better already. I had been visiting modern doctors, specialists in their fields and the drugs they gave me didn’t help me.”

Placebo effect?

I wondered whether Charlie got better through acupuncture because he believed it could heal him after the testimony from the man in the streets. Or because it was a last resort for him. A do or die.

“ I was going to the specialists in the hospitals because I believed they could help me. I was swallowing the pills they gave me because I believed they could help me. I kept spending my money in those hospitals because I believed I could be helped. Acupuncture didn’t heal me simply because I believed in it. It healed me because it worked. The other solutions just didn’t work for me.

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese medical practice where several needles are inserted in several pressure points in the body.

The practice is meant for relaxation and especially to relieve pain in the body.

Several texts state that acupuncture and aculaser have no medical basis. They are even classified as quackery. It is also said that the people who go through these sessions get better because of the placebo effect. This means that they get better because they believe they will get better.

Other than my friend Charlie who got his back problems healed through acupuncture, I have another friend who has had back problems since childhood. And where modern medicine had failed him through the years, the several sessions he has had at his local acupuncture place recently have helped ease a lot of his acute pain so far.

He was initially skeptical about it. And had been exploring several options such as surgical intervention. For this reason, I cannot sufficiently say that he is getting better simply because he believes he will get better.

“We shall see.” Is the exact phrase he uses when he talks about the possible outcomes of the sessions in the long run.

Of course, he wants to get better. That’s why he goes for the sessions. That’s why he visited the many specialists in the modern hospitals.

And he could be getting better through acupuncture because the practice actually works!

He also shared that his father had a back problem that was fully healed from acupuncture sessions. And that he has heard of other people getting better from visiting the clinic he frequents for his sessions.

Well, he also keeps talking about this wonderful tea they serve over there. And that the old Chinese woman that attends to him is anti ice cream for some health reason that I disagree with. Something to do with it being too cold for the stomach.

But in solidarity with my friend, because I empathise with his pain and also because I am super crazy about him, I have been attending the no ice cream church for the past few weeks.

I also need to honour the beliefs of this old Chinese woman however far fetched they may be.

If she is helping my friend heal after being in pain for so long, then she must know what she is doing and saying!

What are your thoughts on acupuncture and other ancient healing practices?