Wednesday, September 26, 2012

A Placebo Effect?


 A Placebo Effect? 

Many skeptics and opponents of acupuncture doubt it's effectiveness because of they believe it is a placebo, which is defined by Oxford as:

1. A harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect.

Let's say the placebo effect is real in acupuncture and that's what makes it effective--So, what's wrong with that? You could pay over $100 for a doctors visit with no insurance and have to buy a $150/month lifetime prescription that will only treat your symptoms and not the actual cause of the pain, OR you can pay $15 once a week for something that will not harm your body and that gives you instant relief and long lasting results. 

Western Medicine's focus is how and why something works. Really, I feel the same is true with everything in the west. I think the thing that has everyone completely dumbfounded is that they cannot explain how exactly acupuncture works. Perhaps the real issue is our inability to cope with not having all the answers. Why are we so concerned with how and why something works? Can we not be content with simply knowing that it does?

I firmly believe that one should question EVERYTHING, but when I feel as good as I do and have seen the same results in others, there isn't anything to question in terms of its effectiveness.

I feel the evidence that acupuncture works is overwhelming; however, skeptics and those who have an agenda to push or a pocket to pad would have you believe otherwise. If you google "Acupuncture works, acupuncture study", much of what you'll find is skeptics invalidating the practice or studies that claim it's of little benefit. Why is it that everyone I have come into contact with at our clinic has experienced positive improvement (myself included), yet all I can find on the internet is that acupuncture doesn't work? Imagine how much money the medical industry makes off of illness, think of how much money the pharmaceutical industry makes off of medicating everyone to high heaven...if you were making billions of dollars a year keeping people sick, would you really want to come out in support of something that would cripple your profits?

I will say, I was a HUGE skeptic at first, I am skeptical of literally everything. But I cannot deny how amazing I feel; mind, body, and soul. My stress is gone, tension is gone, I feel energized enough that I have been exercising every day or every other day for the last month--from someone with Narcolepsy (I battle with constant drowsiness), this is incredible. I have seen with my own eyes people that came into the clinic looking sickly and drained and after 2 months worth of treatments they look radiant, lively, happy and are practically skipping out the door. 

If you think about it simply, acupuncture has been used in China for over 2,500 years. If it was a placebo or simply did not work, don't you think they would have stopped using it by now? 

Until next week,

Daisy

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