Acupuncture: Traditional and Modern: Reflections on Acupuncture, Osteopathy, and the history of medical science

Acupuncture:  Traditional and Modern:  Reflections on Acupuncture, Osteopathy, and the history of medical science.

Traditional Acupuncture has long used the inner and outer bladder lines, and also the Huatuo Jiaji points, 0.5 cun from the mid-line of the spine.   Very useful from a practical point of view for back pain, but also pertaining to the spinal nerves, and therefore able to influence the whole body and nervous system. 

No doubt the famous Chinese physician and acupuncturist Huatuo realized their importance, even though he didn't know the anatomical terms, as the ancient Chinese physicians didn't dissect cadavers, and were not anatomists, like their early European counterparts we beginning to become.  

Early recorded European records show that it was the ancient Greeks that began dissection and the study of anatomy, later followed by Romans such as Galen.  However the only cadavers they had access to were from convicted felons, and it the thought of being permanently crippled and maimed (as ghosts) in the underworld and the afterlife was a gruesome punishment for such criminals. Perhaps all serving as an additional deterrent, to help maintain law and order, and social harmony.

OK there might also have been a bit of grave-robbing  going on, as not doubt also happened in later centuries once medical schools were more widely established and bodies were in demand for dissection.  All together a gruesome subject  - and perhaps why a more civilized culture like ancient China did not resort to such barbarities.  After all, they knew how energy circulated in meridians the body  (from qigong practice and meditation) and were far more advanced in their own understanding of physiology in terms of qi and blood, yin and yang, excess and deficiency and so on.

To return to the Acupuncture points (and Chinese physicians such as Huatuo) the mechanism and action and underpinning neuroanatomy and physiology of these back points is now well understood.  Acupuncture here stimulates paraspinal muscle (spinalis, semi-spinalis, etc.) and their segmental spinal nerves, and feedback into the dorsal horns and associated spinal reflexes. 

One of the mechanisms of acupuncture is likely to be via alpha-delta fibres that inhibit the nocieceptive pathway in the dorsal horn of each vertebrae, and this segmental effect can influence visceral conditions, both for pain and disturbed autonomic reflexes.  The intermediate cells in the dorsal horns, by way of collateral terminals, also release the neurotransmitter enkephalin (which blocks pain transmission).

The somato-visceral reflexes involved here, pertain to underlying viscera (via the sympathetics and segmental vasomotor reflexes) and again these effects seemed to be well known to the ancient Chinese physicians and acupuncturists, as they noticed that acupuncture had benefits well beyond musculo-skeletal medicine.  They were effecting the nervous system itself, not just treating muscle and joint pain.  

Integration of modern and and ancient medicine can give a much better understanding.  Both world-views have a great deal to contribute.

For more on this see:
http://www.christchurch-osteopathy-acupuncture.co.nz/acupuncture/scientificBasis.html

different theoretical models underpinning these (apparently) two different types of acupuncture. Osteopathic principals and modern biomedical science

Reflections on integration of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture and Western Medical Acupuncture models

The obvious thing anyone notices here is the quite different theoretical models underpinning these (apparently) two different types of acupuncture.  Are they really different?  Well, that is the question.

So called Western Medical Acupuncture justifies its efficacy according to modern bioscience, and neurology and physiology.   I must admit this does make it easier for me personally, as an osteopath to integrate this acupuncture according to Osteopathic principles. 

However, this also generates food for thought and much reflection, about the type of (osteopathy or acupuncture) treatment given: specific, symptomatic and reductionist  -  versus a more global, integrative, whole-body, whole-person, mind-body-spirit approach.  These principles were those of Andrew Still and the early osteopaths.  The global model is also the principle of traditional acupuncture.

So the differences, as I see it, between the Traditional acupuncture and modern reductionist so called Western Medical Acupuncture models, have a close parallel between the classical osteopathic paradigm (e.g. Andrew Still, Littlejohn, John Wernham) and the more reductionist, orthopaedic, quick-fix kind of osteopathy  (or chiropractic or physiotherapy) as a simplification, a symptomatic treatment, 'only treat where it hurts' type of approach.

I would like to hope that perhaps the Western Medical Acupuncture model might have some scope for the richness and sophistication that we find in Traditional acupuncture.   OK, all beginners have to start somewhere. As beginners in acupuncture (as all clinicians were, once upon a time) we all started with basics, and gradually developed our clinical skills.  But why medics cannot go beyond this primitive cut-down western medical acupuncture model is beyond me.  Perhaps it is a lack of time, or commitment to further study. 

And also the Traditional acupuncture model has to be open to scrutiny, and rigorous evaluation of evidence base.  Indeed it already is, with vast amount of research, and universities in Korea, China, and Japan generating a lot also).  And also admittedly, I'm sometimes a little disappointed with my Traditional acupuncture colleagues, and there being not quite enough modern western biomedical science (a thorough grounding in anatomy, physiology, neurology, pharmacology, rheumatology, orthopaedics, etc) in their training courses.  Although I would like to hope that this is getting better.

So good to try to help integrate these tow models:  the historical richness and sophistication of traditional acupuncture, and modern western biomedical science.  Surely this is a win-win scenario for all.  Let the debate (and friction) continue.

For more on this, see:
http://www.christchurch-osteopathy-acupuncture.co.nz/acupuncture/traditionalDry.html

As naturopathic medicines (osteopathy, acupuncture, mindfulness-meditation, etc) seem more and more to be seeping into the mainstream . . .

Recently discovering this post (by David Wolf -  thanks for this, only included here, so could comment more fully on it) on Facebook, I am struck by how we might be getting quite a different kind of medicine nowadays, or so it would seem. At least it's 'power to the patient' rather than more and more to pharmaceutical multinationals. All food for thought..

However, sadly I suspect such a doctor would never loose all their patients, as not everybody it seems, really wants to be proactive in their own healthcare and well-being. But at least doctors are saying the right things a bit more.  Well, let's hope so anyway. 

At least mainstream healthcare is changing. It always seemed to me that the greatest failure of the medical model is foster a 'culture of dependency'. And even the accountants realize that the implications for this are greater healthcare costs. All developed countries and struggling with higher and higher healthcare costs, as we live longer, but not necessarily any healthier.

All good that Naturopathic and traditional medicine (and here I could include Osteopathy,  Acupuncture, mindfulness-meditation, Qigong,  yoga and Traditional Chinese Medicine) seem to be seeping into the mainstream.  This would seem to be a win-win scenario for all:  especially individual patients, but also for the tax-payer.  OK, potential losers here might to a very limited extent be the pharmaceutical companies and their revenues, but they are such huge players, with so much influence, somehow I don't think most people will worry about this.

Of course,  pharmaceutical medicine has its place - do one would deny that (I hope).  The feedback I get from many of my patients, is not that they are necessarily unhappy with their doctors  - but only that in additions to their script for pharmaceutical drugs, their doctors (in the past, at least) have often offered little else.

So this is why perhaps we could call this 'power to the patient'.  After all,  isn't this a good thing.   With the advent of the internet, almost all educated people will go to their GP with a lot more questions.  Or I would certainly hope so.

For more on this please see my self-care / rehabilitation osteopathy page:
http://www.christchurch-osteopathy-acupuncture.co.nz/selfcare/selfcare.html

and my Naturopathy pages:
http://www.christchurch-osteopathy-acupuncture.co.nz/naturopathy/naturopathy.html


sorry  -  you'll probably have to copy an paste these links into your browser

osteopathy, mindfulness, compassionate non-judgemental awareness, presence and healing

Those who know me as an osteopath, many also by now begin to understand my love of poetry.
Carl Roger's  (the father of Humanistic psychology and 'client-centered' therapy) considered that the most important thing in the therapeutic relationship was simply to be 'fully present' with the client, and to listen fully, compassionately and non-judgementally.

Mindfulness seems to be mainstream, and everyone seems to have heard about it.  Once all the 'qi and blood' and biological energy we invest in our 'narrative mode' of anxieties and restless thinking is spared -  how much more of the body's resources might be available for tissue healing?  Something to reflect on perhaps.

http://www.christchurch-osteopathy-acupuncture.co.nz/painManagement/painManagement.html
http://www.christchurch-osteopathy-acupuncture.co.nz/selfcare/mindfulnessForHealth.html

Ryokan   (from  Sky Above:  Great Wind  The Life and Poetry of Zen Master Ryokan):

Past has passed away

Future has not arrived

Present does not remain

Nothing is reliable; everything must change.

You hold on to letters and names in vain

forcing yourself to believe in them.

Stop chasing new knowledge

leave old views behind.

Study the essential

and then see through it.

When there is nothing left to see through,

then you will know your mistaken views.

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And, seemingly on a very similar theme from Buddha:

One Who Has Had a Single Excellent Night

Let not a person revive the past

or on the future build his hopes;

For the past has been left behind

And the future has not been reached.

Instead with insight let him see

each presently arisen state.

Let him know that and be sure of it

invincibly, unshakeably.

Today the effort must be made.

Tomorrow death may come, who knows?

No bargain with mortality

can keep him and his hordes away.

But one who dwells thus ardently

relentlessly, by day, by night  -

It is he, the peaceful sage has said

who has had a single excellent night.

Bhaddekaratta Sutta 1211 - 1214  (Pali Cannon)

  

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and one more poem from Ryokan:

Delusion and enlightenment
two sides of a coin
Universal and particular
just parts of one whole

All day I read the wordless scriptures
All night I practice no-practice meditation
On the riverbank, a bush warbler
sings in the weeping willow
In the sleeping village, a dog bays at the moon
Nothing troubles the free flow of my feelings
But how can this mind be passed on?

mentoring for Osteopaths: self-reflective learning journal.

Having attended the Osteopathic Council Mentoring training last last weekend in Auckland  (28/02 to 01/03) I am now able to begin the mentoring process for overseas osteopaths entering NZ, wishing to gain full registration with the Osteopathic Council NZ.

The preceptoring (mentoring) process makes use of a reflective portfolio for osteopaths gaining full registration.  This is the same platform as the self-reflective learning journal that will soon be used for ongoing re-certification for all osteopaths in NZ.  Nurses, occupational therapists and other professions use a similar process.

NZ register of Acupuncture continuing professional development will continue to be based on courses or webinars, according to the number of hours.

Only the Heart can know rightly: Healing and Integration. Within ourselves and our communities.

Recently meeting a friend and attending a talk by Lama Ole's on his visit to Christchurch, one thing disturbed me, which was his constant anti-Islam rhetoric. And I have heard similar sentiments being expressed by the young men I talked with in his Diamond Way sangha here in Christchurch. Yes, I know that this is a sad sign of middle age, but I am old enough to remember the 1990s and Yugoslavia tearing itself apart, with genocide in Bosnia, as Serbs massacring Croatians, and Serbian politicians wiping up racial hatred (this now a criminal offense in the UK, as several racist Islamic preachers have been deported, and their assets seized.)

As I Londoner, I grew up in a multicultural international cosmopolitan city, and still like to imagine myself idealistically as an egalitarian liberal. In the 1990's, beginning my study for osteopathy, I was working in London as part-time as an ESOL teacher (having come back from Japan as an EFL teacher, and China the year before where I studied more acupuncture and qigong) and everyone in my classroom was a refugee, so I know the huge suffering that results from civil war and genocide, as I heard these stories first-hand. In those days, you didn't just claim political asylum to stay for years while immigration processed the application, it was usually because all your immediate family had been killed, and your life was in danger.

Yes, I know it's tough on the European Union - but everyone benefits economically from a large supply of cheap labour. There is massive immigration from the East (Poland, etc) westwards (Germany, UK, etc) and has been for more than a generation, since the Berlin Wall was pulled down in 1981, and the collapse of the Communist states.

Lame Ole knows all this - as do all the young people (mostly from Eastern Europe) I met in the Diamond Way Sangha, and continue to meet here in Christchurch. (By contrast, there seems a lack of younger people in the Triratna sangha in NZ and AUS.  Perhaps they all left to work at Windhorse in the UK, and few came back.  Perhaps Triratna has no future beyond the present generation here in Australasia, for this reason.  Soon to become extinct.  We will disappear, leaving samsara to continue to muddle along.  So much for the Bodisattva ideal.

Yet in the naivity of youth, these young buddhists seem to forget however - as in all dualism, and yin-yang, is that there always a seed of good in the bad. Think of the yin-yang symbol. There is also some REVERSE FLOW from the what egoistically we think of as the 'civilized' West, back into the undeveloped Muslim states, and other paces where life is harsh. This will the help people there. The net flow of capital is still from the 3rd world, to the 1st, the developed world, mainly from large multinational corporations, e.g. Shell, BP, Apple, Microsoft, etc, etc. In other words, the wealthy West is still 'ripping off' the developing world (e.g. Africa) and will continue to do so.

Think about the 'Tibetan Wheel of Life': In all 6 realms (the 3 upper realms: god-realm, titans, human realm) and especially the 3 lower realms (animals, hungry ghosts, hell realm) there is ALWAYS a way out, and upwards, and ALWAYS a buddha / bodhisattva in those realms to help those ready to move on, hopefully upwards, and escape suffering. There is always a way out of samsara and suffering, if we have the right attitude and metal equilibrium.

Anyway, I have included some of my favourite poetry, asking my friends to show them to Lama Ole - including 2 poems from Kabir and Rumi. How could a primitive Muslim (OK Sufi) culture ever have produced such genius and refinement?

Remember, at the time of the Crusades (OK, I admit a past-life, as a Knights Templar fraternising with the enemy) the Arab world and culture was way ahead of European culture: algebra, alchemy, algorhythm, arithmetic and may other words are all Arabic in origin. Science, mathematics, medicine, were all far more sophisticated in the Arab world than in medieval Europe.

Perhaps the conflict in the external world (the world of delusion and samsara) will always be inevitable, when we are conflicted within.   'A house divided against itself cannot stand' as another man once said. Yes, I know, this irreverence will upset some of the Western bigots, yet that carpenter modestly liked to call himself the 'son of man'.  Such humility.  Such compassion.  And if I call myself a 'gnostic' christian, then I'm sure to upset my buddhist friends.  You see, this world of delusion and duality is everywhere.

Only the Heart can know rightly:

Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.

You will not find me in stupas, nor in Indian shrine rooms
nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals;
nor in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding round your
own neck; nor in eating nothing but vegetables.

When you really look for me, you will see me instantly -
You will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.

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The Guest House


This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture.

Still, treat each guest honourably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from the beyond.

Rumi

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The way of love
Is not a subtle argument.
That door leads to devastation.

The birds
Make great sky circles of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall
And falling, they’re given wings.

Rumi

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Mindfulness for Health course beginning on Wednesday 18th February at Risingholme Community Center Opawa. Places still available

Just a reminder that there is a Mindfulness for Health course beginning on Wednesday 18th February at the Risingholme Community Center in Opawa.  There are still some places available.

The Course runs on Wednesday evenings from 6.00pm to 8.00pm, and includes a course booklet and some free downloads for guided mindfulness-meditations. The course fee is kept as low as possible at $95 for the full 8 weeks, but this does not include the Course Book.

We will use ‘Mindfulness for Health’ by Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman. ISBN: 9780749959241   
(winner of the best book - popular medicine - at the British Medical Association's book awards 2014)
This is available from Amazon and Fishpond  ($29.95 including postage)

http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Mindfulness-for-Health-Dr-Danny-Penman-Vidyamala-Burch/9780749959241?rid=1328824378&keywords=ISBN%3A+9780749959241


For further information please see:
http://www.christchurch-osteopathy-acupuncture.co.nz/painManagement/courses.html

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