Page 18 - Time Special Edition Alternative Medicine (January 2020)
P. 18
The Mystery
of Acupuncture
Why it works is a matter of debate, but research
shows that the ancient technique is effective for
treating everything from menopause to backaches
BY JEFFREY KLUGER
The hisTory of medicine is The hisTory of Organization has de clared acupuncture a useful ad-
preposterous ideas that turned out to be right. Ill- junct for more than 50 medical conditions, includ-
ness couldn’t be caused by invisible crea tures that ing emotional woes like chronic stress. In the U.S.,
invade the body. Then Antonie van Leeuwenhoek the National Insti tutes of Health agrees, endorsing
invented the microscope, and we discovered bacte- acupuncture as a potentially useful treatment for
ria. Deliberately infecting people with an extremely addiction, mi graines, menstrual cramps, abdominal
mild case of a disease shouldn’t be the best way to pain, ten nis elbow, nausea resulting from chemo-
protect them from catching a serious case of it. Then therapy and more. NIH statistics from 2012 showed
Edward Jenner hit upon smallpox immuniza tion, that 3.5 million American adults and 80,000 chil-
and the era of the vaccine was born. dren had undergone acupuncture in the previous
And you shouldn’t be able to treat all manner of year. From 2002 to 2012, the number of adult users
afflictions, from headaches to backaches to depres- alone jumped by more than 1.5 million.
sion to addiction, by letting someone stick needles In 2009, the U.S. Air Force became a believer too,
into any num ber of 360 specific spots on your skin. implementing battlefield acupuncture—a treatment
Especially if the best explanation anyone can give that can include the implantation of semipermanent
you for why the treatment works is that it frees up needles in key acupoints to block or disrupt pain
the life force, or “qi,” that flows through the human signals—in Iraq and Afghanistan. Acupuncture is
body along 14 different lines, or “meridians.” increasingly used by the military to deal with post-
Yet the lure (some would say lore) of the ancient traumatic stress disorder as well. Now NATO forces
Chinese art of acupuncture is irresistible all the are consider ing following the Americans’ lead. The
same, and not only in the Far East. The World Health Chinese military uses it routinely.
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