More Needles

There are so many fake medical remedies out there, I'm quite wary about what I would use.

Chiropractic medicine may have benefits but some of the claims about what it can do seem over the top to me.  Reiki and homeopathy are right out in my book, as are iridology and reflexology. Herbal medicine needs to be looked at carefully because of the unregulated doses of the active ingredients and lack of rigorous testing in many cases.

Of the alternative medicines I think I'd be most inclined to accept benefits of acupuncture, but I'm not sure why.  Here is a link to an ABC story about some acupuncture research that says in regard to back pain

After eight weeks, 60% of the patients who received acupuncture of some form reported significant improvement in their ability to function compared 37% of those who got standard medical care alone.

That sounds promising. It also says that in this study there was no significant difference between needles and toothpicks being used.  As far as I can tell science does not yet have a good explanation for acupuncture.

While we're on the ABC, here's a story from them about Frozen Shoulder.

Today I feel I'm making no progress with this condition. I'm about to purchase the electronic version of the book from FrozenShoulder.com. Here's a link to an article by the man behind this, Simeon Niel-Asher.

Pin Cushion

This is a first for me. I never had acupuncture before, but for this I thought I'd give it a try. It's a slightly out of character since I'm fairly conservative with this sort of thing.  Outside my day job I produce a science radio program, and write occasional columns for a national broadsheet newspaper.

I was referred to Feng by someone who recommended him for this condition. The first thing I wanted to see was whether and how he would assess me. Would he just assume Frozen Shoulder, and move straight to the needles? What other treatments would he apply?

The first thing he did was ask me a few basic questions (I was already certain of the diagnosis). Then he held my arm and moved it through its range in each direction: up, forward, backward.

The treatment each time begins with an assessment of my current state. How far can I lift my arm to the front, to the side, and behind me.  Then he loosens things up by swinging it in all directions.

Stretching is next, and this is where the fun starts. He pushes my arm to the limit of movement, and then a bit; sometimes with a rocking motion, sometimes with me squeezing his hand. This hurts.

Then I get the needles, which mostly don't hurt much. But sometimes a particular one hits a sensitive spot, and that's very uncomfortable.

He puts sunglasses on me, and aims a huge laser gun at my joint. It has a red glow coming out of it, but no obvious Star Wars laser beam. To be honest, I can't see how this bit works.

Now all kitted up sitting in a chair with about 10 needles in my neck, shoulder, and elbow, I sit and wait for about 20 minutes. Sometimes he reappears and re-aims the gun--oops, I mean laser.

He takes the needles out, and moves onto more serious stretching and manipulation. This really hurts, and I must breathe deeply and consciously to bear the pain.

Finally it's all over and I'm free to go, relieved that we're done for the week. I generally feel the pain of the treatment for 15-30 minutes.

I really have no idea whether the needles do anything, but I'm in no doubt the manipulation loosens my arm for at least a while.

More on this to come.