A article by the Chicago Tribune that rips the spending of the NCCAM for its use of taxpayer money on the studies they have been conducting

As a acupuncturist, I hate to see the NCCAM get slammed for testing out the validity of alternative treatments. After reading this article, I can see where the author is coming from. TrineTsouderos used some motivating words right off the bat… TAXPAYER MONEY… In this economy, this is a great way to sway people to start to think, “Yeah, why am I paying for that!”… And, they would be right… If taken to a vote, I bet that the majority of taxpayers would feel very negative about spending money on long distance prayer healing or energy healing… As an acupuncturist, I even find those things a little bit more or a stretch to find evidence through studies that it works…

But, to defend Acupuncture… I hate it when they talk about the low back pain studies that say, “treating low back pain with acupuncture was no more effective than sham acupuncture for relieving pain.” This upsets me because there are sooooooo many degrees and reasons that someone has back pain… So far, I don’t believe there has been a study to isolate these differences to find conclusive evidence. I believe acupuncture needs to be studied more on the cellular level and biochemical level. There have been some great studies done with that in mind. But, I believe more need to be done.

This article does make sense… I come from the frame of mind of solving one problem at a time… If you spread your resources out, you will waste time, energy, and TAXPAYER MONEY on results that may not be as great as a focused approach. Of the weirdo alternative medicines… Acupuncture is the front runner, right? Why not focus on this part of alternative medicine first and foremost… Am I biased as an acupuncturist? YES! But, I believe that the current medical standard would be much more accepting to mainstream acupuncture with good research than chakra healing…

Overall, I really liked this article for the mere fact that this reporter expressed her opinion from a very factual standpoint… Of the many negative articles I read about alternative medicine, this one makes a good point that the NCCAM may be spending too much money in too many places… It is difficult to study alternative medicine… But, as long as I continue to provide my patients with relief from their symptoms, I will be a believer…