A Blue Poppy blog post by Bob Quinn
I’ve been treating the long-term patient of a good friend this summer while he is away gallivanting across the globe. I did the same for him last summer. By every reasonable measure this patient should have been dead ten years ago. His survival, I feel, shows the power of acupuncture.
The patient is a retired professor. For over ten years he has received weekly acupuncture treatments in the attempt to slow the loss of lung function from fibrosis. It has worked spectacularly well. He still lives independently, participates in groups and “has a life.” Sure, the disease progresses slowly, but that is much preferred to the death that was expected 8-10 years ago!
His pulmonologist, despite this remarkable success, demonstrates no curiosity at all about acupuncture and is hostile to the idea that Chinese medicine accounts for the fact that this patient is alive still. It is hard for me to understand this sort of indifferent and obstinate attitude. What alternative does the doctor offer from his own toolkit? He offers a procedure with little chance of helping and a good chance of significant loss of quality of life. He is annoyed that the patient will not pursue this option. As I mentioned above, the patient is quite well educated himself and can read the research. At this point in his life all he cares about is his quality of life and his independence. Both are threatened by this procedure, and so he makes the same choice I would in saying no to it.
A case like this prompts me to think about what might be possible if acupuncture were made widely available to the US population—like what this patient has in his weekly treatments. My suspicion is that we would be shocked how much would change. I think of all the mental health patients who might benefit, all the diabetics, cancer patients, all those in chronic pain. There is no shortage of need in our society. As a community, if we were allowed to see patients every week for extended periods of time, I believe we would be seen as miracle workers in many cases.
What stands in the way of this actually happening are formidable hurdles—financial, social, and political. I know this is the sort of issue that motivates those in the community acupuncture movement, and I am glad they are in the mix and widely available across the US. I support their efforts and have sent patients aplenty their way, but it is not a style of practice that I can work in. What I wish is that acupuncturists of every stripe had the chance to see the patients they work with on a weekly basis, year-in, year-out. When one considers how much money is spent in our healthcare system, this would not amount to that much money, comparatively speaking.
But I know I am wasting my time wishing this sort of thing. We live in the era of Evidence Based Medicine (EBM), and where there is no “evidence,” no doctor and no insurance company will venture. Of course I might point out that “he who gets to define what constitutes evidence” is in a very powerful position indeed, but the decision has already been made in EBM that gold standard double-blinded studies rule the day. I am sure you can tell my sentiments about the dominance of EBM and its narrow definition of evidence. (I do realize they speak of a hierarchy of evidence in EBM, with consideration given to case studies and other forms of evidence, but in reality this sort of evidence is seen as unreliable and inferior.)
For better or worse, we are forced to work from our current starting place. It is what we have done all along in the Chinese medicine community, and we have succeeded against all odds in getting licensed in almost all 50 states in just a few decades. Astounding! If that is possible, then maybe my wishful thinking isn’t all pie in the sky. May it be so.
Best wishes all around,
Bob Quinn