Does Acupuncture Work?

March 29, 2014

Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I went to see an Acupuncturist.   My reading tells me that Acupuncture works.  This may be simply the placebo effect.  I've read that people who think they are
getting Acupuncture, but aren't (the "Acupuncturist" just pretends to stick in the needles), experience almost the same rate of success as those that get the real thing.  I've also read that brain scans show brain activity in different parts of a person's brain depending on whether the Acupuncture treatment is "real" or "pretend".

One thing that makes me think it has a good chance of working is that, on the surface, it seems so improbable yet it is so widely reported to work. And if it does get good results does it matter whether or not it's the placebo effect?

Well if it does work, in  my case, it won't be the placebo effect, as I really don't expect it to work.  So why am I doing this?  Because I have nothing to lose and it's worth a try. And because it's so widely reported to work. How will I know if it works? Well that is a challenge as there may be no way to know for sure. Let me explain why.

Lately, (before my first acupuncture treatment) my condition seems to be improving. I have made a number of changes: wild salmon and organic eggs (both sparingly) added to my Vegan diet (to boost my energy), meditation (now up to 15 minutes a day -  when I get to it), jogging (just started back on this after months with the energy to only walk, and slowly at that, and leathery, potentially cracking soles of my feet-now much improved), heavy re involvement in an activist group (which is reducing my sleep, but is something that I find to be great fun and challenging), planning a possible travel trip to Ukraine which has me excited), and now drinking 1 cup of coffee per day (wonderful!--just the anticipation is a mood lifter after being off coffee for 6 months), Oh, and writing again for my activist cause and this Blog ).

So if I continue to get better I will not really know why. The difficulty (or I should say impossibility) of  accurately determining the cause and effect relationship is that I am doing a lot of different things and my mood is so much better, so assuming I continue to improve, I may not know whether it is all or any of these things or  just time and the natural bodily repair function that is causing the improvement.

Yes, I am feeling very positive these days about life and expect my rare disease, PRP, improving with or without Acupuncture and I do think that is maybe the most important thing one can do to improve health.  I say "can do" because I believe there is so much one can do to improve one's mental attitude.  I believe happiness is a choice.and there is stuff you can do to achieve it.  Too much to cover on this Post but more on this in future Posts.

In fact and amazingly my spirits are as good as  when I was on Prednisone and I am up early at 4 AM like then.  In fact my energy seems almost as good as it ever was before PRP. Not so, at all, in recent months when my low energy was really a drag and a concern. But I am, again, as I was before treatment for PRP with drugs, which had no positive effect, now totally drug free and have been for 5 months as I have been for all of my life before PRP except for very few and  very infrequent treatment with antibiotics for minor conditions.

So that's  the  background.  In my next Post I'll tell you what happened in my first Acupuncture Appointment.

Thanks for reading!

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