Re: “Rethinking the Remedy,” Sept. 24
After reading Mr. Lengsfeld’s letter (mostly quoted from Wikipedia) regarding the many different options we have for healing modalities in our community, I felt compelled to address the piece on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
You say that TCM is “described as ‘fraught with pseudoscience’ and that the majority of its treatments have no logical mechanism of action.”
I would encourage Mr. Lengsfeld and readers to check out evidencebasedacupuncture.org. There you will find scientific evidence for the positive effects acupuncture has on conditions such as allergic rhinitis, chronic low back pain, knee osteoarthritis and migraine headaches just to name a few.
Mr. Lengsfeld should also know that in the scientific community we do not quote from Wikipedia simply because it is not peer reviewed and anyone can write there without going through scientific scrutiny.
I’d also like to mention to Mr. Lengsfeld that it’s interesting that my “alternative to medicine” treatments as you say are being implemented with amazing clinical results by many other practitioners of medicine (MDs, PTs, CDs). Examples of this are acupuncture (aka IMS, dry needling), gua sha (aka Graston) and cupping (aka MFD). Especially seeing as there is no logical mechanism of action for these treatments as you say.
Lastly, I would like to say that it was in poor form for our community newspaper to let someone publicly bash so many people and their professions, possibly having a negative effect on their livelihoods.
Shauna Robertson R.TCM.P
Nelson