News for Ann Romney and Acupuncture

The true test is with the individual. When something happens to you and Western Medicine can't do a thing, give some other approaches a chance. Since, in your world view, they don't do anything, there is no harm. But there is always the possibility of a success.

Well there are studies showing it works better than nothing, but NOT better than "placebo" if the placebo is "sham" acupuncture. Whether one might call sham acupuncture a variant of "acupuncture" is something worthy of further discussion.... Obviously, the concept of energy meridians and acupuncture points is nonsense, or sham acupuncture using non-penetrating needles, or needles in the "wrong" place would not work as well as acupuncture. But they do work as well. So how do the classical ancient chinese traditionalists answer that one? Simply they can't.

Lee, As you know, I've practiced qigong for 15 years--and it helped me beat terminal lymphoma. As with acupuncture, it's based on the idea that meridians of energy within the body lead to organ systems; channels open--good health; channels clogged; illness ensues. Internal energy? Western medicine discredited "vitalism," which embraces this concept, almost a century ago (Mesmer's "ozone;" Reich's "orgone"). I didn't know if qigong would work back in the early nineties--but I had a diagnosis of stage four bone lymphoma and had nothing to lose. And it seemed odd that billions of Chinese over the millennia would have wasted their time if there was nothing to it. In time, I felt this internal energy flow in various "cavities" in my body--along with some "electrical" occurences in my body that I couldn't explain. But it took a couple of years of disciplined daily practice before I felt these things. Is internal energy real? Yes. But one has to experience it to believe it, as it doesn't show up on MRIs or CAT scans. The Chinese have a saying: "If it could be talked about, everybody would've told his brother."