So You Want To Try Acupuncture?

By Anthony Campbell

This book aims to answer the questions that someone who is thinking of having acupuncture but doesn't know much about it might ask. At the outset, it explains that if you want to have acupuncture you don't necessarily have to take on board a lot of strange ideas. That is because there are now many health professionals (doctors, dentists, nurses, physiotherapists, osteopaths, and chiropractors, for example) who use acupuncture in a modern way with little or no reference to the ancient ideas of yin and yang, meridians, and points. They have reinterpreted acupuncture in the light of modern science and find that it works. We don't need the traditional theories to explain it.

Doing acupuncture in the modern way is as effective as doing it in the traditional way, so it is what I recommend. At the same time, I know that there will be some people who, for one reason or another, will be drawn towards the traditional version, and I cater for those as well.

The book explains what acupuncture is, how it seems to work, how you should go about finding a practitioner, what to expect in your first treatment, and what adverse effects might occur. It also describes the main health problems that might be suitable for acupuncture.

The book is based on over thirty years' experience of using and teaching acupuncture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anthony Campbell
• Release date: Nov 6, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452363240

Anthony Campbell

Professionally, I am a conventionally qualified medical doctor who has experience of some kinds of alternative medicine, but I am a self-confessed generalist and have written on subjects unrelated to medicine. In so far as there is a unifying theme in these books, it is sceptical and describes the progressive questioning and ultimate abandonment of belief systems. This emerges in my two books on religion and also in my critical account of the origin and development of homeopathy. My historical study of the sect of the Assassins is an examination of a fascinating set of religious ideas in mediaeval Islam, with relevance to modern religion-inspired terrorism. Although I am now retired from clinical practice I continue to teach modern medical acupuncture to health professionals. My textbook for the courses I teach is available here. I'm interested in computers and used Linux as my operating system for many years. I've now switched almost completely to OpenBSD. My book Making Word.doc Files on Linux covers how to do this for both Linux and *BSD.

Book preview

So You Want To Try Acupuncture?

Anthony Campbell

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2010 Anthony Campbell

Smashwords Edition: Licence Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal use. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share it with someone else, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

About the author

Anthony Campbell was a consultant physician at The Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine (formerly The Royal London Homeopathic Hospital) for over twenty years. His principal clinical interest at the bospital was Western medical acupuncturre. He has published three books on acupuncture for health professionals as well as three books on back pain for patients. Although he is now retired he continues to teach medical acupuncture to health professionals; over 6000 have attended these courses.

Other books by Anthony Campbell

Smashwords editions:

Homeopathy In Perspective

The Assassins of Alamut

Religion, Language,. Narrative and the Search for Meaning

Totality Beliefs and the Religious Imagination

Printed versions of all my books:

See my website at www.acampbell.org.uk.

Chapter 1: Introduction

As I explain in the course of the book, there is at present no legal restriction of any kind on the practice of acupuncture, at least in Britain, where anyone can proclaim themselves to be an acupuncturist, with or without any form of training. It therefore seems right that I should set out my own qualifications for writing a book on acupuncture at the outset. I am a conventionally qualified medical doctor who practises and teaches Western medical acupuncture. Until my retirement in 1998 I was a consultant physician at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine (known then as the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital), which is a National Health Service hospital for the study and practice of various kinds of complementary medicine. All the clinicians at the hospital have orthodox qualifications in addition to their expertise in complementary medicine, so conventional treatments are used when appropriate.

My main interest while I was at the hospital was in Western medical acupuncture, which I began to practise in 1977. Now that I have retired I no longer see patients routinely but I continue to teach acupuncture, something that I have done since 1981. I run courses every month or two, both in Britain and abroad, and over 6,000 practitioners have attended them. All of them are registered health professionals―doctors, physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors, podiatrists, and nurses. I am a member of the British Medical Acupuncture Society and hold the Diploma in Western Medical Acupuncture awarded by the Society. I have written three textbooks of acupuncture for use in the courses I teach, but this book differs from the others in being meant for you, the patient or would-be patient. It is intended to answer the questions that people have asked me in the past when I suggested acupuncture to them. Having read it, you should know what diseases and symptoms acupuncture is likely to help (as well as those that probably won't respond). You will understand the risks as well as the benefits; you will know what to expect when you go for treatment; and I will suggest the best way of finding a suitable practitioner. I shall also explain what modern research has told us about acupuncture.

Like other practitioners, I naturally have my own views of what works best, and I shall indicate this from time to time. But I shall try to give as balanced an account as possible, because there are different opinions about most things in acupuncture and not enough evidence to permit dogmatism. As will emerge in the course of the book, we have made good progress in providing a rational basis for acupuncture but there is still a long way to go.

How to use the book

The first six chapters are mainly practical and should give you the basic knowledge you need if you are thinking of embarking on acupuncture treatment, so you should read those first. The remaining chapters provide more in-depth information about acupuncture and look at some of the evidence for it. They also include a brief outline of the traditional system and descriptions of some less usual kinds of acupuncture that you may come across. It is not essential to read these later chapters before beginning treatment but you will probably find them useful as time goes by and further questions occur to you.

Who is this book for?

This book is written for anyone who is thinking of trying acupuncture but doesn't know very much about it. There might be any one of several reasons why that could be you. You might have a health problem that conventional medicine has been unsuccessful in treating, or you might be reliant on pain-relieving tablets but would like to stop them. Perhaps you know someone who had acupuncture and found it helpful, or perhaps you have been looking at information on the Internet that has sparked your interest. You may have read articles in magazines that advocate acupuncture, or you may have heard it discussed on the radio or television.

Acupuncture, along with other kinds of unconventional medicine, is much more familiar in the West today than it has ever been before. You can hardly walk down the High Street in most British towns nowadays without passing a clinic advertising Chinese herbal medicine sand acupuncture. It has been estimated that 3.1 million US citizens have acupuncture and the number is constantly growing. But if you have looked into acupuncture at all you have probably gained the impression that it is a pretty mysterious and exotic form of treatment. It is not just the idea of having someone stick a lot of needles into you to relieve pain, which is pretty odd (and probably somewhat alarming) in itself. There is also all the talk about a complex system of ideas to explain how it works―ideas derived from traditional Chinese medicine. Nearly all the information that you will come across seems to emphasise the difference in outlook between traditional Chinese medicine and conventional medicine―and always the balance is in favour of traditional Chinese medicine, of course. It is described using approving terms, and you are encouraged to think of it as an ancient system of treatment, handed down by a succession of sages from time immemorial that will totally transform your state of health by 'balancing' your systems.

It all sounds wonderful, but perhaps also rather disquieting. After all, you have grown up to have a particular idea of your body and how it works. This idea is based the scientific understanding of nature that has developed

Reviews for So You Want To Try Acupuncture?

[Jh Jhony Aiepis · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Lo mismo algo generalizado. pero es bueno conocer un poco de todo