Traditional Medicine in Asia

Traditional Medicine in Asia
directly from practical experience should
be sorted out to ensure that the indications
of traditional acupuncture points have a
solid practical basis, (ii) These indications
should be applied again in clinical
practice, and verified under strict scientific
experimental design so that the
indications can be re-sorted. The clinical
experience of modern acupuncturists
should be summarized systematically and
generally so that acupuncture can be
furbished with modern features. These
experiences should then be used in clinical
practice for strict verification. Only by
undergoing the process of “panning the
gold in the sand” can the real value of
modern and traditional Chinese medicine
and acupuncture be guaranteed, and the
serious situation of poor integration of
acupuncture theory and practice be
changed. Only then can acupuncture
medicine take a great leap from the level
of “empirical medicine” to the level of
“evidence-based medicine”. Keeping this
in view, the foundation has been laid for
researching and working out
“International Standard Acupuncture
Points’ Indications”.
Quantifying the principles of
acupuncture treatment
Ancient people practising acupuncture
observed that there are different principles
in terms of various acupuncture points,
different needling techniques, single
acupuncture stimulation, total acupuncture
stimulation and various treatment
intervals. Also, depending on various
disease conditions, during the same
treatment course, the amount of stimulation
increases gradually from low to high,
or decreases from high to low, or increases
in the beginning and decreases later. In
order to improve the therapeutic
effectiveness and to minimize ad hocism
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in treatment, the principle of cumulative
effectiveness of acupuncture treatment
must be worked out. In other words, what
needs to be explored should include the
time when the acupuncture effectiveness
reaches its maximum; how long the
effectiveness would last upon reaching the
maximum; whether there is a nonresponding
period before the new
stimulation starts having an effect; and how
long the non-responding period lasts, if
there is one. Only after these basic
questions are clearly settled can the best
acupuncture treatment plan be worked
out. This would include the amount of each
stimulation, the amount of total
stimulation, the interval between
stimulations and the treatment courses
required by various diseases.
Peak value of therapeutic
effectiveness of acupuncture and
the best time to perform
treatment
Since the therapeutic actions of
acupuncture rely on the intrinsic functions
of self-regulation and self-recovery of the
human body, the intensity of its functions
is limited. If clinical therapeutic effectiveness
needs to be advanced to its maximum, and
if clinical indications of acupuncture are
to be widened, future clinical research on
acupuncture should be carried out in two
directions. One is to further develop the
potentiality: by conducting strictly
controlled research, by sorting out diseases,
by establishing the best time and
opportunity to perform acupuncture
treatment, as well as by determining the
acupuncture stimulation parameters of
different diseases, so that the effectiveness
of acupuncture can be utilized to its
optimum extent. The other is to blaze new
trails, by integrating other supplementary
methods scientifically to enhance the