Traditional Chinese treatments such as acupuncture and acupressure may offer promising alternative medical remedies for a wide range of health concerns. For those who have been to massage therapists after a stressful week, the feeling of relief and rejuvenation can be a real treat. Now imagine pressure and tiny needles offering more than just the temporary relief of the massage from long-term health problems. Professor and Dr. P.B. Lohiya, the Chairman of Indian Academy of Acupuncture Science, spoke to Medindia recently, concerning the treatment and development of acupuncture and acupressure treatments in India.
Dr. Lohiya says that “People seek acupuncture treatment for common disorders like paralysis, knee pain, lumbar pain, slipped discs, spondylosis, frozen shoulder, sciatica, [developmental disabilities], epilepsy and bronchial asthma. However as we are basically allopathic doctors, we get patients seeking acupuncture even for diabetes, hypertension, Parkinson’s disease, hormonal disorders, obesity, and also disorders like optic atrophy, nerve deafness, motor neuron disease, myasthenia gravis, myopathy, urinary incontinence, infertility, etc.”
Less commonly, “Patients suffering from neurotic disorders like Parkinson’s, cerebellar ataxia, cerebral palsy, etc., choose modern medicine to start with, but later they find no improvement or get fed up with lifelong treatment. Furthermore these treatments only suppress the symptoms and not treat the root cause. It is then that these patients try alternative systems like acupuncture in search of cure or at least better relief.”
But patients needn’t choose one or the other, Dr. Lohiya says. Patients can take to modern medicine and acupuncture simultaneously, as the mode of action is different in the two treatments. Modern medical drugs will give symptomatic relief by suppressing the symptoms, whereas acupuncture can treat the root cause of the disease and correct the imbalance of the five elements in the body. Acupuncture doesn’t offer instant relief to patients. So Modern medical drugs can be given in the meantime to relieve the patient from suffering and then the drugs can be slowly tapered off as acupuncture treatment continues.”