Military Continues to Lead the Way With Acupuncture Acceptance

This morning, NPR reported on the military continuing to pioneer the acceptance of acupuncture in mainstream health settings. Despite the increasingly fainter voice of skeptics, whose outdated ideas on Chinese medicine are losing steam in the face of mounting evidence against their viewpoints, the military has implemented widespread acupuncture intervention for soldiers. From the story, which can be read and listened to in its entirety here:

In recent years, military doctors have turned to acupuncture in special pain clinics and for troops in battle zones. Last year, the Army surgeon general began making the alternative treatments more widely available.

The one tragedy that emerges from this generally upbeat article is the mention of a 'physician trained to do acupuncture'. This usually means that the doctor has not gone through the four year program which licensed acupuncturists do, but rather has taken a video and/or weekend course on the subject. This generally results in vastly inferior outcomes for the patient. [See: Beware of Medical Acupuncture, says Industry Whistleblower]

For other articles that I have posted on the military and acupuncture/Chinese medicine see:

Wall Street Journal Warms to Acupuncture

Military uses Acupuncture for PTSD and Brain Injury

Military Uses Acupuncturists to Treat Concussions

The US Military turns to Acupuncture to Help Our Soldiers

Acupuncture and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)