Acupuncture

In Germany most people are familiar with acupuncture. Originally, it derives from China where it is practised for more than 5000 years. After Mao Tse Tung’s cultural revolution it is nowadays very popular there and is used for many diseases. It is applied in operations to reduce the use of anaesthetics and to speed up the process of recovery. With this careful method you can also operate on patients who would be exposed to high risks with „traditional“ anaesthetics. Moreover, labour, in this case doctors, in China is much cheaper than medicine from Western laboratories. Considering that anaesthetics with acupuncture takes longer, this type of anaesthetics has not been successful till now.

It has been speculated and is still being speculated on the mechanisms of acupuncture, which however, will not be discussed at this point. As much can be said: speaking in the computer language, it comes to so-called reprogramming in the brain so that the body presents different behaviour after several treatments. It seems as if a different software has been installed for the patient, since the treated organism releases e.g. a larger amount of endorphins (chemical messengers for the brain).

You can detect the effect of the treatment on the basis of a slight muscular relaxation and tiredness, and small children usually fall asleep after a few minutes. In the case of chronic pain disorder it comes to pain relief or even freedom from pain during the treatment, depending on the technique and the duration of the problems.

But it can also come to worsening. This is not necessarily due to an insufficient qualification of the therapist, but often an indication of hidden causes of a disease that react to the acupuncture. The doctor has to pay particular attention to that fact and requires patience from the patient so that the reaction can be interpreted in a proper way and the treatment can be successfully brought to an end.

The effect of the acupuncture manifests itself in a change of the patient’s vegetative and hormonal initial situation which normalises many chronic and very chronic symptoms. Particularly those symptoms where our modern medicine can score „success“ at the cost of serious side effects respond well to it because of a completely different approach of the acupuncture. Here a very old experience plays a role which cannot be replaced with „modern scientific models“. It is simply true – just like it is true that it is cold in winter and warm in summer. In the end, it does not matter why, even if mankind has always been preoccupied with this question. Any interpretation, as lyric as it may be, does not change the facts.

There are different types of acupuncture. The most common one is the so-called acupuncture of the body where needles are inserted into particular points of the body. One can stimulate those needles electrically in order to obtain certain therapeutic effects, or through „moxibustion“, i.e. treat with warmth or illuminate the body points with a laser. Additionally, there is the acupuncture of the ears which was primarily further developed in France and the acupuncture of the mouth according to Gleditsch where certain points in the mouth are vaccinated with medication. Furthermore, there are individual types which many doctors develop during their work.

The acupuncture of the cranium, which is particularly used for paralyses and after strokes but also for severe pain, is also worth mentioning. With this method some Japanese clinics treat stroke patients very successfully soon after the stroke. Unfortunately, these patients often show up in our practice after having already undergone one or two conventional courses of treatment. Generally, it is much too late to expect much from a treatment with acupuncture.

In general, in chronic cases a treatment with acupuncture is carried out eight to twelve times in succession. Depending on the disease, it is combined with warmth (moxa), cupping and joint manipulation. In the case of acute problems however, one or two treatments are enough. In accordance with tradition, in the case of chronic disease the acupuncture, depending on the location, is often completed with medicine. We choose preferably from a great variety of natural medicine.

Electro-acupuncture according to Voll

The electro-acupuncture according to Voll, in short EAV, was developed in the 1950s by Dr. Reinhardt Voll. It measures the electric behaviour at the acupuncture points of the body with a special device. Dr. Voll took advantage of a method of diagnosis, developed in Japan, where the patient’s temperature sensitivity is measured with glowing sticks at the beginning and the end of the meridians on hands and feet. In the case of illness one could often measure extreme lateral differences at the same points. What the Japanese did with warmth, the EAV does with defined electric current.

The EAV is both a diagnostic and a therapeutic method. On the basis of its measures one can draw conclusions on the so-called energetic disturbance reaction and gets indications of disturbed body areas and organic areas. These can be checked, e.g. with computer-controlled regulation therapy, Kirlian photography, radio-diagnosis or CT (computed tomography), magnetic resonance imaging or ultrasound.

Dr. Voll developed the EAV even further: he tried, with medicine, which he introduced into the measuring circle to normalise the measured values which deviated from the standard values. Thus, he developed a widespread method which, with the help of a certain medicine test – where homeopathic medication is used preferably – is very successful.

It is only partly clarified why this phenomenon takes place. Similar phenomena seem to come into effect as in the case of feeling the pulse or in the case of kinesiology. Many research facilities have struggled in vain up to present to find a solution – possible are e.g. the phenomena of slow brain potentials with which humans can influence computers. Other researchers speak in this context of morphogenetic fields.