Electroacupuncture a European thing?

[Guest guest]

Hi All, & Attilio,

 

Attilio wrote:

> I don't know about categorising Electroacupuncture as a European

> thing. I saw plenty of it whilst I was in China. Generally, UK

> practitioners are reluctant to use it. It is because of a lack of

> training and practice. That's probably why David Mayor's new book

> 'Electroacupuncture' is so popular. Kind regards, Attilio D'Alberto

 

David Mayor's book is awesome in int coverage of electroacupuncture [

http://www.welwynacupuncture.co.uk/electro-acupuncture.asp ]. My review

of it is: This work is a masterpiece, an amazing achievement. It is the

deepest and most critical assessment of the international literature to date. It

is a labour of love that took nine years of painstaking research to compile.

Hearty congratulations to its author and his team of expert contributers!

 

That said, when I was in Taiwan in 1982, I saw electroacupuncture

stimulators in every clinic that I visited, but they were rarely used. See The

Taiwan Report: http://users.med.auth.gr/~karanik/english/vet/taiwan1.htm

 

Extract: AP and allied techniques in clinical practice: Considerable variation

exists in the choice of points for therapy and in the methods of manipulating

the needles. In general, I saw very little use of electro-AP (although the

stimulators were freely available in every clinic visited). There was general

agreement that manual needling alone was as good as, or better, than

electro-needling for most conditions requiring AP. Exceptions are (a) in AP

analgesia before surgery (not witnessed) and (b) in certain chronic

conditions, especially paralysis/paresis after CVA or nerve injury.

 

I used electroacupuncture before going to Taiwan but use it rarely since

then, except for indications (a) and (b) mentioned above. In my experience

(in humans and animals) simple needling of relevant acupoints is sufficient

to activate the acupuncture response.

 

Best regards,