Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Month

If you have read any of the articles that I’ve written in the past about alternative medicine, you will see that with most of these practices, I am skeptical. Anything involving a machine that emits radiation or rays of some sort or feeling the bumps on one’s head to diagnose disease have no basis in scientific fact and usually require several treatments that cost quite a bit of money.

And some can even be dangerous. Millions of people are treated by chiropractors every year and many swear by its effectiveness, but there are also some people who may get strokes from the back adjustments when too much pressure is put in the neck area. I believe that colon detox is mostly hyped.

Yes, there are some people who have a large amount of fecal matter in their large intestines, but I doubt that it’s been sitting in there for forty years like some of the practitioners claim. And you really can’t do much about the environment toxins that you encounter on a daily basis except to avoid them, and that’s not always possible. The only thing that will remove heavy metals from your system is a controversial procedure called chelation, and that must be done in a hospital.

If you want a healthy colon, the best thing to do is not to squirt coffee up there, but rather eat a well-balanced diet that is rich in foods that contain fiber. I do believe in the importance of eating the yogurt products that are meant to help digestion. You have to keep a good balance of helpful bacteria in your digestive tract, as we rare really mostly bacteria anyway. There are more bacteria cells in our bodies than there are human cells.

Two other alternative therapies that have been shown to have some value are acupuncture and oriental medicine. These therapies have been around for thousands of years and have been the focus of a lot of medical research over the years.

I’ve had acupuncture treatments myself and I must say that they helped my back pain. As far as the oriental medicine, I did look into it at one time, but found that the herbs and other remedies that go into it are far too expensive for me to afford. And most of it isn’t covered by insurance.

In October we will be celebrating AOM Day. AOM Day stands for acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Day. It is a day, usually towards the end of October, when practitioners of the art get together to celebrate its rich heritage.

There will be lectures and demonstrations of acupuncture and oriental medicine that day all over the country. Contact your local practitioner to find a location near you.