So, what is the alternative? Acupuncture provides one possibility. But instead of "alternative," let us utilize the term "complimentary."
As this short, simple article illustrates, terminology is crucial. Terminology has the ability to either confirm or debunk a way of thinking. The term "alternative" sets up an either/or mentality. And, just like the weather, health is often in such constant flux that we cannot predict how one individual will respond to a treatment that works for another person. Snow in New York is not like snow in North Carolina.
Often, practitioners of complimentary medicine speak in terms that could easily be labeled as new age. Because of this, medical doctors often skeptically deny acupuncture's validity. Let me ask a simple question: If your local weather-person presented a forecast in strictly scientific terms, would we all be able to figure out how we could best dress for the weather? If you answered no, allow me to present Acupuncture in common terms:
Our bodies, our health are composed of an internal environment, subject to the same forces that define and dictate our external environment - our internal weather. Acupuncture strives to balance our internal environment. The symbols utilized by the acupuncturist represent specific, scientific facts. For example, the emblem of "Earth" represents some of the following:
The structures and functions of the stomach, the spleen and pancreas, the adipose tissue (fat), the distillation of the food we eat into the specific energies that nourish our other systems, and the ability of the pancreas to secrete insulin.
When the weather system is unbalanced, it might manifest as a storm front or unseasonably warm weather. When the energies of the stomach act in an unnatural way, we might experience symptoms such as cramping, acid reflux or insulin resistance. Acupuncture seeks to remind the body systems how to work together, in balance, and in a predictable manner according to their nature.
While we can't change our weather, we can balance our internal weather systems. Instead of providing an "alternative," acupuncture strives to compliment Western Medicine. In other words, acupuncture allows for the possibility that one method doesn't necessarily disallow all other methods.
And it works with necessary prescription and other therapies, without disallowing the validity of those treatments. Acupuncture provides a stable, scientific, and non-invasive approach to health that perfectly compliments Western Medicine. Western medical doctors deal mostly with the material side of health. Prescription drugs and surgical methods have direct effects on the matter of the body. Acupuncture directly affects the energy that allowed a material, unhealthy change to arise, affecting our internal weather-system. We've all heard or used these common-knowledge phrases:
"I caught a cold ... My bum knee only hurts when it rains ...I seem to sweat too easily ... My hands and feet are always cold ... My skin gets these weird dry patches ... Certain foods make my stomach upset."
We live largely unnatural lives. We sit in our cars or in front of a computer screen for large portions of our day. We often are subjected to noise pollution. We don't get much sunlight during our workweek, huddled indoors under fluorescent lighting. We venture out into the fickle weather, after adapting to artificial heating or air-conditioning.
Think about that term; air conditioning. We become "conditioned" to living in this man made environment
Acupuncture recalibrates our systems to work in the most healthy, natural, and efficient way. Acupuncture does not allow for the myriad side effects listed, ad-nauseum, that follow nearly every prescription drug commercial. Acupuncture is truly a method of health for all seasons.