Battlefield Acupuncture, Anyone?

War-wounded military men are now receiving acupuncture for their severe or chronic pain. Adopted from ancient Chinese medical techniques, acupuncture is gaining wide acceptance in the US Military. This is the main reason why the word ‘battlefield acupuncture’ was thought of. By inserting tiny, fine needles on the skin of the pateint’s ear, it is believed that in so doing, pain signals that go through the brain are minimized, thus making the patient not to feel anything.

Battlefield acupuncture is fast catching up in the Air Force as well. They are now planning to teach “battlefield acupuncture” to doctors who will be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. The experience that they had for the past years, since this technique was developed by Col. Niemtzow, an Air Force physician, is more than enough for them to endorse acupuncture to their community. Badly wounded servicemen were able to recover from their chronic and acute pain for which the pain-killer medications have failed to do. Submitting themselves to acupuncture alleviates the pain in just a matter of minutes.

However, there are some skeptics to this treatment. Some claim that clinicians must not depend on personal experience and case reports, but rather must look for results from scientific studies. Col. Niemtzow was accused of being arrogant for pushing with this pseudoscience. These skeptics believe that all soldiers must be given the best treatment based on science and evidenced by the medical profession.

Battlefield acupuncture or acupuncture, per se, may not be a welcome treatment for some. Nevertheless, we cannot deny the fact that it has helped a lot of people from their pain which they have suffered for quite some time. The medications did give them relief but unlike acupuncture which worked faster and has an increased percentage of relieving that pain.

« Battlefield Acupuncture Eases Pain | Home | Battlefield Acupuncture Blog »