A Texas woman is asking for state accreditation as an acupuncturist, despite her blindness. During her training she has already treated over 500 patients. She argues that she can place needles just as effectively as a sighted person.
It's a horrible article. First of all, how can Mary Ann Roser not even mention that medical doctors are often licensed despite blindness? Does the Texas State Board of Acupuncture Examiners think being an acupuncturist is more demanding?
Of course, the real scandal is that such a Board exists. Because acupuncture doesn't work. Yeah, yeah, millions of people believe in it. When it's studied carefully there's nothing there. There's some good evidence that sticking people with needles and calling it "therapy" makes them feel better--even when the needles are fake and don't penetrate the skin. There's zero evidence for "chi" or "meridians" or the rest of acupuncture's ancient, basis-free foundation.
The equally bad scandal is that Ms. Roser never even thought to question the idea of licensing professional acupuncturists, so they can then fail to help anyone.
Feh.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Blog Archive
- April (1)
- March (1)
- January (1)
- December (1)
- November (1)
- October (1)
- September (1)
- July (1)
- June (2)
- May (2)
- April (2)
- March (1)
- December (1)
- November (1)
- September (1)
- August (1)
- July (1)
- May (3)
- April (2)
- March (1)
- January (2)
- December (3)
- November (2)
- October (2)
- September (3)
- June (1)
- April (3)
- January (1)
- December (2)
- November (1)
- October (1)
- September (3)
- August (1)
- June (4)
- May (4)
- April (8)
- March (2)
- February (3)
- January (4)
- December (1)
- November (3)
- October (1)
- September (2)
- August (1)
- July (1)
- June (3)
- May (1)
- April (3)
- March (1)
- January (3)
- December (1)
- November (1)
- October (2)
- September (1)
- August (1)
- July (1)
- June (2)
- April (1)
- January (4)
- December (1)
- November (4)
- October (2)
- September (3)
3 comments:
From an acupuncturist I happen to know (with permission):
Some of the best acupuncturists in the world are blind. In Japan, there's a tradition within the Toyohari "school" of selecting blind individuals with an obvious aptitude, and training them well. They're pretty amazing, really, and I'd go to one without any hesitation.
BTW, Will Morris, the President of the school she attended, is one of the real heavyweights in the American Acu scene. Very well respected.
And in response to my followup question asking how one can place needles by sight:
By feel. We were taught to locate acupuncture points by sight and feel, using anatomical landmarks to put the needles in the right places. I've actually found that as my skill has progressed over the last several years, I rely on sight less and less, and feel (palpation) more and more, especially in pain treatment. Being able to feel the places where the qi flow is impeded is invaluable; without good palpatory skills, the practitioner needs to rely on formulaic treatment that may or may not fit the patient's needs.
Personally, I think if Cumbo is denied a license solely on the basis of being sightless, it'd be a real shame, and worthy of appeal.
It's interesting that someone who demonstrates such a high degree of skepticism over acupuncture would proclaim his status in two different astrological systems in his Blogger profile....
Yah, in the comment above, I meant "without sight" where I wrote "by sight." Sigh.
I'm too lazy to change the default profile. Do people actually look at those?
Post a Comment