Medical Acupuncture is just like any other medical treatment in which there is a science and an art to it and it is operator dependent. A correct diagnosis is essential for treatment response. There are several ways to diagnose in Traditional Chinese Medicine and based on studies there is a high variability on the TCM diagnosis between expert providers on the same patient. Are they all wrong? Let’s use a western medicine example. A patient who has high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes is not responding optimally to the antihypertensive, the cholesterol lowering pill and the insulin prescribed by the cardiologist and the endocrinologist respectively. This patient then goes to the family doctor and the doctor explains what metabolic syndrome is and how being overweight and having a sedentary lifestyle influences the 3 conditions. After a diet and exercise regimen, the patient starts to respond to the treatments. Were the specialists diagnoses wrong? This is an overly simplistic example of how focusing on the root of the problem is essential and also in the same overly simplistic way it attempts to explain how experts can have a correct diagnoses and proper treatment but yielding limited results.
I already had acupuncture and it did not help me, why should I try again with another provider?
