Acchs Bio and Physics

The idea of a bionic person is a tricky one. On the one hand, I totally support this in the case of someone with a traumatic spinal injury that prevents them from moving through the world with ease. How could this possibly be a bad thing? A person who could not walk or take care of themselves suddenly can. Obviously, this is amazing and important. Obviously we should keep innovating and creating these solutions for people. However, once we start talking about digitizing ourselves or making bionic upgrades just because we can, I start to get a little nervous. Is this just me being small minded about what humanity is or can be? I don't know. The thought of forgoing our bodies is both disturbing and seductive. As someone who has struggled with a chronic illness, I totally understand the desire to upgrade the system. If my body was more machine than body, I certainly wouldn't have struggled with the things I have. If I'm honest, there are times that I've wished for this. On...

How do we define energy medicine as being effective? Often with acupuncture the things we are working on are more subtle than in western medicine, so how do we measure it? Honestly I think the best way to explain that acupuncture is effective is that fact that it is still thriving 2,000 years after its birth. That's a pretty long time to keep something around if it doesn't work. Not all acupuncturists are as effective as others, how do we measure that? In how many of our patients come back? In how they report feeling? Sometimes there are lab tests that we can point to. Our patient comes in anemic, we give them herbs and they no longer are. But sometimes its not all that cut and dry. Human intent is so important as healers. One of my teachers says that 95% of healing is in the intent and belief of it. I'm not entirely sure its that high of a percentage, but I do think it is really important. I can really tell when someone believes in their ability as they put the needle it....

I think compulsory vaccination is a really complicated topic. It's a hard thing to argue that decisions about a person's or their child's health are not their own to make. However, I see no really good alternative. By keeping our vaccination levels high, we develop herd immunity. This herd immunity helps protect everyone, including those who might not be able to get the vaccination because they are immunocompromised. Things like the flu vaccine seem more complicated to me. With things like Chinese herbs and acupuncture we can keep our immune systems working really well and able to fight off things like the flu. On the other hand, as acupuncturists we might be seeing patients who are immunocompromised, and then it seems like it could be the right thing to do to be completely safe. I am totally on board with the article about how much of the push back against vaccines came from a source that was totally made up; however, I do wonder if getting a vaccine every year has some so...