The leading edge of acupuncture research comes from a very surprising source

Stars, stripes & needles

People always laugh. How can they not?

I mean…how many people have been in a car accident where their own father rear-ended them at full speed?

It’s absurd. It’s funny. But man, did it hurt!

That wasn’t my first car accident…or my last. I’ve been in four major ones and at least three fender benders. (Only one was my fault…honest!)

I’ve been lucky enough to avoid any really serious injuries, but it took years to overcome some of the pains — and my neck and back still remind me what happened every now and then.

But nothing I’ve been through compares to being in a vehicle that gets rolled over by rocket-propelled grenades, causing a broken back, hip, and pelvis, along with mild traumatic brain injury.

That’s what happened to Army Sgt. Rick Remalia in Afghanistan. In the blink of an eye, he was dealt a very challenging hand. But he’s fortunate to be involved with an organization that’s open-minded and forward thinking when it comes to alternative health care.

Of course, I could only be talking about the U.S. Department of Defense.

Successes in the thousands

NPR reports that Army officials have instructed their doctors to think beyond the idea of “a pill for every ill” in caring for soldiers — especially in the area of pain management.

As I mentioned several years ago, the DoD has been investigating a wide range of alternative medicine techniques (yoga, massage, chiropractic treatments, etc.) to help wounded soldiers cope with chronic pain, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.

Acupuncture has been particularly effective in relieving depression and PTSD symptoms. In 2008, an Army colonel told USA Today that improvements “were relatively rapid and clinically significant.”

Sgt. Remalia has had a similar response.

Remalia recently told NPR that since beginning acupuncture treatments he’s been using fewer pain meds and his chronic headaches have stopped. He noted that he’s had a lot of treatment, but acupuncture is the first where he’s seen “a really big difference.”

Most importantly, that’s a difference that will likely last.

One Army colonel, who’s part of the Pain Management Task Force, told NPR that relying on pain drugs means that the root problem is just pushed further down the line, running the risk of wounded soldiers coping with painkiller addiction and other side effects.

The NPR article, like others I’ve seen on this topic, stops to give one or two skeptics their say. You can imagine their comments: It’s all placebo effect. There’s no science behind it. You can’t replace morphine with acupuncture needles. But as time goes by these skeptics just seem more and more like stubborn cranks who won’t take their heads out of the sand.

Two years ago, a military medical research associate told Stars and Stripes Magazine that it’s simply not accurate to boil down acupuncture’s results to nothing more than psychological affects. She told S&S, “A number of MRI studies have shown the effect of acupuncture is really at the brain level.”

But discussions about whether or not acupuncture “actually works” are irrelevant to a soldier who just needs relief from agonizing pain.

As Dr. Stephen Burns, a retired Air Force colonel and a full-time Air Force acupuncturist told S&S, “We’ve treated thousands and thousands of patients here with excellent results.”

Thousands and thousands. I have to say, I continue to be amazed that the U.S. military appears to be so open-minded in its embrace of alternative medicine.

If you experience chronic pain and want to avoid the dangers of mind-clouding painkillers, you can find acupuncturists in your neighborhood by searching the “Find a Doc” feature on our HSI website.

Sources: 
“Military Pokes Holes In Acupuncture Skeptics’ Theory” Blake Farmer, Morning Edition, NPR, 2/16/12, npr.org

“Pentagon Researches Alternative Treatments” Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, 10/7/08, usatoday.com