Spin Spin Spin the needle...who cares how you do it, it doesn't matter! Do you think it does? If so prove yourself, comment!

When I started acupuncture school, I wasn't particularly interested in Herbal Medicnine. I was a Qigong, acupuncture man through and through. I was into Technique, Method, Energy and Location.

My wife (who is also my partner in practice) was just the opposite. She was an outstanding herbalist, and had very sloppy needle technique and point location. But Guess What? Her patients got better and her practice was very successful. So, she taught me a very valuable lesson, not just about Tonification/Reducing, etc., but about the practice of acupuncture in general. It pretty much seems to work even if you're just in the ball park.

Hmmmmmmm. All those years of precision point location and Qigong down the guide tubes.

David J. Karchmer
The Texas Center for Reproductive Acupuncture
Austin - San Antonio - Texas
www.texasfertilityacupuncture.com

Its an interesting topic for sure and in the big picture i have this picture of all the taoist sages (Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, etc) laughing at us all trying to figure this one out. Perhaps its the ultimate joke on all of us - all this endless debate about needle technique, placement, etc. And I hear David's comments before me. But what I have observed repeatedly which has me intrigued - and is common to anyone who practices any of the Japanese styles with built in immediately palpable feedback loops between needling and after needling - is that with many points, a difference of 1 or 2 millimeters in placement and a minute difference in the angle of needling can make the difference between very little and a lot of reponse (either in the pulse or in a distally relevant reflex reaction) - just for example, in Kiiko Mastumoto's style of acupuncture, we often needle Kidney 6 and Kidney 27 if Kidney 16 is tight or tender. And the very precise location and angle at which Kidney 6 is needled can make a huge difference in the response.

So that is an interesting phenomenon i observe over and over again.

I do think some points are 'bigger' than others, and therefore, less fussy about location.

When David K. says, 'it pretty much seems to work even if you are in the ball park', I think where things get complicated is, how are we determining if it works? What happens. Does the patient feel better immediately. Does the treatment last. How are they a week later, a month later, 6 months later? Its a huge question that is not easy to answer.

But in terms of immediately palpable response, I can say and I can repeatedly demonstrate each and every day with most of my patients, that angle and location does matter.

Daniel

I actually agree with both posts on this topic so far. At some fundamental level, I think that no matter what the skill level is of the acupuncturist or the herbalist - without the right diagnosis, the treatment will be less than effective.

Having said that, I have encountered acupuncturists such as Denmai Shudo Sensei, and Ikeda Mazakazu Sensei, whose skill with acupuncture in terms of point location and technique, absolutely makes a tremendous difference. I say this because I have seen them in workshop settings actually come over and treat a patient that one of us has treated previously - where the diagnosis is identical - and the result is far superior. I think experience, sensitivity to Qi, needle technique, etc. do make a difference.

It's probably like fly-fishing. If you put two fly-fisherman in the same river, and one has a couple of years of experience, and the other one has 20 years of experience, I would bet that the one with more experience will catch more fish, more consistently.

Then again, there is the Master Tong system, where there is no needle manipulation per se, but rather the principle of placing 2-3 needles along a channel to increase the intended effect....

Ray Rubio