Orthodox Medicine

Orthodox medicine has vast resources of staff clinics, hospitals, training schools, and a massive supporting industry ranging from pharmaceuticals and plastics to nuclear technology and robotics.

In contrast, acupuncture is practised only in a limited - although growing- number of private practices and co-operative clinics. Even though it has the potential to be a major alternative, therefore, the weight of numbers and lack of facilities force acupuncture into a subsidiary role at the present time.

This view is not intended in belittle the value of hospital services, with their superb patient-monitoring and life-saving skills, nor to deny the need for surgical and pharmacological care in accidents and emergencies.

Nevertheless it remains evident that a large proportion of cases treated by orthodox medicine in the West are treated just as successfully - and sometimes more successfully - by traditional methods such as acupuncture in China without the inherent dangers of side effects from drug therapy.

If medical care were to evolve in this direction in the West also, a massive burden (not only in terms of numbers of cases but also in terms of the costs of medicines and treatment) could be lifted from the shoulders of orthodox medical services.

Thousands of years old in the East, acupuncture is a relativ newcomer to the West. Once its benefits as a safe, effective and inexpensive system of restoring and maintaining health arc recognized, it will take on a major role in the health care systems of the West.