This page is a response to a
statement "snake oil medicine" that was
used to describe medical care in China. I received medical training in
China and observed much that was nothing but "snake oil." I also
witnessed
many surprisingly high-tech medical devices that are years ahead of the
latest medical technology found in Western Medicine - which is the
subject
of this web page.
An M.D. giving a lecture on
"quack medicine" stated the
following about
acupuncture. He said, "I've compared two charts and the points are not
even in the same place: so there can't be anything to acupuncture."(1)
In about that many words he dismissed acupuncture as having no value in
health care. By the same logic I could say, "I went to two M.D.'s and
they
didn't agree; so no doctor should be considered for medical
care."
Lest any readers of the TLfDP
dismiss Chinese Medicine as
summarily,
as the above doctor, and envision it as primitive barefoot folk doctors
putting unsterile acupuncture needles into ignorant peasants, may I
share
with you some of the high-tech medical technology that I saw in
China.
Beyond acupuncture, the Chinese
also have Western style
medical schools
with all of the specialists we have. Their medical doctors read Western
medical journals and have similar if not equivalent training.
Surprisingly,
such doctors seemed to have mutual respect for traditional Chinese
caregivers
such as acupuncturists, auricular therapists, and chi-gong masters
(2).).
Medical specialists from both traditions often work hand-in-hand.
I saw in such a medical school an
instrument the Chinese
have developed
to measure the sinus node function of the heart non-invasively. To
filter
out all of the surface electrical potentials and measure the electrical
signals inside the heart from the surface of the body is no small
achievement.
In the West, we can only do this by putting a catheter into an artery
in
the leg and threading it up into the heart - a very invasive and
sometimes
fatal procedure.
To show me the instrument would
do what they claimed, the
Chinese surgeons
put a catheter into a dog's heart and then put their instrument on the
surface. Both instruments recorded exactly the same signal.
Cardiologists
in this country who make a living doing cardiac catheterizations don't
seem to be interested.
At another medical facility, the
Chinese demonstrated an
electrogastrograph
that would non invasively diagnose all of the problems we find with
upper
and lower GI tests -- no radiation no barium enemas etc. Again,
gastroenterologists
in this country were not interested. I couldn't find one that would
even
talk to me.
By the way, would anyone show me
a double blind study that
shows barium
enemas, radioactive drinks, myelograms, or angiograms are safe. "But we
can't find out what we need to know without doing these tests" is the
answer
I will get. That's exactly the point. Now it is possible to do at least
some of it non-invasively (if anyone is interested). Whatever happened
to the Hippocratic oath that says, "First I will do no harm?"
I saw a computerized heart
function monitor that included a
blood pressure
meter and cuff which would automatically print out 21 cardiovascular
parameters
with just the blood pressure measurement and height and weight
inputted.
I saw convincing photos of what
appeared to be advanced
cancers on the
surface of the body that were eliminated by an instrument that focused
light of a specific frequency upon them.
I learned and have repeated many
times a method for
reprogramming gall
bladders by using infrared (cold) lasers on acupuncture points to
constrict
the gall bladder and expel sludge and/or small stones. With ten
treatments
in a row, the gall bladder fills and empties properly. Thereafter the
patient
has a healthy and fully functional gall bladder.
If the patient has gallstones
that are too big for the above
procedure,
the Chinese have a portable lithotripper that costs $6,000 compared to
Western lithotrippers that cost around a million dollars. After the
stones
are disintegrated with the lithotripper, the gall bladder can then be
emptied
and programmed to function properly. In this country, all we know how
to
do is cut out gall bladders, instead of make them better.
Regarding the removal of gall
bladders, a pathologist in the
U.S. confided
in me that since we have started doing laparoscopic cholecystectomies,
he is getting all of these gall bladders that have nothing wrong with
them!
Is it incompetence or dishonesty by the doctors involved? Wouldn't it
be
better to make gall bladders functional instead of routinely cut them
out?
I learned a method of using laser
light to permanently stop
shingles
and shingles pain in 2-3 days if the pustules are in the active stage.
If there has been post herpetic neuralgia (shingles pain) of long
duration
before the treatment begins, the treatment is still helpful but may not
be 100%.
If dairy cows do not conceive
because of non-ovulation, the
Chinese
can make them ovulate by focusing infrared light on an acupuncture
point.
The cows then get pregnant. The research done on many dairy herds in
China
where they have successfully repeated this treatment fills a
book.(2)
I believe it would also work on
women who are infertile if
the reason
for their infertility is non ovulation. When I began to tell this to an
OB GYN who claims to be an infertility expert, he said, "Let them put
it
in the New England Journal of Medicine and then I'll read it." With
that,
he stood and indicated the conversation was over.
I learned (based on animal
studies in China done first on
rabbits, sheep,
deer, and horses) a method of using light on acupuncture points to
increase
natural killer cells and/or natural killer cell activity invivo from
600
to over 1000% in ten days. It doesn't work on all patients, but because
of the cost of the tests, we haven't done enough studies to know
why.
My pathologist neighbor saw the
before and after blood tests
and thought
this would be of interest to local oncologists because of what
radiation
and chemotherapy do to the immune system. They said, "Natural killer
cells
are not important. It is the T cells that count"; so they were not
interested.
I have references for 146 studies on natural killer cells giving
evidence
that they were wrong. Since then, we have done a number of tests that
have
shown a significant increase in T cells as well - using the same
method.
The Chinese have developed a
portable, self-contained CO2
medical laser
that meets all FDA and Radiation Health and Safety requirements for
sale
in the United States. The laser fits in a brief case, costs about
1/10th
as much, and will do essentially the same thing our lasers will do that
fill up an examination room.
The laser is near impossible to
sell to Western doctors
because they
will not be satisfied with a tool that does a job efficiently and well
without all the bells and whistles. An analogy to this would be a
doctor
who is personally going to deliver a small package across town. He will
do it in a BMW, if not a Ferrari, or in an "18 wheeler" - never in a
Chevrolet
Geo. We even offered to give a new Laser Plymouth sport car with a
laser
compact disk player to any doctor that bought our medical laser at the
price of the competition. Three lasers for the price of one. There were
no takers.
The above developments are all
surprisingly high-tech coming
from a
country we consider primitive. A medical treatment device that had a
direct
bearing on my life was disarmingly simple and low-tech. There is a
hospital
in Nanjing China (city of 8 million people) that treats nothing but
hemorrhoids.
Hundreds of people go to the hospital each day, have their hemorrhoids
taken care of and then immediately after ride their bicycles back to
work!
In contrast was my own surgical
hemorrhoidectomy. After the
surgery
I had an impacted colon - bled the toilet full of blood nine times
before
I could have a bowel movement. I would just about as soon die as go
through
that again; so I purchased one of the hemorrhoid instruments.
It was provident that I bought
the instrument because I
later developed
another hemorrhoid just as bad as the one that required the surgery. I
procured the help of a doctor who had no experience with the
instrument,
explained to him how to use it, and this is what I felt -- It was cold
for a few seconds, then I felt a tiny prick and it was over. I then
went
back to work feeling better than before it was done. The next day it
was
about as uncomfortable as before the procedure and the day after it was
completely better. That was it, and I haven't been bothered for six
years.
For me, "miracle" is not an
overstatement. And we think the
Chinese
are primitive. Hemorrhoid surgery in the United States is barbaric
compared
to what the Chinese can do! I let a proctologist take this instrument
for
three months to try it out and got it back unused.
One of the reasons such
discoveries are made in China is,
they are free
to try procedures that don't pose obvious harm to the patient without
first
having to prove such methods are effective or safe.(3) Medical doctors,
acupuncturists, chi-gong masters etc. are trusted to do their best.
Malpractice
lawsuits are unknown.
Because China is so eager to
catch up with the West, they
reward innovation.
Our system (medically speaking) punishes it. Those who deviate, from
the
consensus medical establishment, in search of better methods and
treatments
(for example - Phillip Semmelweis, Thomas McPherson Brown, Jonathan
Wright
and John Gambee) are punished even when they heal their patients -
because
they do not practice medicine like everyone else. "It's a lot safer for
doctors to kill their patients with treatments that have been approved
than to cure them with ones that challenge tradition" (Jane Fagen,
quoted
in Arthritis Breakthrough)(4).
Most important, by
combining my training in Electromedicine
in the United
States with Chinese healing technology, I have verified the Chinese
definition
of "pain" by stopping the pain in more than 9,000 patients, even pain
that
nothing else will touch, often with just one or two treatments. The
results
are usually immediate and often permanent. It is done non-invasively
without
acupuncture needles, drugs, herbs, surgery, exercise, massage, magnets,
or manipulation.
Footnotes:
1. I have auricular acupuncture charts from China, Korea,
Japan, France,
and the United States. They do not exactly agree on all point locations
but most points are remarkably close.
2. A wing of a hospital I went to had a sign over it that
said in Chinese
"Music Therapy". Inside a "Chi-Gong" master demonstrated his amazing
craft.
He literally made my hair stand on end and exhibited control over the
movements
of a catatonic apoplectic patient who had his eyes closed. He did it
without
touching him. I don't expect anyone to believe it. I saw it with my own
eyes and I'm still not sure if I believe it. The music therapy was also
a surprise. They were using Western classical music for
treatment!
3. Chen Ja-pu, et. al., Curing Ovarian Disease in Dairy
Cattle,
Peking Agricultural University, Beijing, China 1988 (Available only in
Chinese).
4. Compared to Western medical research and treatment, there
is in the
Chinese system more inherent danger to the patient, but the Chinese are
not totally without regard for medical safety or ethics. Animal studies
are also often done there, before doing anything potentially harmful to
the patient. My point is not that their system is superior but only
that
Chinese health care is much more conducive to discovery.
5. Henry Schammell and Thomas McPherson Brown, M.D., Arthritis
Breakthrough,
M. Evans and Company, N.Y., 1993 (A book about the work of the late
Thomas
McPherson Brown, M.D. that will change forever the way we treat
arthritis.)
Darrell J. Stoddard, President Lasers International
Inc.,
Founder - Pain Research Institute
266 East 3200 North, Provo, Utah 84604
Phone (801) 377-6900
Email: stoddard@healpain.net
Website: http://www.healpain.net
Note: The Breakthrough
major discoveries regarding the trreatmnent of pain by the Pain Research
Institute are all based on the
"Ancient Chinese Inventions" of acupuncture and medical theory.