How does acupuncture work? (Photo : Alberta College of Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine 阿尔伯塔省中医学院/YouTube)
Online free encyclopedia Wikipedia has been lambasted by a Chinese practitioner of Acupuncture, saying the wiki-software-run encyclopedia is being "irresponsible" for calling the traditional medicine as "pseudoscience." Acupuncture, being part of traditional Chinese medicine is a practice using tiny needles which are inserted into certain areas of the body for improved performance and natural healing.
In defining acupuncture or explaining what the technique is all about, Wikipedia, using as its source an article by medical practitioner, Stephen Barret, M.D., said "TCM [Traditional Chinese Medicine] theory and practice are not based upon scientific knowledge, and acupuncture is a pseudoscience."
Among those who reacted with such definition is Li Zhenji, World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies Vice-chairman, who said via China Daily, "that the efficacy of acupuncture has been proved by history and is widely practiced in China and abroad."
The site called News-Medical wrote about acupuncture to have already been in practice, dating as early as before the Common Era.
Although in 198 B.C.E., according to the site, several documents recovered were about systems of meridian and it was not until in 100 B.C.E, when the allegedly first documents about acupuncture were found: "The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine."
Li was quoted, calling Wikipedia "irresponsible to list the medical technique as pseudoscience." The British Acupuncture Council, citing World Health Organization, said, "acupuncture therapy has been tested in controlled clinical trials" for "a wide variety of diseases or disorders."
The World Health Organization also made available to public its evidenced-based studies of its clinical trials, indicating acupuncture's effectiveness.
Echoing Li's position on Wikipedia's acupuncture concept is Liu Baoyan, who expressed optimism that despite Wiki's entry, it will not dissuade people for acupuncture's efficacy, which as already proven over time.
Liu also said that Traditional Chinese Medicine is more about experience-based than Western Medicine, which is lab-based.
