Acupuncture entering the Air Force medical arsenal
December 18, 2008 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
The powers-that-be in the Air Force have come to the same conclusion as millions of civilians around the world: acupuncture has a role in the treatment of pain. They are now allowing medical acupuncture, which is acupuncture care provided by a licensed medical doctor.
They will be taught a technique that uses a variation of acupuncture, which uses very small semi-permanent needles that are inserted into the appropriate acupoints in the skin of the ear.
Source: Medical acupuncture gaining acceptance by the US Air Force
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Tags: pain blog, air force, acupuncture, medical acupuncture
I find it interesting that they’ll use semi-permanent needles. Does this mean those needles will remain just under the skin for a certain amount of time? If they work in reducing pain, then why are they only semi-permanent I wonder? I’m also curious if, when the needles are removed, if the pain would come back just as quickly as inserting them appears to reduce it.
As a side note, I commented a few months ago that I was interested in pursuring acupuncture for my RA. I have visited two places that will do acupuncture, however I was not very impressed with the state of the office (untidy, not very professional looking), so simply inquired and left. My difficulty is location as I have a fair drive to any major towns/cities. With the winter driving not good at times, I may just wait until spring before I start looking for other acupunture places.