Pet Acupuncture and Life

Traditional Inuit whale acupuncture.

The post Pet Acupuncture and Life first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

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One of the many characteristics that point to the fact that I am elderly is that I like to read the daily paper. Or, in the case of the Oregonian, the 5 times weekly paper. I have been reading the paper since I could read. As a nod to modernity, I read it on line. Perhaps a nod to aging, I do so because I can increase the font size. Seriously. All time best inventions: clean water, vaccines, and the ability to increase font size.

The paper’s format has not changed in years. News section. Opinion section. Sports. And the Life section, where there is advice, horrorscopes, reviews and the occasionally problematic column.

As an example of problematic, I came across Treating animals with acupuncture has gone mainstream. That wily, old acupuncture. Going mainstream since 1972.

Before we delve into the article, I wondered about the history of animal acupuncture. Turns out acupuncture has been used on animals as long as humans. They just took human charts of meridians and acupoints and laid them over animals. Which is why horses have a gall bladder meridian despite lacking a gall bladder.

Chi, the nonexistent life force, is found in all living creatures. Even bacteria:

Chi sites serve as stimulators of DNA double-strand break repair in bacteria, which can arise from radiation or chemical treatments, or result from replication fork breakage during DNA replication.

Oops. Wrong chi. If qi, then I can’t find where micro-organisms are credited with the ‘energy’. And who knows with prions and viri. But our pets have qi and so are amenable to acupuncture.

As an unrelated rat hole I went down whether plants have their own types of qi. Yep. It helps determine what plants are used in feng shui.

There are a few trials of acupuncture in plants that allegedly increase yield, although I can find no articles on treating plant diseases. Plants have a meridian system that is not in the nervous, lymphatic or blood systems, since plants lack the structures. So they have been looking for meridians in all the wrong places. Instead,

Some argue that it belongs to nervous system, some believe it is part of lymphatic or blood vessel system. There is no conclusion so far. If plants also have energy channel system, can we start our research on energy channels at the common structures shared by human bodies and plants?

Common structures? Such as? Unless we are studying Swamp Thing.

I did find one news report on acupuncture on fish. It supports my contention that acupuncturissts just make it up as they go along:

In human beings, the treatment to stimulate the body’s immune system involves three points, said Wu, who has been practicing acupuncture for more than 12 years. The first, on the shin, about three inches below the kneecap, is called zu san li, or three measures of the leg.

The problem, of course, is that fish have no shins. So, Wu picked a spot near the fish’s tail and hoped for the best.

Anyway, back to the Oregonian. As discussed in TNTC articles on this blog, there is no reason to suspect acupuncture is effective for any pathologic process, since it is based on fiction. Same is true in animals:

On the basis of the findings of this systematic review, there is no compelling evidence to recommend or reject acupuncture for any condition in domestic animals.

So just how as acupuncture gone mainstream in animals? Let’s see what they have to say.

There are two schools of thought about veterinary acupuncture. The original form of acupuncture, which has been practiced for thousands of years, follows principles of traditional Chinese medicine. It views the patient through a lens of five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water.

AKA a school detached from reality.

Each element is associated with a different type of energy. Practitioners work to maintain balance between those energies, which they believe is essential for a healthy body to function.

Well, that tells me nothing. How that lens is applied to animals? Can’t say. And no mention of qi or meridians, so fundamental fictional underpinnings of TCPM are not mentioned. So, really, two paragraphs that have no explanatory content.

In traditional Chinese pseudo-medicine, the fake diagnosis is made by examining the tongue and the pulse. Is that done with animals? You betcha:

The pulse is assessed in various locations, depending on species. Cats, dogs, goats, and sheep have their femoral pulses checked. Equine pulses are palpated using the common carotid at the base of the neck or external maxillary artery, while the ventral tail (median caudal artery) is assessed in the bovine.

The tongue diagnosis would be easy with our old English bull dog.

Another approach focuses on anatomical effects on the body. Practitioners place needles to achieve specific effects by stimulating muscles or nerves.

OK. That sounds semi-reasonable, although

Both versions of acupuncture can help veterinary patients.

How? Don’t know. But let’s read on.

They mention there is also electroacupuncture and that it is more effective. I remain of the opinion that once you apply electricity, it is no longer acupuncture. It is just modified TENS and the effects are due to the electricity and have nothing to do with the needles or any aspect of acupuncture.

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