I feel like a constant piece of disappointment.
Bad hair.
Lousy fitness.
Terrible clothes.

Annoying
Bad Manners
Clumsy

Seems like the list can reach Z easily.

Mr. Andy Ho’s review on acupuncture (“Pinning down acupuncture: It’s a placebo; Feb 12) implies that Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and acupuncture are not “evidence-based” and are detrimental to “patient interests”. I would like to debunk some myths and misconceptions that surround TCM.

In Conventional Western Medicine, the commonly used approach is to determine the underlying mechanisms of a disease, before manufacturing a cure that targets these mechanisms. Finally, clinical trials provide “evidence” that the cure works.

In TCM, the same approach is done in reverse. In ancient times, people used plants, animals and minerals found around them to treat different ailments, just like mini clinical trials held over thousands of years. Over time, they learn what ailments each herb, animal part, or mineral can treat. These experiences are passed down through generations before the earliest TCM physicians compiled them together.

Without the complex instruments available today, these physicians turned to Chinese philosophy to explain how these medicines work. Evidence of its efficacy can be seen in the countless patients that have been treated over all these years.

Similarly for acupuncture, the TCM physicians of yore worked by trial and error to determine that stimulation of different points in our body elicited different therapeutic responses. Without modern science to explain these responses, they borrowed concepts from Chinese cosmology. As such, acupuncture is not “birthed” from Chinese cosmology as Mr. Ho wrongly asserts.

In regard to the acupuncture clinical trials, there are inherent flaws in the scientific study of acupuncture. To the TCM physician, each patient is unique. There may be 5000 patients with the same problem, but the treatment plans for each of them will differ. As such, clinical trials where all patients are stimulated at the same control points will definitely show a reduced efficacy.

TCM and Western Medicine are developed based on different concepts and philosophies. I hope that doctors and scientists will not blindly attempt to benchmark one against the other. Instead, understand both sides before coming up with an unbiased conclusion.