I work in a Medical Education. Real Medical Education, Doctors and nurses and all that...
The post I am about to type could well get me fired, even though it seems to me possibly the least controversial thought I've ever expressed in here.. yes even less controversial than the universally held idea that Keith Lemon is in no way funny...
I mainly deal with nurses. Genuine medical type nurses. I help them not get kicked out when they've messed up a few times and missed a few too many lectures (Sometimes I help them get kicked out when they've missed way too many lectures as well, but that doesn't seem quite as pleasant). In our faculty we deal with Nurses, Health Visitors, Occupational therapists, Mental Health Professionals, Radiographers and Acupuncturists....
What.. yes.. I did a double take when I saw that one on the list as well.. In a campus of genuine, utterly not made up, scientifically approved therapies we have a bunch of people learning how sticking needles in certain places can cure all manner of illnesses that sticking needles in you cannot do, unless of course they are hypodermic needles that are full of medicine...
Now I am not doubting the barrels of anecdotal evidence supplied by people that they have received therapeutic benefits from people putting needles in just the right places... in fact we even have a name for that benefit. It's called the Placebo effect.
Placebos administered by needle (Ie a saline solution) are measurably more effective than when administered by tablet at killing pain. The body responds to needles, it knows what they are, they have a demonstrable effect that's very hard for the nervous system to ignore. It also responds to theatrical prancing and ritual. Acupuncture has both of these by the syringe-load...
What it doesn't have sadly is 'Qi'.. the mystical energy... because of course, such things are nonsense. As soon as the word 'Mystical' is applied to something it ceases to be science. Sorry that's just facts. It is also a fact that the body heals itself, and it heals itself better when someone does something to convince it that it should be healing... this is the very epitome of the Placebo effect...
But it's being taught right there, on the same list as Children's nursing... thankfully it's a tiny course and it's tucked away from the real medical people and all the people who are on it are jolly nice, middle class types who probably half believe in it and half don't and won't really get to the level of charlatanism that exponents of other hideous sham (or 'Alternative') Medicines do.
(I have genuinely seen a Herbalist offering to 'Help Beat Cancer'.. When I asked them, reminding them of the law about false advertising of such things and with the entire rage of thinking about my Mother's battle with cancer behind me, they claimed they meant it was to help with the well being of a patient after beating Cancer and promised to change the sign)
Luckily for me, I don't have much dealings with the Acupuncture lot, but every time I walk past the plaque proudly proclaiming that our Acupuncture course is affiliated with the Confucius Institute, (which is of course, based in London) I start laughing. I mean really laughing.... and one day I'm very afraid that someone will ask me why I'm stood in the foyer of their little magic den, doubled over laughing... Then I'll have to either come up with something pretty convincing... because when it comes to people peddling this kind of thing, I am VERY bad at keeping my mouth shut...
The post I am about to type could well get me fired, even though it seems to me possibly the least controversial thought I've ever expressed in here.. yes even less controversial than the universally held idea that Keith Lemon is in no way funny...
I mainly deal with nurses. Genuine medical type nurses. I help them not get kicked out when they've messed up a few times and missed a few too many lectures (Sometimes I help them get kicked out when they've missed way too many lectures as well, but that doesn't seem quite as pleasant). In our faculty we deal with Nurses, Health Visitors, Occupational therapists, Mental Health Professionals, Radiographers and Acupuncturists....
What.. yes.. I did a double take when I saw that one on the list as well.. In a campus of genuine, utterly not made up, scientifically approved therapies we have a bunch of people learning how sticking needles in certain places can cure all manner of illnesses that sticking needles in you cannot do, unless of course they are hypodermic needles that are full of medicine...
Now I am not doubting the barrels of anecdotal evidence supplied by people that they have received therapeutic benefits from people putting needles in just the right places... in fact we even have a name for that benefit. It's called the Placebo effect.
Placebos administered by needle (Ie a saline solution) are measurably more effective than when administered by tablet at killing pain. The body responds to needles, it knows what they are, they have a demonstrable effect that's very hard for the nervous system to ignore. It also responds to theatrical prancing and ritual. Acupuncture has both of these by the syringe-load...
What it doesn't have sadly is 'Qi'.. the mystical energy... because of course, such things are nonsense. As soon as the word 'Mystical' is applied to something it ceases to be science. Sorry that's just facts. It is also a fact that the body heals itself, and it heals itself better when someone does something to convince it that it should be healing... this is the very epitome of the Placebo effect...
But it's being taught right there, on the same list as Children's nursing... thankfully it's a tiny course and it's tucked away from the real medical people and all the people who are on it are jolly nice, middle class types who probably half believe in it and half don't and won't really get to the level of charlatanism that exponents of other hideous sham (or 'Alternative') Medicines do.
(I have genuinely seen a Herbalist offering to 'Help Beat Cancer'.. When I asked them, reminding them of the law about false advertising of such things and with the entire rage of thinking about my Mother's battle with cancer behind me, they claimed they meant it was to help with the well being of a patient after beating Cancer and promised to change the sign)
Luckily for me, I don't have much dealings with the Acupuncture lot, but every time I walk past the plaque proudly proclaiming that our Acupuncture course is affiliated with the Confucius Institute, (which is of course, based in London) I start laughing. I mean really laughing.... and one day I'm very afraid that someone will ask me why I'm stood in the foyer of their little magic den, doubled over laughing... Then I'll have to either come up with something pretty convincing... because when it comes to people peddling this kind of thing, I am VERY bad at keeping my mouth shut...
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