Interview with Caspar van der Poel - social media day June 30
Out and about
The acupuncturist's toolbox - Thierry de Vlieg on Dr. Tan's balance method
The Fire of Summer - joy, connection, and vitality
The toolbox of the acupuncturist - Ineke van der Ham on Applied Channel Theory
Acupuncture on the advice of a medical specialist
The Volkskrant headlines on Saturday, March 27, 2021, in 'chocolate letters' in the Science section. As an introduction, the front page reads: 'Conventional care increasingly refers to alternative treatments. As a supplement. And if the effectiveness is proven. It therefore prefers to speak of 'additional care'.' A beautiful article about hopeful developments for our field!
In the three-page article, a number of specialists tell how they, sometimes initially with considerable skepticism, discovered the effectiveness of non-conventional treatment methods. They searched for alternatives out of frustration because they could not help their patients sufficiently or answer their questions.
One of them is Ines von Rosenstiel, a specialist at the Rijnstate hospital in Arnhem. She refers patients experiencing hot flashes and nausea due to cancer treatment to NVA acupuncturists. She is also involved in setting up a network of acupuncturists, in collaboration with some of our members.
What stands out is that in the Netherlands, the resistance to complementary care is much greater than, for example, in Germany, Switzerland, England, Sweden, the US, and Australia. The World Health Organization WHO also advocates for complementary care as an innovative development, allowing patients to undergo less invasive and less costly treatments. There is increasing attention from mainstream healthcare, the government, and health insurers on lifestyle as a means to maintain health and combat disease. Lifestyle is something that acupuncturists inherently pay attention to and incorporate into their treatment.
For the recognition of acupuncture and other 'complementary' treatments, it is important first and foremost to determine whether a therapy is effective and safe. However, the effect of acupuncture, among others, is difficult to investigate with the highly valued and common double-blind research. In acupuncture, the practitioner will know who is receiving the real treatment and who is not. Furthermore, it is not always scientifically proven that conventional treatments are the most effective or how they work exactly. Opponents seem to conveniently forget this last point.
A breakthrough in complementary care requires a renewal of scientific research methods. Only then can complementary forms of care truly find their way to the patient, concludes the article.
We are pleased with this nuanced and hopeful article in the Volkskrant. And incredibly proud of these regular doctors and nurses who dare to speak out. And of the patients who dare to be open with their GP or specialist about the effect of acupuncture. Together we are heading in the right direction!
The online article in the Volkskrant is only accessible to subscribers. Therefore, you will find the text in a PDF file below. And for those who are shocked by the photo in the newspaper, we can reassure you: our acupuncturists use delicate needles, not nails! Cleverly photoshopped, though.
