The current ‘Acupuncture Awareness Week’ is perhaps a good occasion to look beyond acupuncture for humans. The ‘Chi Institute’ is an organisation that teaches TCM for animals. There you can specialise in all sorts of intriguing things that a critical mind would have never thought about. Take acupuncture for horses, for instance; on their website, the Institute informs us that:
The Equine Acupuncture Program…certifies students in veterinary acupuncture with an emphasis on horses. The program begins with an overview of fundamental aspects of Chinese Medicine, including Ying-Yang and Five Elements theory, which serve as a foundation for case diagnosis and treatment presented later in the class. A variety of acupuncture techniques are taught, including electro-acupuncture and moxibustion, in addition to conventional “dry” needling. Students of the program learn acupuncture points on large animals only, and horses are used for practice in the wet labs.
The program is presented in five sessions (two online and three on-site) over a period of six months. Online sessions are composed of lectures that students can stream at their own convenience. Afternoon wet-labs of on-site sessions give students the opportunity to learn acupuncture points on live animals in small lab groups of five to six students per instructor. A spring class and a fall class are held each year. Equine Acupuncture is offered to licensed veterinarians and veterinary school junior/senior students only.
Major Topics:
- Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM) Principles: Five Elements, Yin-Yang, Eight Principles, Zang-Fu Physiology and Pathology, Meridians and Channels
- Scientific Basis of Acupuncture
- 200 Transpositional Equine Acupuncture Points (hands-on, wet-lab demos)
- 70 Classical Equine Acupuncture Points (hands-on, wet-lab demos)
- How to needle acupuncture points in horses
- TCVM Diagnostic Systems, including Tongue and Pulse Diagnosis
- How to integrate acupuncture into your practice
- How to use veterinary acupuncture to diagnose and treat:
- Musculoskeletal conditions, lameness and neurological disorders
- Cardiovascular diseases and respiratory disorders
- Gastrointestinal disorders and behavioral problems
- Dermatological problems and immune-mediated diseases
- Renal & urinary disorders and reproductive disorders
- Veterinary acupuncture techniques:
- Dry needle (conventional needling)
- Aqua-acupuncture (point injection)
- Electro-acupuncture
- Hemo-acupuncture
- Moxibustion
But is there not something missing, I asked myself when I read this. What about the evidence? What about the question whether there is any proof that any of this works?
As it happens, some time ago, we looked into this by conducting a systematic review. Here is our abstract ( I should mention that the first author of this paper was a vet who was very fond of acupuncture):
Acupuncture is a popular complementary treatment option in human medicine. Increasingly, owners also seek acupuncture for their animals. The aim of the systematic review reported here was to summarize and assess the clinical evidence for or against the effectiveness of acupuncture in veterinary medicine. Systematic searches were conducted on Medline, Embase, Amed, Cinahl, Japana Centra Revuo Medicina and Chikusan Bunken Kensaku. Hand-searches included conference proceedings, bibliographies, and contact with experts and veterinary acupuncture associations. There were no restrictions regarding the language of publication. All controlled clinical trials testing acupuncture in any condition of domestic animals were included. Studies using laboratory animals were excluded. Titles and abstracts of identified articles were read, and hard copies were obtained. Inclusion and exclusion of studies, data extraction, and validation were performed independently by two reviewers. Methodologic quality was evaluated by means of the Jadad score. Fourteen randomized controlled trials and 17 nonrandomized controlled trials met our criteria and were, therefore, included. The methodologic quality of these trials was variable but, on average, was low. For cutaneous pain and diarrhea, encouraging evidence exists that warrants further investigation in rigorous trials. Single studies reported some positive intergroup differences for spinal cord injury, Cushing’s syndrome, lung function, hepatitis, and rumen acidosis. These trials require independent replication. 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. Some encouraging data do exist that warrant further investigation in independent rigorous trials.
What a pity that the pupils of the above course are not being told that THERE IS NO COMPELLING EVIDENCE that any of the tings they are about to learn has any value…but that would be bad for business, wouldn’t it? And we cannot have a bit of evidence jeopardize a nice little earner, can we?
12 Responses to ‘Acupuncture Awareness Week’: let’s not forget our horses!
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My eye was drawn to this line: “How to use veterinary acupuncture to diagnose and treat” [my italics]. Acupuncture is now a diagnostic technique?! How does that work… I know, you stick a needle in the animal’s rump, the horse starts and kicks the veterinary acupuncturist. Diagnosis? Horse sense.
traditional acupuncturists use their very own diagnostic techniques such as tongue and pulse diagnoses to define the yin/yang imbalances they then treat.
Well, that’s a relief to know. I wonder how a horse would get on with applied kinesiology?
Or ear candles.
A South African vet named Jan Still has published a couple of papers on acupuncture in horses. He seems to be specially interested in the horses gall bladder meridian as both papers go on at length about that particular designation of points to prick.
This work of VD Jan is rather interesting. Not for the lack of evidence that acupuncture does any good in horses or other animals (including humans). And not for the question of how in the world the horses are able to indicate so exactly the localisation of their pains as described in his serise of a hundred cases. No, Jan’s work is interesting in a phenomenological sense when one considers the embarrassing fact that horses do not have a gallbladder at all.
Just too wondeful!!! I need to stop laughing: I have work to do.
What an ass.
I presume asses don’t have gallbladders, either.
Björn Geir does (unless it has been removed).
Wonderful how the comment format so easily misattributes the ass!
What a gall!
Horse owners cannot get enough of acupuncture, chiropractors, “back men” and homeopathy… as a horse vet it makes for exasperating days. Especially whey they will disagree with your diagnosis or treatment if it doesn’t concur with one of tehse quacks. My xray machine and haematology/biochemistry blood analysis is not as accurate as what the acupuncturist “feels is wrong” with the animal.