re: #203 Anymouse 🌹

We have enough dingbats on the GOP side of the aisle, we don’t need them on ours. (Still railing on science-based medicine here.)

A whole pile of money was shoveled at the VA to study acupuncture for treating pain in lieu of medication or other proven methods of medicine.

Rep Judy Chu (D-CA27) introduced a bill called the “Acupuncture for Our Heroes Act” to require all VA medical facilities to provide acupuncture for pain.

Rep. Chu claims “discrimination against traditional Asian methods of medicine.”

Screw that. Like the rattlesnake pills above (which are traditional Mexican medicine), we don’t call proven medicine that works “traditional medicine” or “alternative medicine.” We call it “medicine.”

I do not want to be forced by the government to use quackery paid for by tax money for my benefits.

Fortunately, since the bill was introduced by a Democrat, the GOP won’t move the bill. It was introduced last year, and still sits without action.

congress.gov (bill sponsor and text)

Sorry to have to join the pile-on, ‘mouse, but acupuncture - if (like any form of medicine) properly administered by a careful and competent professional, is far from being mere “quackery”. Of course, its benefits have been overhyped, and it’s far from the cure-all its more-enthusiastic proponents like to claim, but if used correctly, CAN be of use in many situations: pain-management among them. It all depends on the individual case. And of course, the abilities (and ethics) of the practitioner.

Comments from personal experience: my wife is chronic-pain patient; and, many years ago, sought help from an acupuncturist acquaintance - a very well-regarded pro - for her various pains. She (my wife) had many sessions with the practitioner - without much success, whereupon she (the acupuncturist) suggested that seeking “regular” medical advice would be more productive. It wasn’t, but that wasn’t anybody’s fault.

Yeah, there has been a great deal of woo-woo about acupuncture bandied about, but if it helps even a few vets deal with pain issues without the use of serious drugs, it’s well worth the VA covering it.
However, FWIW, I think Rep. Chu’s griping about “discrimination” is overdone.