Commentary by Elizabeth Yancelson, LAc.
While it is encouraging to see mention of acupuncture in NBC’s latest long Covid report as an option for patients suffering from long Covid, I would have loved for the author to take a more curious angle in their writing on the topic. We are continually learning of new neurochemical effects of acupuncture, some which could teach us more about the pathologies of and allopathic treatment options for long Covid. Instead, the author describes a consumer trend in medicine, then quotes several patients and physicians who (presumably) work with long Covid cases and have observed the trend. Absent from the discussion are the acupuncturists themselves, who have been treating long Covid patients. Although the article refers to several hospital settings where acupuncture is included in the long Covid patient care plans, the latter half of the piece perpetuates an outdated narrative of Eastern medicine practitioners as predatory, offering potentially harmful solutions for symptoms, or a vague, placebo-based benefit to patients at best. It reinforces a narrow and uninformed stereotype.
Despite the fact that Covid is a new disease to all of us, acupuncturists have an arsenal of strategies for treating inflammatory conditions, respiratory illness, chronic pain, and supporting cardiovascular health, many of which are backed by research. The article mentions that because “there is no standard treatment, doctors often prescribe medications based on an individual's symptoms. Some long Covid patients take steroids, while others use antiviral drugs or medications designed to treat seizures, high blood pressure or muscle weakness. Doctors readily acknowledge that it's a trial-and-error process.” In other words, physicians around the world have been re-purposing their existing tools to help patients based on their symptoms and our limited knowledge about how long Covid affects people. This is exactly how acupuncturists approach long Covid patients, but the author’s tone when discussing physicians’ experimental treatments is very different from their allusion that Eastern providers prey on desperate and vulnerable patients with unproven modalities.
Every industry has under-trained and unethical practitioners, and acupuncture is no different. However, it’s important to note that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is based on robust data collection compiled and analyzed over hundreds of years, and has been explored and validated by research in North America, Europe, and Asia since the 1970s. Acupuncture is offered in dozens of American hospitals to treat cancer patients, behavioral health patients, fertility patients, and others, by highly educated and state-licensed medical providers.
At its root, traditional Chinese medicine identifies pain and disease patterns and effectively treats these clusters of symptoms. TCM originated before blood tests, internal imaging, and IDC codes, which allowed providers to create a course of treatment based on symptoms alone, although we now use modern medical diagnoses as supplementary and/or prognostic information. There are dozens of biological changes that happen with acupuncture stimulation, and some of these outcomes could offer insight into the pathologies of long Covid.
Despite the article’s shortcomings, I am happy to hear discussion of acupuncture in the news, and look forward to the day that mainstream media coverage and physician education aligns more closely with the reality of the fascinating discipline of traditional Chinese medicine.