I’m always looking for interesting things about acupuncture, be that podcasts, interviews or articles. Partly it’s just my incessant curiosity and partly it’s the recognition that I will always be a student of this and lastly it’s because I like finding interesting things to share, whether here on the blog or on my Facebook page. There are some podcasts I listen to;
The Purple Cloud podcast and Heiner Fruehauf’s are both educational but are really aimed at practitioners. Damo Mitchell’s podcast on Youtube is more fun and I listen fairly regularly, there’re some episodes about acupuncture but lots more on Daoist arts more generally, all of which I find interesting. But while these might satisfy my curiosity and broaden my education they don’t really satisfy my desire for things to share with others.
So I spend quite a lot of time searching the internet for such things. Then this week I discovered Feedspot’s list of the top 60 acupuncture blogs (see it here) and having lots of people looking for interesting stuff about acupuncture seems to make my life easier. Blog directories seem like a really old-fashioned idea, but maybe it’s an idea that deserves a second look, although that might depend on how often these blogs are posting new content.
But this morning a quick flip through a few of these blogs turned up some interesting things. For instance I found (and shared) a piece about how the Black Panthers played a role in developing the use of acupuncture in the context of drug detox – who knew? You can read that here.
I also found this piece from 2016 about an organisation called ‘Acupuncturists without Borders’ (AWB) and their work in refugee camps in Greece. Started in 2005 with the aim of providing trauma relief care to survivors of hurricane Katrina, AWB now works with victims of natural disasters, refugees and even in Israel and the West Bank. I really love this. I think lots of acupuncturists want to be there for those most in need in their communities, the very people least able to afford to pay for the healthcare acupuncturists provide. In my own small way this is certainly something I wrestle with, a koan for my practice perhaps. AWB seems to taken that desire to help, that so many acupuncturists have, and put it to work on a grand scale. If you want to know more their website is here.
Then there was this article on phantom limb pain, the pain amputees experience from the limb that’s no longer there. In my life it’s not something I’ve come across and so had never given it much thought but it occurred to me that this a particularly cruel affliction. Not only has someone lost a limb and with it a whole host of abilities but they suffer constant pain as a reminder. The article was actually on the blog of the British Medical Acupuncture Society. Being a traditionally trained acupuncturist this isn’t a blog I’d commonly read but I did and I learned something.
So there's lots of stuff out there but finding it can take a little work and if anyone can point me to other interesting and informative stuff about acupuncture stick a link in the comments and I’d be happy to take a look.
Bruce Bell is a 5 Element Acupuncturist working from clinics on the edge of Midsomer Norton and Bath
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