(pronounced 'chee'). Proponents of TCM believe qi flows through the body through a system of 12 meridians (or channels) that connect to different organs in the body...

Daylia; my sister. There are 12 PRIMARY meridians, that supply ch'i to the organs. Heart, spleen, stomach, liver, etc. But there are hundreds of smaller meridians that transfer ch'i to the rest of the physical body.

In order to restore balance and health, doctors of TCM (as they will now be called in B.C.) employ a number of methods, including acupuncture, herbal medicine, Qigong, Tui Na and exercise therapy such as Tai Ji. TCM is purported to relieve a multitude of ailments, including chronic fatigue, arthritis, PMS, high blood pressure, bronchitis, acne...the list is considerable...

I have no disagreement with any of this material.

Oppel heads the Alternative Therapy Evaluation Committee, a free-standing evaluative body, and is also president of Canadians for Rational Health Policy, a group whose aim is to ensure that health policies are developed based on reliable scientific evidence. His qualms with so-called 'alternative' therapies like TCM stem from the lack of scientific evidence supporting their claims.

I wish to add two cents here.

1. In my opinion; anyone with medical problems should go to a medical doctor for diagnosis and medication, but after they do that there is nothing wrong with adding alternative healing modalities to speed up the process of healing.

2. If an alternative healing practitioner tells you to throw the medication away; RUN don't walk, and report them to the authorities.

About acupuncture - My life-long friend Mike ran a concrete business for years. Working concrete is very hard on the back. Last year he developed a sciactic nerve problem that was so bad he barely walk and couldn't even straighten his back. He looked like an old man, all hunched over in constant pain - and he's only 42. The doctors had him on so many drugs he couldn't see or think straight, and he was still in constant pain.

They could do little else for him - except recommend acupuncture. He took a couple treatments, and there was an improvement but he was still in constant pain.

Now Mike was never interested in anything "spiritual" and always teased me to no end about my interest in natural healing and energy work. But that pain was so bad last Christmas he finally called me in desperation and asked me to work on his back with HUNA.

So I called Two Bears and we both worked on him. I used HUNA to send him energy every day for about a week. He felt enough of an improvement within a day or two to stop taking the drugs, which was a good thing! I recommended that he continue with the acupuncture treatments to speed up the clearing of blocked energy from his nervous system, which he did. After two more treatments, the pain was gone. Absolutely gone! Mike was one happy camper, believe me. He will never doubt again the effectiveness of either HUNA or acupuncture.

Mike doesn't work concrete full-time anymore, but a friend twisted his arm a month ago to pour a basement as a weekend job. Mike couldn't turn down the money he was offered, and did the job - and came home with that sciactic nerve problem flaring up again. He suffered all weekend, finally called me on the Monday asking for help again. I worked on him with HUNA (at a distance), and he saw his acupuncturist the next day for a treatment.

The pain was gone by Tues night. I was over there the next morning, watching him chop wood, so happy for my friend!

Daylia: Thank you for reporting this incident.

WHen Western medicine finally catches up with the practical knowledge that's been around for thousands of years in Eastern cultures, that will be a VERY good thing!

Actually; the knowledge of thus subtle lifeforce energy was known all over the world.

Here are some of the assorted names used for it by assorted cultures.

akasha (Edgar Cayce), animal magnetism (Frank Anton Mesmer),ch'i or qi (China), chiah (Jewish Kabbalists), itaki (Pueblo Indians), ki (Japan), mana (Hawai'ians), manitou (Osage Indians), nuwati (Cherokee Indians), orenda (Seneca Indians), orgone (Wilhelm Reich), prana (India and Tibet), etc.

I just wanted the readers to understand the understanding and manipulation of lifeforce energy is not just something from the East.

ANL - 2B