» Acupuncture
Dr.Edwards is a graduate of the UCLA Acupuncture for Physicians program, is trained and certified in German Electro-Acupuncture by the German Institute for Electroacupuncture According to Voll (EAV), is certified in Neural Therapy, has completed additional Acupuncture training in Traditional Five Element Acupuncture, Korean Hand Acupuncture and French Auricular Medicine (Ear Acupuncture).
American interest in Acupuncture became popularized and widespread in 1971 during and shortly after the Nixon administration's "ping pong" diplomacy with China. An American reporter assigned to cover the event underwent Acupuncture analgesia (pain relief) while suffering from appendicitis and post-operative pain. That event resulted in a team of U.S. physicians visiting China to observe Acupuncture and reporting "favorably" about their observations in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the bastion of the American scientific medical community's "Church of Reason." Nothing additional came out of this high level medical politics until the late 1980's. Fortunately, interest among enlightened practitioners in America resulted in the development of the UCLA Acupuncture for Physicians program, the most intensive, comprehensive and highest quality training for Medical (MD) and Osteopathic (DO) physician's in the U.S. Interestingly, the initial program met with such extreme resistance from the unenlightened "academic" MD's at UCLA medical school that the program had to be accredited to the Evening Adult Education Division, but is currently administered through UCLA's standard continuing Medical education division. So much for U.S. "Academic" forethought, enlightenment and/or wisdom!
Acupuncture is currently accepted as a "valid" clinical approach, but the "science" of how it works is no different today than 30 years ago, or 3,000 years ago for that matter. It is based on concepts that are absolutely alien and foreign to the western "scientific" understanding of physiology, perception and reality. That fact that scientific clinical studies have clearly demonstrated and continue to show that Acupuncture works should bring into question the fundamental flaw in western medical science's view of health, disease and healing, but apparently the "Emperor has no clothes" and no one "in authority" wishes to point that out. Despite this paradox, the National Institute of Health's new National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (NIH CAM Center) does currently maintain a data base of Acupuncture clinical "science."
Acupuncture is the fundamental prototype clinical practice based on "regulating" body functions... in this case the "energy" or "Chi (Qi)" of the body. In fact, Acupuncture regulates the different energies of the body. These include the "defensive" or Wei chi energy, the "nourishing" or Rong chi (Iong chi) energy, the "Ancestral" or Primal chi and others. The science of Acupuncture basically uses various techniques to "normalize" or "Regulate" the disordered flow of "Chi" throughout the body. Therapeutic manipulation of Acupuncture "points" and Meridians or "vessels" to achieve "harmony" and "balance" out of a state of disharmony or "Dis-Ease" is the fundamental concept of Acupuncture. Acupuncture is actually the proto-science for the science of Regulation Therapy. The modern concept of Regulation Therapy is based on detecting and correcting disturbances in the body's sub-liminal vegetative and Neuro-Endocrine-Immune system functions. Modern understanding of Regulation therapy comes from European scientific medicine, but the actual clinical application of "regulation therapies" has existed for thousands of years. Correction of a disturbed physiologic Regulation ("information economy") is the sine qua non of all forms of "Regulation Therapy."
In Europe, the original "idea" or concept of "Regulation" therapy actually appears to have arisen separately from and independently of the concept of oriental Acupuncture. Neural Therapy, which was developed in the early 20th century in Germany from clinical practice and is the first recorded Western method of Regulation therapy that became widely applied clinically. It is now taught as part of the standard medical curriculum in European medical schools. Neural Therapy is the use of local anesthetic injections to re-regulate the Sympathetic-Parasympathetic Autonomic nervous system. This bipartite primitive nervous system, sometimes called the "Reptilian nervous system" because of its "location" in a primitive area of the brain stem first seen evolutionarily in reptiles, regulates the "autonomic" (automatic) functions of physiology, such as heart beat, blood pressure, breathing control, temperature regulation, metabolic rate and others. Although all of these very important functions are essential to survival and well-being, they are all carried out below our conscious level of Being. If this system functions below our level of consciousness, and yet is essential for survival, then it stands to reason that disturbances in this function will disrupt well-being, cause "Disease" and be below our level of consciousness. Nevertheless, "symptoms" of a disturbed Neuro-Endocrine-Immune system need not be below our level of awareness.
"Classic" Neural therapy uses local injections into scars which are causing a local or systemic "dys-regulated" economy, into spinal nerve "segments" of the body that are out of sync with the larger system and, when necessary, into sympathetic ganglia that "Regulate" the organ or area of the body that is mal-adapted. In many cases the use of newly developed electrical stimulation devices may avoid the need for injection therapy. In addition, the use of External Counter Pulsation Therapy (ECP THERAPY) is another emerging method to "re-regulate" autonomic tone. In many cases the use of newly developed electrical stimulation devices may avoid the need for injection therapy. Unfortunately, Neural Therapy is still not a regular part of the American medical school curriculum, but at least one abridged form of this type of Regulation practice has developed in America with the past 10 years, called "Trigger Point therapy." In addition to local anesthetics, the injection of Homeopathic remedies into Acupuncture points, sometimes called "Bio-Puncture," Aqua-Puncture" and/or "Homeo-Puncture," has been in use in Europe since the 1960's. Dr. Edwards and the certified staff of Bio Health Center routinely employ Acupuncture, Neural Therapy, trigger point therapy and Bio-Puncture on a regular basis for treatment at Bio Health Center.
Still another form of both "Regulation therapy" and "Regulation Diagnosis" developed in Europe is "Electro-Acupuncture (EAP)." Unlike Neural therapy, Electro-Acupuncture was actually based on Eastern Acupuncture principles, but uses a testing device, which is, in reality, simply an ohm meter, to measure electrical resistivity of the skin and to measure and/or "regulate" the flow of galvanic electrical current within the Acupuncture meridian and organ system. Unlike classic Acupuncture, EAP is also used as a diagnostic tool in Homeopathic Integrative medicine. In this context it is commonly referred to as "Electro-Dermal-Screening (EDS). Dr. Edwards is certified by the Germans in EAP. The certified staff of Bio Health Center regularly utilize EDS and more modern applications of the principles of EDS on a daily basis for both diagnosis and treatment. This method can be invaluable in detecting subtle Regulatory disturbances in both acute and chronic health problems.
"No matter how skillful one becomes, the great mysteries of Life will always hover just out of reach. One can never know all the answers. In the reality of everyday medical practice, no one can guarantee any clinical result... but I and my certified staff can and do promise to try to help each individual patient to the best of our abilities, by using all our knowledge, skill and compassion. Having been trained as a 'medical scientist,' I can bear witness to the simple fact that statistical science and individual reality do not share the same experience. The Quantitative 'eye' of the scientist perceives a different Reality than the Qualitative 'I' of the patient. And yet modern statistical science dismisses individual patient experience as 'anecdotal' and 'biased.' Such dangerous nonsense has caused much suffering and harm. Individual patient experience is the only true measure of the Quality of care. Relief of suffering, not statistical significance, is the patients real quest, their only quest... and the true physician's ultimate goal. I believe it was in Plato's Phaedrus that Socrate's ask's, 'do we really need anyone to tell us what is right?' Homeopathic Integrative medical practice provides the patient and practitioner with simple, non-toxic methods of treatment for relief of suffering... a natural union of clinical Art and Science... the true essence of medical service."
- David A. Edwards, MD, HMD
