Surprising synergy between acupuncture and AI

Machine Learning


I used to At night, I fall asleep with needles stuck in my face. One needle is shallowly planted in the corner of each eyebrow, one in the temple, one in the middle of each eyebrow above the pupil, and several near the nose and mouth. A few hours later, I woke up to find my parents had quietly removed a hair-thin stainless steel pin. Sometimes they forgot about the treatment and in the morning they searched my pillow for needles. My extremely far-sighted left eye gradually became slightly far-sighted, and my mildly myopic right eye finally got a perfect score from the optometrist. By the time I turned 6, my glasses had disappeared from my photo albums.

Knowing that my parents are experts in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), when asked what I think of the treatment, the first thing I would say is that my eyesight has been restored. It was a story. It was a tangible and rather miraculous first-hand experience, and I found out what it meant: starting to see the world more clearly under the care of my father and mother.

Otherwise, I was rarely at a loss for what to say. I recall hearing TCM referred to in connection with “insufficient evidence” or “improperly designed research,” and I was skeptical about the range of studies that were deemed illegal. I felt challenged to provide some kind of defense. I feel an obligation to defend herbal medicine as a means of protecting parents and their care and toil, but at the same time I feel an urge to resist taking on that obligation for the sake of someone’s fleeting curiosity or perhaps entertainment. increase.

Most of all, for my own sake, I wish I had a better understanding of Chinese medicine. Working in the field of machine learning (ML) now, I am often struck by the similarities between this cutting-edge technology and his TCM of antiquity. First, neither can be satisfactorily explained.

although not It does not explain how the field of Chinese medicine works. I and many others find that theory questionable. According to both classical and modern theories, blood and qi (pronounced “chee” and variously interpreted to mean something like steam) move around and regulate the body, but themselves It is not considered separate from the mind.

Qi flows through pathways called meridians. The anatomical charts on the wall of my parents’ clinic show meridians drawn in neat straight lines from the chest to the fingers, or from the waist to the inner thighs, superimposed on diagrams of bones and organs. I’m here. Needles can be inserted at various points along these meridians to clear blockages and improve chi flow. All TCM treatments ultimately revolve around Qi. Acupuncture expels unhealthy qi and circulates healthy qi from the outside. Herbal medicine lets you do so from the inside.

In my parents’ charts, the meridians and acupuncture points are drawn like subway maps, only loosely connected to the recognizable shapes of the intestines and joints underneath, and floated slightly above. It looks like This lack of visual correspondence is also reflected in science. Little evidence has been found for the physical existence of meridians or qi. Studies have questioned whether meridians are special conduits for electrical signals (but these experiments were poorly designed), or whether meridians are thin, stretchy tissue that surrounds nearly every body part. It has been investigated whether it is associated with the fascia. All this research is recent and the results are still inconclusive.

In contrast, the efficacy of acupuncture, especially for ailments such as neck disorders and back pain, is well supported in contemporary scientific journals. Insurance companies are convinced. Most of my mother’s patients come for acupuncture. Acupuncture is covered by New Zealand National Insurance.



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