Alternative Medicine - how alternative is it

Growing up comes with its own wear and tear. Being a young man and very impressionable I fell in love head over heals with this certain lady and a few months down the line she dumbed me for a sugar daddy teacher. This really got to me such that for more than a year or so I developed and carried stomach ulcers without realising it. I only became aware after I befriended a food nutritionist and he explained to me what was bugging me and how I got to get it.

I have since then been to doctors to help me cure me of this incurable disease. I have had minor altercations with some of the doctors because I became a bit of an expert on what was needed to control this affliction. I have been in and out of doctors consultation rooms for many a years until a friend recommended acupuncture as a possible remedy. He told me that he had been suffering from back problems which also made him a frequent visitor to doctors consultation room until he was referred to the acupuncturist and the problem was gone there and then. He has never had the problem since.

I tried the procedure and you know what, I could feel the difference the minute I worked out his consultation room. That was about three years ago and I have never had a problem since until about three weeks ago. I could not sleep peacefully at night and this past weekend was worse and Monday I rocked up at my trusted acupuncturist and I could feel the difference the minute I walked out of his consultation room. I have been sleeping peacefully since.

Now I asked him and he explained to me in broken English how the body works and what the needles do to blood flow and it made a lot of sense. You will be impressed about how knowledgeable these guys are about the functioning of the body.

Now my problem came when I had to pay. I produced my medical aid card and was promptly told that they do not accept medical aid cards because he is not recognised as a doctor by the medical establishment. Why? because theirs is alternative medicine! Why is it called alternative medicine because they are pretty scientific in their approach? Well because the establishment says so! What I know is that these people can heal your ailments and it can last forever.

And by the way while I was still there, there was this young lady in a wheelchair who came for treatment. She could not walk for whatever reasons which I never found out but man! was she screaming while she was being attended to. I heard the good doctor tell her that she must feel pain in her legs and the mere fact that she is feeling pain shows that the treatment is working and she is improving. And all this she could explain scientifically!!

I remember growing up as a young boy it was common in the township for boys my age to get STD's. It used to be called a "drop", I don't know the scientific name for it. There were always these old men who would provide these unlucky young men with some medicine which would make the STD disappear plus they could also cure some other ailments. But I suppose the case for African Traditional medicine is different because some of these doctors don't want to expose their cures to scientific testing yet. But to view acupuncture as alternative medicine and therefore not worthy of medical aid coverage smacks of protectionism. It sucks big time!

There is also a black lady in downtown who mixes her physiotherapy practice with acupuncture. She tells me that she went to China (or is it Japan) to study acupuncture for a number of years and she has got qualification to show for it but her practice is not recognised. And she is nursing the poor and the marginalised of Soweto back to health through this practice of hers but for her pains she is not recognised as a doctor by the medical establishment. Governments suck!