Last year I wrote a blog post about a girl I knew since elementary school who had committed suicide. I omitted the name out of respect for privacy, but my sister recently sent me an article in the Topeka Capital-Journal about Becky. Makes me sad, reading this. I still wonder what my part in all of it was.

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A couple of weeks ago I mentioned in a post that I had done an oral presentation to my class addressing skepticism toward Chinese medicine. I just adapted it into a short essay. Here’s a taste:

One of the basic theoretical foundations of Oriental medicine is the theory of qi. The word can have many interpretations, but in Oriental medicine it can best be thought of as energy, which flows through a network of channels or meridians throughout the body. The idea is that disruptions in this network cause illness; and that acupuncture and herbs restore the flow of energy through these channels and thus restore health.

Skeptics, of course, will ask: Is this kind of medical theory valid? What are the physiological mechanisms that underlie these channels of energy — what’s the scientific explanation? And, more importantly, Does it work? Is it effective?

Continue reading “On Skepticism of Oriental Medicine.”