Nerdy Science Blog

Chinese military treatise ‘The Art of War’ is not the only thing from ancient Chinese that influences the U.S. military.  The traditional Chinese medicine skill, acupuncture, will also be used by the U.S. military.

U.S. Air Force will be training its physicians to take acupuncture to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Col. Richard Niemtzow, chief of acupuncture clinic at Andrews Air Force Base, developed the “battlefield acupuncture” from traditional acupuncture in 2001.  The “battlefield acupuncture” used short needles and acupuncture five points on the outer ear to control pain and reduce stress.  Short needle is used so that it can fit better under combat helmet, hence the soldiers can continue their mission while they are acupunctured.  The patients who experienced the acupuncture treatment said it felt like something clipped the ear.  Many patients felt that it really reduced pain.  This reminds me of Chinese Martial Arts Novels (it’s a literature which is unique to Chinese literature) which the evil doctors used acupuncture to turn people into zombie and obeyed their orders.  44 Air Force, Navy and Army doctors will be trained in a pilot program starting in March to use acupuncture as emergency care in combat and in frontline hospitals.

The U.S. military first encountered acupuncture during Vietnam War.  Col. Richard Niemtzow started learning acupuncture in 1995 at McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey.  He then became full-time military medical acupuncturist for Navy.  He later established acupuncture clinic at the Malcolm Grow Medical Center at Andrews.  He also treated patients at Walter Reed and other Air Force bases in U.S. and in Germany with acupuncture.

The use of acupuncture in the military will help to improve the acupuncture research and development, which will be benefit to the civilian as well.  Maybe you will see James Bond using acupuncture to numb everyone in the next 007 movie.

(news)

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