Commentary

Page A-4 Monday, May 20, 1996
Technique points to changing medical arts
(by Ed Hogan is a retired newspaperman from Olean and Bradford, PA)

Medicare will give its blessing, probably within a year or two, to a healing art that's been around for more than 2,000 years.

The practice, which targets pain but is a source of relief to a litany of other ailments, is a gift of China, called acupuncture.

Practitioners insert flexible needles into the skin at specific points then twist them to enhance the flow of hypothetical energy in the body.

My wife, Carolyn, should know.

"Don't let the needles scare you, you don't feel them," she said after a treatment. "They don't hurt." We recently returned from Rockville, Md., where she was treated by two of the most able practitioners of acupuncture in the world, Drs. Yeh Chong Chan and Rong Shiaung Yu, who operate the Acupuncture Clinic of Maryland. Both are doctors of Oriental Medicine.

Their credentials are authentic and most impressive. Chan studied oriental medicine in Canton, China, has a doctor's degree in traditional Oriental medicine from Kowloon, China, and has practiced acupuncture for more than a quarter of a century. He is licensed by the Republic of China.

The two doctors, a man and wife team, have been in the forefront of the battle to win acceptance for this unique medical art that today numbers a quarter of the world's population among its clientele, including 15 million Americans.

Our first encounter with these two doctors happened more than 20 years ago when they had a clinic in Washington, D.C.. We had learned about then from a friend in Bradford who had been completely relieved of a chronic tic in his face.

These two doctors fled to Maryland after Washington City Council enacted a law limiting the practice of acupuncture to doctors and dentists who usually practice in the sphere of western medicine. However, Dr. Chan and others sued to have this regulation overturned. In five months the law was declared invalid by a federal judge because of the fact that doctors and dentists had no fine-tuned training the practice of acupuncture.

They have a "total lack of any practical or theoretical knowledge on the art of acupuncture," the judge declared in issuing a restraining order against enforcement of the regulation.

Chan also took his fight to the halls of Congress to gain formal recognition of this ancient Chinese healing art. At a house sub-committee hearing the handsomely rebutted a prior argument that tended to denigrate the use of acupuncture.

He testified that his skill in the practice was honed to perfection down through his family. My father and grandfather were well-known acupuncturists in China," he told the 96th congress during the hearings in 1979.

The doctors' campaign in bearing fruit. Only two months ago the Food and drug administration defined acupuncture needles as medical devices for "general use" by trained professionals.

The FDA classification "removed a major barrier to insurance coverage for acupuncture treatments," according to a report in the Washington Post. Medicare coverage could come in a year or two, Chan speculated, probably sensing the pedestrian character of the governmental bureaucracy.

A Washington district attorney felt that "this paves the way for insurance companies to say we well reimburse for acupuncture as long as it is being process has attracted testimonials from celebrated people.

Their brilliant papers on traditional medicine (an umbrella topic covering all phases of Oriental and Western medicine) requested by the People Republic of China won grand prizes. Their papers, along with others from talented people in the profession, will be part of an awesome medical work of 26 volumes, which will be a valuable source of research.

Lining the wall of their Rockville Clinic, located in the White Flint Medical Building, 11125 Rockville Pike, are letters from Vice President Al Gore; Sen. Bob Dole; the governor of West Virginia and the mayor of Washington congratulating Drs. Rong Shiaung Yu, and Yeh Chong Chan on their prize-winning documents.

The two acupuncturist' list of clients include Gov. George Wallace, Gov. Lwaton Chiles and many stars in the field of sports including Moss Malone. The two doctors have returned many golf cripples back to the links. My wife, Carolyn, is happy to echo the praise of this distinguished group.

Among the doctors' prized books is copy of the Congressional Record, which includes the brilliant defense of acupuncture before the House.

Drs. Yeh Chong chan and Rong Shiaung Yu have a personal story on a cure for terminal cancer. Dr. Chan had been stricken with cancer.

"Twenty-one physicians in the Washington area were working on my case and they only gave me three months to live," he said. With the help of his wife he turned to self-healing using a program of acupuncture, special diets, vitamins, herbs and other oriental procedures.

After one year, "I showed no signs of cancer and my health was better than ever," he said. That was 12 years ago.

The doctors said they have used "the same methods of healing and treatments to help many other cancer patients."