Global Trends In Complementary Alternative Medicine

Written by Prof. JOSEPH SODIPO Monday, 15 August 2011 22:37

On my return to Nigeria, I visited the Chinese Embassy in Victoria Island. I requested to see the Ambassador, and was asked to identify myself. I introduced myself as a medical doctor from LUTH. Consequently, I met with the Ambassador who requested me to see some of his staff that was ill. I prescribed anti-malaria drugs to two, one was advised to return home because of severe depression, and another two were to see me in the hospital. My relationship with the embassy became more cordial to the extent that any Chinese that visited LUTH requested to see me. I was nick-named 'Chinese doctor'.

The Ambassador then invited me to a dinner and asked why I came to the embassy in the first place and for the medical bill. I told him there was no medical bill, the reason why I came to the embassy was to find out the possibility of studying acupuncture in China.

He sent message to China but the response was unfavourable because only very few Chinese could speak English fluently so I had to wait till 1975 before I could visit China. In the meantime, I studied Acupuncture in South-China in 1974. On my return from South-China, I was invited to give the 1974 Christmas Lecture at LUTH. I started practising acupuncture on myself and my wife. I organized the first acupuncture clinic in 1975 at the LUTH and became the Director. Even though I had strong opposition from my colleagues that I could not practise unorthodox medicine at LUTH. Late Professor Olu Mabayejo of blessed memory the first Registrar of MDCN was my benefactor who stood behind me (as rock of Gibraltar) that as a Consultant, the Medical Advisory Committee of the LUTH could not stop me from practising acupuncture since the patients benefited from it and there was no complaint. That could have been the end of acupuncture practice in Nigeria and probably in Africa.

My other benefactor was Late Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti of blessed memory, who provided the whole of the old Paedtriac Outpatient Department for my use as Acupuncture clinic in the afternoons.

I built bridges of understanding and mutual respect with my academic consultants at the LUTH so that patients were referred to acupuncture clinic from most departments. Late Professor Paul Omodare, a Professor of Paediatric Surgery whom I worked with as Paediatric Anaesthsiologist referred many cases of backache and later joined by other neurosurgeons. I convinced them that fair trial should be given to acupuncture, and if does not work go for laminectomy. We were able to save a few from undergoing laminectomy. The result of our work was published in Abstracts of First World Congress on Pain (5)

Similarly, we undertook various surgical operations under acupuncture in collaboration with surgeons and gyneacologists. The overall success rate was 71.4% which correlates with previous investigations. [6,7]. The advantages of acupuncture are prolonged postoperative analgesia, early ambulation and early alimentation, absence of abdominal distention (paralytic ileus) and lack of postoperative cardiovascular and respiratory complications. (8, 9, 10).

Professor Mason Falaiye, a renowned gastroenterologist referred a grossly obese lady diagnosed as duodenal ulcer to our clinic because she could not survive surgery. After six months of acupuncture therapy, the patient had marked improvement with increased in quality of life. Professor Falaiye could not believe acupuncture could achieve such a feat. It was at this stage, we decided to study the effects of acupuncture on gastric acid secretion by pentagarin stimulation test in 14 Nigerian patients pre and post treatment with acupuncture. Ten patients with clinical, endoscopic as well as radiological evidence of chronic duodenial ulcer constituted the “Ulcer Group”. Four other patients with history of dyspepsia formed the “Dyspeptic Group”. Pentagastrin stimulation test was performed on all subject pre and post acupuncture therapy. The classical Chinese acupuncture loci were employed.

One of our startling cases was a 27-year old Nigerian with sensori-neural deafness due to trauma since the age of 7 years. He was managed by therapeutic acupuncture and audiogram was monitored before and after treatment. There was marked improvement in speech discrimination and hearing ability. The work was carried out in collaboration with Professor Phillip Okeowo an ENT surgeon. (Published in the prestigious American Journal of Chinese Medicine [1980])
1979 was a remarkable and eventful year, that was the year I was invited as a visiting Professor of Anaesthesiology and Acupuncture to the prestigious University of Vienna, Austria by Dr. Otto Myrhoffer, the professor and chairman of the Department of Anaesthesiology to join the research team on Acupuncture. We investigated the mechanism of acupuncture analgesia in 30 cats.

Discharges were recorded from spinal dorsal horn neurons in response to heating at (500c) in anaesthetized cats. Repetitive electrical stimulation of the superficial peroneal (SP) and posteriortibial (PT) nerves inhibited those noceptive discharges as well as systematic administration of met-encephalimamide (synthetic endorphin). The inhibitory effects of electo-stimulation as well as administration of synthetic endorphin were partially antagonized by naloxone thus endorsing endogenous morphine alike substance release as the basis for the mechanism of acupuncture analgesia. However, non-responding neuronal units to the administration of enkephalin were also observed. These non-responding units may explain why acupuncture is not effective in some individuals. (This work was published in the American Journal of Chinese Medicine, New York [1981]) (15).

Our most typical patient at the First Centre for Integrative Medicine & Research, Surulere, Sportcity is someone with a chronic ailment; conventional medicine does poorly with intractable disorders. The western medicine specialist prescribes expensive powerful and toxic medications. At some point, the patient reads the package insert and says, “Oh my God, my doctor wants me to take this”? That's what we hear from the patients. They come with stark of records and a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, and say, my doctor wants me to take these drugs; predinisone, methotrexate and I read the side effects and fainted. There must be something better.

To which I reply, “I don't know if it is better, but there is something different to try before you go on to these very powerful drugs”. For example, patient themselves are often aware of events in their lives that are responsible for precipitating an illness. These are usually regarded as “incidence” by doctors.
The overall prevalence of autoimmune disease in women raises very difficult issues, the immune system, normally need for attacking invaders like viruses or bacteria, perceives the patients own body as foreign and attacks it. Thus the appropriate treatment of an auto-immune disease might not be cortisol to suppress everything but supporting therapy to restore the patient's sense of self worth. For some disorders, though we advocate patients to have conventional treatments. I was involved in a long argument with a lady about an abnormal Pap smear and I said just go and have Western treatment for this. And she simply would not. It was a benigh case, so we could wait and see. I was willing to say, “alright you let me monitor this, but if it doesn't improve, you promise to see a gynaecologist. I am not going to allow you to be followed up at this centre if you don't abide by the rules.

We are not magicians “if my colleagues in the orthodox medicine know that we [Complementary/Alternative Medicine Practitioners (CAMP)] have such a policy and also that we are not trying to steal their patients, we will gain acceptance and respect among the medical doctors.