Should first responders use acupuncture and integrative medicine in natural disasters and battle zones?

Delivering traditional emergency medical care at ground zero of natural disasters and military conflicts is challenging. First responders trained in simple integrative medicine approaches such as acupuncture, hypnosis, or biofeedback can provide adjunctive treatment to help relieve patients' pain and stress. How to teach and utilize modified techniques and their potential benefit are described in a Review article in Medical Acupuncture.

In the article "The Roles of Acupuncture and Other Components of Integrative Medicine in Cataclysmic Natural Disasters and Military Conflicts" Richard Niemtzow, MD, PhD, MPH, Editor-in-Chief of Medical Acupuncture, a retired Air Force Colonel, and current Director of the USAF Acupuncture Center, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland; Wayne Jonas, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Samueli Institute (Alexandria, VA); and coauthors from InsideSurgery, LLC (Wayne, PA) and Samueli Institute present integrative health care approaches suitable for use by emergency responders and rescuers that do not require extensive equipment, facilities, or supplies.

"These approaches are usually inexpensive and nontoxic, are inherently low-risk, do not require complicated delivery methods, and can be pushed far forward in disaster relief effort even when other resources cannot be delivered," state the authors. "Such approaches may provide significant and rapid relief for victims of disasters and wars, as well as for their caregivers."

The opinions and assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the United States Air Force Medical Corps, the Air Force at large, or the Department of Defense.