Views share a fine point-pain relief

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Divergent views share a fine point: pain relief

By Chaityn Lebovits, Globe Correspondent | December 28, 2006

The objective: Learn how to relieve back pain, headaches, and other chronic

conditions.

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Two rows of examining beds filled the Watertown classroom, where students

took turns placing 32-gauge steel needles into their foreheads, backs, feet,

and arms.

At the New England School of Acupuncture, you'd better trust your lab

partner.

Across town, at Tufts University School of Medicine, students are taught

about needles, too -- but the more familiar kind used for drawing blood or

giving injections.

The two schools -- a few miles apart in distance, worlds apart in

philosophy-- linked up this year for a pioneering program in pain

management.

" Upon graduation the students will become experts on both the Eastern and

Western perspective, " said Dr. Glickman-Simon, who created the joint

program.

The intention is to widen the arsenal for fighting pain, providing

acupuncturists with a grounding in conventional diagnostic and treatment

techniques and exposing Tufts students to age-old approaches that

practitioners say succeed where modern medicine alone fails.

Founded in 1975, the New England School of Acupuncture, or NESA, bills

itself as the first school of acupuncture and oriental medicine in the

nation. Earlier this month it moved from Watertown to expanded quarters on

California Street in Newton.

Glickman-Simon chairs NESA's Western Biomedicine Department and is an

assistant professor of medicine at Tufts.

The 45-year-old Sudbury resident became interested in alternative medicine

while in private practice a dozen years ago. Frustrated by the struggles of

some patients, he decided to take a " more enlightened " approach.

" A lot of the conditions I saw seemed to be stress-related, " said

Glickman-Simon. " Treating them with medication didn't get to the root of the

problem. I figured that there must be another system other than

[traditional] medicine, and that piqued my interest. "

Glickman-Simon became involved with the acupuncture school while doing

clinical work at Spectrum Medical Arts (now Whole Health New England) in

Arlington in the mid-1990s. Its director -- a physician and acupuncturist

with close ties to the school -- recruited Glickman-Simon to teach a class.

He was named chair of biomedicine in 2000.

The same year, Glickman-Simon started teaching compl ementary medicine for

Tufts's pain research education and policy master's degree program,

exploring topics ranging from medicinal herbs to spiritual healing. He also

gives a lecture to second-year medical students called " Faith, " which

examines the role of spirituality in healing.

When Glickman-Simon first suggested bringing acupuncturists into a Tufts

program, some of the medical school trustees were skeptical. They wondered

how it would affect the school's reputation as a rigorous scientific

institution.

He assured them that Tufts itself would not be teaching students to practice

the technique, but rather equipping them to answer questions they are bound

to get from patients about alternative treatments.

" As far as I'm concerned, if patients are seriously interested in these

topics, physicians and other health professionals should be too, " he said.

Glickman-Simon designed a course on medical acupuncture for the program,

which covers the latest research into how it works.

But he acknowledges that it's still not entirely known why, say, poking the

hand might make the head feel better. If the treatment works, he's willing

to live with a little mystery.

" This is what the practice of medicine or acupuncture or any health care

field is all about --making clinical decisions on behalf of patients, " he

said.

The joint program began in January, with nine students, all but one from

NESA.

Kindreth Olsen, 27, who is finishing up a degree in acupuncture and Chinese

medicine at NESA, said she saw the benefits of combining alternative and

conventional medicine while assisting an acupuncturist at Baystate Medical

Center's pain clinic in Springfield. She also worked at an acupuncture

clinic in Concord, N.H., treating cancer patients suffering side effects

from chemotherapy.

" As acupuncture gains acceptance into mainstream medicine, it is necessary

for medical doctors and acupuncturists to develop a relationship, " said

Olsen, whose Tufts courses included one on the role of drugs in managing

pain.

Glickman-Simon said he is impressed at how patients have driven the medical

establishment into paying attention to alternative medicine.

" This program could never have happened 10 years ago, or even five years

ago, " he said.

Now many hospitals provide acupuncture in their pain clinics, including

Newton Wellesley, Children's Hospital, Dana - Farber, and Boston Medical

Center, where NESA students practice under the supervision of senior

faculty.

Still, acupuncture hasn't completely broken down the doors of mainstream

medicine.

Students in the joint program receive separate degrees, one from Tufts and

the other from NESA. The names of the schools do not appear together on

either certificate.

*For more information on the joint program, visit

**tufts.edu/med/prep*<http://tufts.edu/med/prep>

*; for more on the New England School of Acupuncture visit

**nesa.edu*<http://nesa.edu/>

*. ** Chaityn Lebovits can be reached at

**Lebovits@...*

*. ***

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

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Happy Holidays from me and my family to you and yours!