I first met one of the co-authors of this month's article on traditional medicine, Varinee Lekprasert, MD, MS, FRCAT, when she traveled to the United States some years ago to study anesthesiology at the New York College of Medicine. I was the chair of anesthesiology at the time. She was an exceptional student and earned both board certification and additional degrees from the College. Her co-author, Mayuree Arsawadeeros, CMD, wrote much of the article in Thai as she heads up the Traditional Medicine Department at Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. Dr Lekprasert translated.

I have made many trips to Thailand, a country with close ties to the United States, as the former queen was a graduate of Harvard University. Before that, my interest in acupuncture was stimulated during the 1970s when President Richard Nixon went to China and was accompanied by writers from The New York Times. The NYT editor, Seymour Topping, and his wife, Audrey Topping, herself a noted photographer for National Geographic were my immediate neighbors (we shared a driveway).

On her return, Audrey Topping told me she watched surgery done-including lung removal-only with a few silver needles for anesthesia. I could not believe that would both block pain and allow the chest to be opened without collapse of a lung. I later found out that the lungs were already non-functional and adherent to the chest wall. Also, opium was most probably added to the mix.

Nevertheless, I told my father of this strange encounter. He recalled that a local practitioner in our native Scotland had used acupuncture there years before. My father built a Wheatstone bridge for me to gauge electrical potentials across different points on the skin. Practicing on my sons, who were all very young and thus more compliant at the time, I identified many points that were consistent with the meridians described centuries earlier. I found what many of the ancient practitioners described as vital and thus I started on my explorations of needling as a means of pain control in select individuals. It is not for everyone, but it often produced amazing results.

Elizabeth A.M. Frost, MD

Co-Editor, Topics in Pain Management