Editorial JCM 139

I have seen a lot written recently about how to market acupuncture effectively. One popular strategy dispenses with traditional Chinese medical terminology to communicate in the language of the masses. This means out with qi, yinyang and wuxing and in with modern terms that Joe/Josephine Public can - quite literally - buy. Some acupuncturists go the whole hog, presuming that our poor primitive Chinese forebears made up qi and the channels to describe something they did not - and could not - identify or understand: oxygen and nerves. Talk about throwing the invisible baby out with the materialistic bath water. Some practitioners choose to avoid all such shop-talk in clinic, presuming that the outlandishness of such 'trad' language might alienate patients. Of course, dumbing things down for public consumption is de rigeur today. A huge proportion of our potential patients - particularly those under 30 - engage with the world exclusively through Tik-Tok , Instagram or Twitter / X which, let’s face it, are not known for their nuance and depth.