Writing An Effective Rebuttal, Part 2

By Burton Kent, MBA, MOB

In the May/June Issue of the Qi-Unity Report, Douglas Newton wrote about rebutting misconceptions in the media by writing informed letters to the editor. I'd like to offer some ways to give your rebuttals some power – without sounding shrill or defensive.

Perhaps one of the biggest roadblocks to an effective rebuttal is your own expertise. You, as an AOM practitioner, know “too much.” This means you'll have a tendency to use jargon and terminology that might alienate the average person reading your rebuttal.

Many people, in replying to a letter to the editor, merely refute the particular article’s point of view, but the responders then do not provide facts that specifically support their position, stated in a way that the reader can understand. Let’s actually educate patients and the general public as much as we possibly can and not just object to an article’s take on a particular subject.

To the layman, acupuncture may sound like it is little better than voodoo where the only difference is that instead of sticking pins in a doll, you stick needles in a person. (Ouch!) Herbs remedies are often viewed in a similar way; if it's in bulk form for tea, it makes only a little more sense than being given a bag of potpourri and told it's good for you.

The average person will not be able to understand the principles of Oriental medical theories unless they are presented in terms they can understand and are in relation to what they already know. This applies to most information regarding alternative and Oriental medicine, not just letters to the editor.

So what can we do instead? Two things:

Talk about results.

Present specific case studies of individuals who had a health problem related to the subject of the article. Your position will be even stronger if your patient tried Western medicine first and couldn't find relief. (Be sure to point this out.) Give specific details about a patient’s condition before and after treatment and if possible use the patient's own words. Even better, get permission to use their name or just their initials. Using a case study or testimonial is very persuasive—a real story from a real person. People can't deny results – and individual cases presented well are actually much more persuasive than research.

Use good research and rebut bad research.

This is adapted from my website: www.acupunctureclinicmarketing.com

There are always some studies that show acupuncture doesn’t work. Or show that it works only a few percentage points better than placebo but not enough to be statistically significant. These studies all have one thing in common. What almost all “acupuncture doesn’t work” studies use is a pre-determined point selection: the same points are used no matter what. Essentially it’s like “medical acupuncture” or acupuncture without a proper TCM or OM diagnosis. The only thing they use is a Western medicine-based diagnosis—based on symptoms rather than on a root cause.

For example, fibromyalgia has at least four different TCM diagnoses. Choosing points for just one of these diagnoses, or choosing points between four different diagnoses, is just plain negligent and proves nothing. This is like prescribing aspirin for headaches by default. Suppose migraine, cluster, tension, premenstrual causes, or spinal headaches were all treated the same as brain tumors, sinus infections, and aneurysms? Aspirin might work for some things but not for others.

Another common claim is that acupuncture results aren’t lasting. These studies usually use 6 to 10 treatments and then stop. When the researchers check back 6 months later, the results often didn’t persist. Most often no follow-up was conducted to determine if the underlying imbalance was ever resolved. This is similar to a patient who takes an antibiotic until they feel better and then stop taking it. The underlying infection is still there and will return.

I’ve done a lot of research looking up acupuncture studies. If you want to do the same, I suggest visiting the library of a teaching hospital. You’ll be able to locate articles galore. Also Google Scholar is awesome but incomplete unless used in the library. Usually you can get abstracts and complete articles for about 30% of all articles. (Check it out. Google Scholar at the library is very comprehensive.) If you want to mention specific articles in your rebuttals to articles, I strongly suggest using Google Scholar to find them. There are always good articles on various sites, but Google will find articles from peer-reviewed journals for you. Doing these two things – using stories and properly explaining research—will make your rebuttals more persuasive.

One last note – if you don’t like writing, an easy way to refute an article you read is to write your reply like you would write a letter to a friend. Don’t edit it when you draft it. Editing puts you in a non-creative state of mind. Write first, then edit – you'll be pleased and perhaps surprised with your effective rebuttal.

Burton Kent is the author of "Never Market Again" - a manual on using word-of-mouth to get more patients. You can find more of Burton’s work here: www.AcupunctureClinicMarketing.com