Sliced Bread, the Shakti Mat & me
Having never heard of Sliced Bread or a Shakti Mat, I was initially a little dubious about being involved – I was concerned that this may be an attempt at some ‘gotcha’ journalism. I reached out to the BAcC community on Facebook for some advice.
Checking out programme and product
Several acupuncture colleagues around the UK assured me that Sliced Bread was an enjoyable show to listen to. Others confirmed that the Shakti Mat was a valuable piece of kit which many include in their personal care arsenal and also recommend to patients. At this point my mind became fractionally more open and I did some digging – on the podcast and the product.
Sliced Bread it turns out is quite fun listening – with the host Greg Foot being bright and open-minded towards the products reviewed on the show. The style was not so much of a standoff between two experts of opposing views but more of a free discussion. My mind opened a fraction more to going on.
I had a look at a Shakti Mat and my first thought – in the spirit of the show – was, ’that’s just marketing BS’. For the uninitiated a Shakti Mat is essentially an acupressure mat which uses hundreds of small spikes – akin to a bed of nails –with the aim of providing relaxation.
My visceral reaction to such things is that it’s just another underqualified person/organisation attempting to make a load of money from acupuncture without having a true grasp of theory and with insufficient training. The product page presents a bit of ayurveda, plus a bit of TCM and acupuncture theory – bundling it all together into a neat and tidy £70ish package.
It’s at this point that my liver fire starts rising ever so slightly – and I think this may have eventually crept into my comments on the podcast.
I then did a preliminary search to discover what evidence there is, if any. The answer was not a lot, but enough for me to think I could do justice to discussing it on the show – so I arranged a call with Kate to discuss.
Making sure of the set-up
During our call, Kate was enthusiastic to know about acupuncture theory from both TCM and biomedical perspectives and was receptive to my knowledge. She also said she was attempting to get a second expert – a research fellow from the University of Southampton. As someone who always aims to draw from both perspectives, the need for two experts confused me a little – but I agreed it would make for a more interesting discussion.
In the end, it turned out that the research fellow had now retired and Kate asked me for recommendations for someone else. My suggestions included colleagues at Evidence Based Acupuncture, the Northern College of Acupuncture and the ever-determined Charlie Buck. Much to my relief, Karen Charlesworth, research director at NCA, came on board – so at least I knew I wasn’t going to be dropped into the middle of an unnecessary debate around whether acupuncture works or not!
Karen and I put our heads together and agreed to make sure we delivered a clear and consistent message. Firstly, on the well trained and professional nature of our work – now increasingly supported by high-level evidence. Secondly, that acupuncture and/or acupressure are very different from what a Shakti Mat offers – including individualisation of treatment, specificity, and the value of the TCM model beyond the western biomedical approach.
In addition, we found some helpful papers on specific effects noted in fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scans. We also looked at the effects of specific acupuncture points in studies and how that might transfer over to a Shakti Mat.
Recording day
Both Karen and I were invited along to the BBC Sounds Studio in Salford Quays to record the programme on Thursday 30 May. Then the night before, I received a request to only discuss the biomedical use of acupuncture with some TCM context – cue liver fire again.
On arrival at the studio we were kept apart so that we didn’t compare notes – whoops… too late! At that point, I was also informed that I would be asked about the debate regarding biomedicine versus TCM, the NICE guidelines, and the NHS website, which offers a few recommendations for acupuncture as a complementary and alternative treatment.
Suddenly it really was beginning to feel like an attempt at gotcha journalism – and even more so when Karen told me later that they’d wanted to involve Edzard Ernst as a last-minute mystery star prize speaker! Fortunately, Karen objected to this.
The two of us had planned some discussions on gua sha and cupping and the influence of increased microcirculation. And I’d found some research on the four gates and their influence on the frontal and temporal lobes responsible for emotional processing – which could be a modern interpretation of the classical concept of stagnation. I’d also looked at research into back shu points and their influence on the hippocampus. And finally, of course, our professional standards and training.
The broadcast itself
In the end, Greg Foot was both thorough and challenging in his role as presenter. Equally, I felt that Karen and I were able to provide informed comprehensive responses to his questions, doing justice to the research, clinical knowledge and skills we all acquire during our TCM training.
It has to be said that the true star of the show was 12-year-old Bradley, who asked the original question about the Shakti Mat and took part along with his Mum. He was so well informed and spoke about endorphins and the placebo effect, which opened some valuable in-depth discussion around how acupuncture and acupressure work.
Overall, it appeared that everyone – apart from Karen and me – was quite surprised at the complexity of acupuncture and the extent of the research that’s gone into understanding the hows and whys of what we do.
Our discussion lasted approximately one hour and ten minutes. Some of the questions were much more intense than I had anticipated – particularly those around the NICE guidelines and the value of TCM versus medical acupuncture. And not all of our responses made the final edit.
Despite my initial anxiety about how the whole thing would be edited, both Karen and I were happy with how it turned out. My hope is that our part in this popular BBC podcast can lead to further positive publicity for our profession in the future.
The Sliced Bread acupressure mat episode was aired on BBC Radio 4 at 12.30pm on June 24 and is still available to listen to on BBC Sounds
Phil Trubshaw studied TCM acupuncture at the University of Salford and went on to study tuina at postgraduate level. He then studied Chinese herbal medicine to MSc level at the Northern College of Acupuncture. His research topic focused on the psychopharmacology of herbs which calm the shen. Currently he practises from the Manchester Movement Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University and is a module leader on the Chinese herbal medicine MSc at NCA.
