"Sham" acupuncture could be as effective as the real thing

Reference:
Nightingale S.(2010, September 13) "Sham" acupuncture could be as effective as the real thing. Republished on 2010-09-13 from: http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/sarah-nightingale/2010-09-13/sham-acupuncture-could-be-effective-real-thing

Summary:
The article “"Sham" acupuncture could be as effective as the real thing” by Sarah N.(2010) shows that acupuncture works the same as a placebo. A new study which is on patients who have a knee problem, the result implies that there is no difference between real acupuncture and sham acupuncture. Both of them work. From the National Institutes of Health reports, we know that Osteoarthritis is a normal disease of American people; mostly the acupuncturist uses thin needles and electricity to cure it. Dr. Suarez. Almazor expresses the function of acupuncture. An issue of Arthritis Care and Research also adds up to this opinion by their research. And NIH workers will still work on sham acupuncture to see how it works.

Response:
As a traditional treatment, acupuncture has the same status as Chinese herbs and massage. Eventually, acupuncture is underlined as the most important treatment in a Chinese medical system. Now, people do not focus in on the debate of meridian, they are studying the function of acupuncture to make sure it works as a placebo or not. From many studies, the evidence shows it is a placebo. On the other hand, some studies prove that acupuncture has influence more than placebo. From my experience, acupuncture can act as a placebo; meanwhile, it works more than a placebo does. With a placebo, when you stop using it, it doesn’t work. But with real acupuncture, when you stop using it, it still works. We call that continual treatment, which means the function does not deteriorate. That depends on the. For example, if a lady has insomnia because she worries too much, we need to make her relax first. And we choose some points for her to do the real acupuncture. When she can sleep, we will cut down to the needles, or just make the needles as a placebo, which the lady will fall back on. But later, just show her that she has recovered. Some patients still need the needles though the needles work as the placebo. But that’s good for the patients.

For Acupuncture, Proof In The Placebo

For Acupuncture, Proof In The Placebo

Reference: Tara Parker-Pope (2010, September 5) FOR ACUPUNCTURE, PROOF IN THE PLACEBO
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2010-09/05/content_11257672.htm


Summary:
From the article “For Acupuncture, Proof In The Placebo” by Tara Parker-Pope, we know that there is an argument about the influence of acupuncture. Some studies show that acupuncture acts as a placebo. And example is a study by the lead author, Dr. Maria E. Suarez-Almazor, which is about 455 patients with painful knee arthritis; the consequence is claimed in the journal Arthritis Care that there is no difference between acupuncture and placebo treatment. Both of the two groups can relieve pain. But a 2007 German study of 1,200 back-pain patients implicates the patients who did the real acupuncture were less likely to ask for medicine to relieve pain. According to Dr. Eleanor M. Walker, she believe acupuncture works mors than placebo. Its effect is long term, but placebo is useless when you stop to use. Also Angela Johnson has the same opinion and he is working on it.

Reaction:
Acupuncture has more than 5,000 years of history; there are some arguments about it. First, is there existence of a meridian? Because nobody has been able to prove it is in the body yet. Second, does acupuncture make sense to disease? Because some studies show that acupuncture is a kind of placebo. But believe or not, acupuncture is being used every day to cure disease. The theory which people use is the same as the Chinese herbs. They believe there are two kinds of energy that stay in the body which keep people alive. When one kind of energy becomes less or extra, people get ill. What the acupuncturists should do is cut the extra or add to the one with less one. People believe most of the reasons that cause disease are natural, for example, the bad weather, or going out at night; the acupuncturists always call that evil. For the acupuncturists, they need to discriminate what the condition of the patients is, and weather there is extra energy or less. The evil is in the skin or muscle or bone or organs. Then they can decide which specific points should be chosen. For the back pain, most patients have a problem with muscle. The acupuncturist compares it to the blocked river; the water stopping there causes problems. The same as the meridian; you need to mediate them.