Stick a needle in your back
From The Los Angeles Times
May 11, 2009
More than 600 adults with chronic low back pain agreed to get one of the following:
* individualized acupuncture — using person-specific needling sites, number of needles, depth of insertion and the like;
* standardized acupuncture — using 8 points found effective in treating low back pain;
* simulated acupuncture — involving a toothpick and some skillful handling;
* routine care — think medications and physical therapy.
And … acupuncture works!
Like a charm. Those getting individualized, standard — and, this is the thing, fake — acupuncture treatments all were more likely to report improvements in their ability to function than were those in the standard-care group.
The study was published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Here’s the summary of the study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. And here’s what the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, has to say about acupuncture in general. That center funded the study, also known as the SPINE (Stimulating Points to Investigate Needling Efficacy) trial.
To read the entire article click here
Comments 1
There was no sham acupuncture involved. Acupuncture is a technique of stimulating, not puncturing, points on the body for physiological effect. Any kind of acupuncture that touches the skin, including so-called sham acupuncture needles, is acupuncture. The Japanese have developed entire systems of noninvasive acupuncture.<br /><br />While I am more likely to use a stainless steel probe when I