Court forcing 16 yr old with cancer into chemo

[Alex]

By no stretch of the imagination has acupuncture been proven effective. You can't even get various practitioners to agree on which points do what things or which diseases are amenable to treatment.

Similarly with most "herbal" treatments. If they had been proven effective (or more effective than chemo) every doctor would be more than happy to use them. The best that you get with most "alternative" treatments is simple anecdotes or hype from the practitioners. Now, there is certainly more evidence that acupuncture does something sometimes than for other therapies (such as homeopathy; at least acupuncture involves a physical change in the body) but
attempts at scientific validation are extremely muddled and most trials that show significant positive results have been of questionable methodology (not properly double-blinded, for example) or too small to allow for statistically significant results.

This doesn't even begin to exmaine that the underlying theory of acupuncture relies on a mystical energy force that has never been detected (and by some claims is outside the realm of what can be detected).

What I don't understand is that people would throw a fit if Merck put out a drug saying "it does X but we having actually done any tests that prove it" but because some Congressman got the "herbal supplement" market exempted from FDA coverage Spam Emailer X can say "it does X and we'll like about actually having done any tests that prove it" and everybody eats it up.

[tracilicious]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

By no stretch of the imagination has acupuncture been proven effective. You can't even get various practitioners to agree on which points do what things or which diseases are amenable to treatment.

Similarly with most "herbal" treatments. If they had been proven effective (or more effective than chemo) every doctor would be more than happy to use them.

A few years ago the government started doing acupuncture studies in which one group was given actual acupuncture and the other group were just poked with the blunt end of the needle. Neither group could see what was happening. The one I read about was done on severe arthritis and it was something like 90% effective. Of course, there haven't been enough studies for it to be considered scientifically reliable.

As I said before, Germany has been doing placebo controlled double blind studies on herbs for a long time. Their medicine is much more integrative.

I find it really funny that you think doctors would jump to do something unfamiliar to them just because it's been proven effective. Once the pharmaceutical companies start marketing the herbs, sending the docs on herb seminars and such, and handing out free herbs it might happen.

[tracilicious]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

This doesn't even begin to exmaine that the underlying theory of acupuncture relies on a mystical energy force that has never been detected (and by some claims is outside the realm of what can be detected).

I could say the same about my microwave. I certainly can't see (with my eyes) how it, or any other energy works.

Here's an acupuncture anecdote for you. The very first time I had acupuncture done (I've only had it a few times), I had broken my toe a few days before. My foot was very black and blue over a huge area. Obviously, they can't fix a broken toe, but they put a few needles in the bruised area for a while to get the circulation going. The next morning I woke up and there wasn't a trace of a bruise on my foot. Even I, was amazed.