re: #250 Mike Lamb

Nope…linked within the article:

Link

Conclusion:

Acupuncture is effective for the treatment of chronic pain and is therefore a reasonable referral option. Significant differences between true and sham acupuncture indicate that acupuncture is more than a placebo. However, these differences are relatively modest, suggesting that factors in addition to the specific effects of needling are important contributors to the therapeutic effects of acupuncture.

I found it. I did not see the link.

It is not a study. It is a meta-analysis of studies.

From the conclusion of that analysis, the lede:

We believe that our findings are both clinically and scientifically important. They suggest that the total effects of acupuncture, as experienced by the patient in routine clinical practice, are clinically relevant, but that an important part of these total effects is not due to issues considered to be crucial by most acupuncturists, such as the correct location of points and depth of needling. Several lines of argument suggest that acupuncture (whether real or sham) is associated with more potent placebo or context effects than other interventions.

Emphasis in the summary mine.

Theatrical placebo. Doesn’t matter where you put the needle.

I suppose that I could boil up and sterilise my own needles, hang my shingle out, and go to work. According to the meta-analysis (not study), 50% of people reported improvement in pain. (That’s pretty low.) Doesn’t matter whether my “boil my own needles” method is effective or no, I get paid (and acupuncture is very expensive).

Moreover, there are no acupuncturists within a couple hundred miles of here. If I was unethical, I could take my state’s required courses, get my FREE license after sitting an “acupuncture examination” (whatever the hell that is), and I’m set. (No continuing education required to maintain the license.)

Or I could sell placebo pills (since the meta-analysis notes that’s the principal effect of acupuncture) and I don’t even need a license.

By comparison, I have to sit nearly the same number of hours for a Public Water System Operator, the license is $150 every year, and I have to go through continuing education which costs way more than that every year.

Forgive me if I view acupuncture as quackery. There’s a reason it’s called “alternative medicine” (it’s not medicine).