http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.p...st_item&id=780

Severin Carrell, "At last the truth about acupuncture: it's as good as
drugs for treating pain", Independent, May 1, 2005,
Link:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/hea...p?story=634685

Sceptics have long claimed that acupuncture is all in the mind. But a
ground-breaking new study has found that the ancient Chinese practice
is as effective as popular painkillers for treating disabling
conditions such as arthritis.

A team of scientists from two British universities made the findings
after they carried out brain scans on patients while they underwent the
2,500-year-old treatment. The scans showed differences in the brain's
response to acupuncture needles when compared with tests using "dummy
needles" that did not puncture the skin.

Doctors found that the part of the brain that manages pain and the
nervous system responded to acupuncture needles and improved pain
relief by as much as 15 per cent.

Dr George Lewith, from the University of Southampton's Complementary
Medicine Research Unit, said the improvement might seem modest, "but
it's exactly the same size of effect you would get from real Prozac
versus a placebo or real painkillers for chronic pain". "The evidence
we now have is that acupuncture works very well on pain," he said.

The findings, which will be published today in the scientific journal
NeuroImage, have been welcomed by acupuncturists, who have long faced
scepticism from scientists that the benefits are derived from the
placebo effect. Although some clinical trials have shown an improvement
in pain relief, the practice remains controversial. Other trials, for
instance, have found little difference between acupuncture treatments
and placebos.

Persis Tamboly, of the British Acupuncture Council, said: "We're really
thrilled about this research. There will be critics of this subject
until our dying days, but research like this substantiates what we've
always maintained - that acupuncture works."

The council hopes the findings will help to make acupuncture become
accepted as a National Health Service treatment. Despite its
controversial status, more than two million acupuncture treatments are
performed each year. Its supporters include Cherie Blair, Kate Winslet
and Joan Collins.

The 14 patients who participated in the study were put through three
tests in random order, while "brain maps" were created using
sophisticated positron emission tomography, or PET, scans at University
College London. In one test, researchers used blunt needles that
pricked the skin, but which the brain registered as the sensation of
touch. Dummy needles, where the tip was pushed back once it touched the
skin, were then used, and in the third test the patients underwent
acupuncture treatment with real needles.

The acupuncture needles had two measurable effects on the patients'
brains: as with the dummy needles, the brain released natural opiates
in response to the expected effect of the needles. But the scans showed
that the real needles had an extra effect and stimulated another part
of the brain called the ipsilateral insular. This improved pain relief
by 10-15 per cent - similar to the effect of taking conventional
analgesic drugs.

The study, though, does not explain how acupuncture treats other
problems such as stress or disease.

Dr Lewith said: "Further research is definitely planned. This is a very
interesting area. I have been involved in acupuncture research for 25
years, and I'm now getting a very realistic understanding of the
effects of this mechanism," he said.

At the sharp end

* Developed in China about 2,500 years ago, using stone needles at
first and later bronze, gold and silver. The first medical reference
was in The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, written
around 300BC.

* There are about 500 acupuncture points on the body, which can affect
the body's "chi" or energy. A headache can be treated with needles
inserted in the hand or foot.

* Fine needles are inserted into "energy channels" in the body called
"meridians". Needles help natural healing processes or relieve pain.

* Other techniques include the use of massage, smouldering herbs, and
tapping with a rounded probe, as well aslasers and electro-acupuncture

* UK scientists say they have now proved that acupuncture directly
affects the parts of the brain that control pain, and is as effective
as taking painkillers.

Roman Bystrianyk wrote:

--snip--

Guess what, the same effect comes from playing videogames or having
virtual reality goggles placed on your head while something painful is
being done to you (they do this with patients with severe burns who get
their bandaging changed, an extremely painfull procedure for which no
painkiller has any effect).

I don't think anyone is surprised by the fact that poking around with
needles has an effect. It's the claimed basis of this effect - Chi,
meridians and all that. That is and will remain pure bullshit.
The real basis is distraction and counterirritation, i.e. if you hit
someone with a hammer on his thumb he's gonna forget his headache for a
while. It's already been shown you get exactly the same result if you
rub someone's skin with sandpaper. And it doesn't matter where you poke
the needles, as long as it's not in a dangerous location like your
eyeball, so who needs acupuncturists. The same effect can be achieved
safer, cheaper and easier, is wellknown in special painclinics.

And mind you, this is not proof acupuncture works. It might be proof
that using a human as a voodoo-doll has some analgesic effect, but not
that acupuncture 'works'. Even if this one claim for acupuncture turns
out to be absolutely true, it is complete bullshit (non sequitur
reasoning) to claim that therefor all other claims of acupuncture are
true as well.

So:
- the result of this study is no surprise
- even if the study is valid and flawless it is not proof acupuncture
'works'
- this does not prove that Qi and meridians and such exist
In short, a perfect example of a red herring, a non-event, the dog that
didn't bark.

Guess what, the same effect comes from playing videogames or having
virtual reality goggles placed on your head while something painful is
being done to you (they do this with patients with severe burns who get

their bandaging changed, an extremely painfull procedure for which no
painkiller has any effect).

No, that's not what happens during bio-feedback. The isilateral
insular is affected by acupuncture, not sham acupuncture & not
bio-feedback.

What would it take for you to accept that Acupuncture has efficacy
beyond that of distraction?

"Johnny Huang" <johnny_huang_2005@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1115061678.431413.95940@l41g2000cwc.googlegro ups.com...
What do you mean by acupuncture? Sticking needles into people as a medical
treatment , or that complex system of Chinese mystical beliefs involving
flows of "chi", acupuncture points and meridia (which are really a more
modern invention and fluctuate wildly in number and location) ? Your
question means nothing otherwise.

It has already been pointed out that lying around having needles stuck
deeply into you (which may merely light up parts of the brain on PET
scanning by activating deep sympathetic pain fibres or through perceptable
differences between pucturing the skin and not pucturing the skin -surprise,
surprise!!!) may quite well have minor physiological effects.

It may even temporarily reduce pain perception through rest, distraction or
endorphin release. The question is whether any effects of sticking needles
in people have clinical usefulness, and the clinical studies thus far mostly
suggest that it has no effects beyond placebo, and also that it doesn't
matter much where you stick the needles. I do think that even temporary
pain relief can have longer lasting effects through the enhancement of
placebo reactions and perhaps increasing pain tolerance.

In my opinion this is as much as will ever be shown for acupuncture, and the
only reason studies continue to be done on it is that its enthusiats want
vindication for their practice. It is not as though it has ever shown a
likelhood to solve any major medical problems. It is of no value in chronic
pain, for example.

Whether placebo treatments are worthwhile or ethical is a quite separate
question and there would be safer placebos than acupuncture, anyway

Peter Moran

Peter, while you are entitled to your opinion, NIH does not agree with you.
Please look over the following [/nccam.nih.gov/] - and see that , while there is
still considerable question as to any given condition being helped, the 'basic'
question of does accupunture/pressure work in 'some' cases, has been resolved to
be 'yes'...and not as placebo. the below abstract is the 'cover' for upwards of
1500 papers, studies, etc. and there are many more.

"According to the NIH Consensus Statement on Acupuncture, there have been many
studies on acupuncture's potential usefulness, but results have been mixed
because of complexities with study design and size, as well as difficulties with
choosing and using placebos or sham acupuncture. However, promising results have
emerged, showing efficacy of acupuncture, for example, in adult postoperative
and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and in postoperative dental pain. There are
other situations--such as addiction, stroke rehabilitation, headache, menstrual
cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, osteoarthritis, low-back
pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma--in which acupuncture may be useful as
an adjunct treatment or an acceptable alternative or be included in a
comprehensive management program. An NCCAM-funded study recently showed that
acupuncture provides pain relief, improves function for people with
osteoarthritis of the knee, and serves as an effective complement to standard
care.7 Further research is likely to uncover additional areas where acupuncture
interventions will be useful.

Preclinical studies have documented acupuncture's effects, but they have not
been able to fully explain how acupuncture works within the framework of the
Western system of medicine that is commonly practiced in the United States.9-14
It is proposed that acupuncture produces its effects through regulating the
nervous system, thus aiding the activity of pain-killing biochemicals such as
endorphins and immune system cells at specific sites in the body. In addition,
studies have shown that acupuncture may alter brain chemistry by changing the
release of neurotransmitters and neurohormones and, thus, affecting the parts of
the central nervous system related to sensation and involuntary body functions,
such as immune reactions and processes that regulate a person's blood pressure,
blood flow, and body temperature.15,16




References

1. Culliton PD. Current utilization of acupuncture by United States patients.
Abstract presented at: National Institutes of Health Consensus Development
Conference on Acupuncture; 1997.
2. Barnes PM, Powell-Griner E, McFann K, Nahin RL. Complementary and
alternative medicine use among adults: United States, 2002. CDC Advance Data
Report #343. 2004.
3. American Academy of Medical Acupuncture. Doctor, What's This Acupuncture
All About? A Brief Explanation. American Academy of Medical Acupuncture Web
site. Accessed at
http://www.medicalacupuncture.org/ac...upuncture.html on December
14, 2004.
4. Lao L. Safety issues in acupuncture. Journal of Alternative and
Complementary Medicine. 1996;2(1):27-31.
5. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Acupuncture needles no longer
investigational. FDA Consumer. 1996;30(5). Also available at:
www.fda.gov/fdac/departs/596_upd.html.
6. Lytle CD. An Overview of Acupuncture. Rockville, MD: U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, Center for Devices and Radiological Health; 1993.
7. Berman BM, Lao L, Langenberg P, et al. Effectiveness of acupuncture as
adjunctive therapy in osteoarthritis of the knee: a randomized, controlled
trial. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2004;141(12):901-910.
8. National Institutes of Health Consensus Panel. Acupuncture: National
Institutes of Health Consensus Development Statement. National Institutes of
Health Web site. Accessed at odp.od.nih.gov/consensus/cons/107/107_statement.htm
on December 14, 2004.
9. Eskinazi DP. NIH Technology Assessment Workshop on Alternative Medicine:
Acupuncture. Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, April 21-22, 1994. Journal of
Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 1996;2(1):1-256.
10. Tang NM, Dong HW, Wang XM, et al. Cholecystokinin antisense RNA increases
the analgesic effect induced by electroacupuncture or low dose morphine:
conversion of low responder rats into high responders. Pain. 1997;71(1):71-80.
11. Cheng XD, Wu GC, He QZ, et al. Effect of electroacupuncture on the
activities of tyrosine protein kinase in subcellular fractions of activated T
lymphocytes from the traumatized rats. Acupuncture and Electro-Therapeutics
Research. 1998;23(3-4):161-170.
12. Chen LB, Li SX. The effects of electrical acupuncture of Neiguan on the
PO2 of the border zone between ischemic and non-ischemic myocardium in dogs.
Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine. 1983;3(2):83-88.
13. Lee HS, Kim JY. Effects of acupuncture on blood pressure and plasma renin
activity in two-kidney one clip Goldblatt hypertensive rats. American Journal of
Chinese Medicine. 1994;22(3-4):215-219.
14. Okada K, Oshima M, Kawakita K. Examination of the afferent fiber
responsible for the suppression of jaw-opening reflex in heat, cold, and manual
acupuncture stimulation in rats. Brain Research. 1996;740(1-2):201-207.
15. Takeshige C. Mechanism of acupuncture analgesia based on animal
experiments. In: Pomerantz B, Stux G, eds. Scientific Bases of Acupuncture.
Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag; 1989.
16. Lee BY, LaRiccia PJ, Newberg AB. Acupuncture in theory and practice.
Hospital Physician. 2004;40:11-18.
17. White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy:
Final Report. March 2002. White House Commission on Complementary and
Alternative Medicine Policy Web site. Accessed at
www.whccamp.hhs.gov/finalreport.html on December 14, 2004."





Peter Moran wrote:

"Paul T. Holland" <pholland@bellatlantic.net> wrote in message
news:4276C326.22FB0455@bellatlantic.net...
The Cochrane collaboration agrees with me in their recent revision of the
subject, but I do make up my own mind. There are as many negative trials
appearing as positive, there is a trend towards the better quality trials
being negative, and you have to factor in that theatrical, novel,
difficult-to-fully-blind treatment methods like acupuncture are always
likely to produce some positive trials whether better than an authentic
placebo or not.

I have also allowed that acupunture may have minor clinical effects. My
main concern is that many seem happy to believe that ancient Chinese
theories are being validated. They are not.

Peter Moran

In article
<42772ec5$0$247$61c65585@uq-127creek-reader-03.brisbane.pipenetworks.com
..au>,
"Peter Moran" <moringa@gil.com.au> wrote:

Correct. The newer studies tend to show minimal or no effect from
acupuncture, and the Cochrane reviews agree for now.

--
Orac |"I am not *trying* to tell you anything. I am simply not
| interested in trying to compensate for your amazing lack
| of observation."
| http://oracknows.blogspot.com

xxxxx wrote:
"Orac" <orac_usa@hotmail.com> replied:
I know a local medical doctor (M.D.) who was a good doctor but
switched to doing acupuncture in his older years. According to his
patients, this doctor is also quite good at using acupuncture to relieve
pain in his patients.