Anybody ever had ACUPUNCTURE? Does it work?

[RanMan]

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[RanMan]



Anecdotes are not evidence. That's why we have the scientific method.

And reading "the scientific method" is frankly no substitute for personal experience.

Smoking - I've quit a handful of times with some success over the years. Last time was July 2009. I did acupuncture detox as an aid and I gotta say that first 2 weeks where one often turns into an asshole from withdraw ... there was very little of that. I had a pang or 2 at the two week period, but by far, this was this easiest I ever had it. Scant cravings and minimal withdraw - highly recommended to smokers who would like to quit.

 

[Threadbearer]



And reading "the scientific method" is frankly no substitute for personal experience.

Ah! Then you must also believe in witchcraft, crystals, exorcism, and healing touch, for each of those ancient practices has an army of people behind it claiming personal experience.

We humans are hardwired for superstitious thinking, but that doesn't mean we have to give in to it. Do you also believe that you can cause it to rain by doing a rain dance? No? But what if it rained not long after you danced? Then you'd have to wonder, wouldn't you? If only we had a reliable test for what really works and what only appears to work -- you know a "method" of some sort.

Oh wait, we do.

Acupuncture has yet to to stand up successfully to any series of peer-reviewed, double-blind, control group studies. Until it does, it's nothing more than voodoo. You might just as well try to heal yourself by doing a rain dance or by taking a sugar pill.

 

[RanMan]

Oh I get what you're saying believe me, it's just that this is one of those times I don't require scientific verification to provide me a final report on the outcome of what my body has so clearly and positively responded to. I'd also like to think I'm skeptical enough to ascertain if there was a placebo effect happening. The nature of addiction and nicotine withdraw for example is something I don't believe i could sugar pill away. I'm not that good, lol.

My Mom would never consider acupuncture, gasp, because she "doesn't believe in it". To me this is represents the superstition you speak of - that you have to believe in something for it to work. We all know the body will respond to chemo regardless if your mind believes in it or not, as it will to the ingestion of a martini (no-believers go away!). With regard to body work in general and acupuncture specifically, it's not important that I "believe" in something, all that really matters to me is does the treatment positively address the goal I came in with. YMMV

 

[Jabal-Tariq]

I guess it depends on the problem you have huh.

 

[impolyt_one]

Only had acupuncture once, but the problem I had was that I fell into a sleep with the needles in, and then got woken up - getting jolted with the needles in twisted everything up and it hurt like a motherfucker, especially the legs where there's little flesh. Will not do again, likely.

 

[Fraiche]

In my mid 20s, I had lower back pain to the point where I had to hold my back to get out of the car. I first exhausted all Western medical recommendations from chiros to kinesiologists (sp?) to physical therapy.

Nothing worked. The pain was excruciating so I decided to take a leap of faith and look for an acupuncturist. This is while I am terrified of needles. My buddy happened to know a lady who was trained by the Chinese government and I went.

First session took down 25% of the pain, no joke. She was the only person who was able to relieve any pain and after about a month and a half I was able to walk normally.

Placebo or not, all I know is this worked and was the only thing that did.

On a crazier note, I showed up one day with a sprained ankle after playing basketball and typically it would take me a week to heal. She stuck a couple needles in and I was able to play ball THE SAME DAY. Serious wtf moment.

 

[Fraiche]



I guess for acupuncture to work it depends on the person, as it is probably something the mind can use to fool you into thinking its better like with placebos or sugar pills. Some feel better afterwards, while others do not feel any different.

If it is placebo, it's bizarre that the placebo effect didn't work in my other treatments.

Couple that with the lack of faith I actually had in acupuncture makes the whole placebo argument suspect in my case.

 

[Threadbearer]

As one of the the primary skeptics in this thread, it's only fair that I place this here:

Meta-analysis indicates that acupuncture relieves pain.

Although the jury is still out until the gold standard has been applied -- the gold standard being a series of peer-reviewed, double-blind, control-group studies -- it's not unreasonable to now conclude that acupuncture may indeed outperform placebos at certain kinds of pain relief.

 

[nootje]

As I have a family member being a certified acupuncturist, I guess I could chime in here.

First off, Acupuncture is no substitute for regular medicine. It can however be great in conjunction with regular treatments. The person in question used to be an anesthesia nurse, and has no problems defining where alternative medicine can help, and in which cases it cant.

Some of the cases where I did see results, be it placebo or not are the following.

I've seen very fast recoveries by cancer patients who where receiving chemo. The acupuncture treatments helped restoring their bloodwork faster than usual, which apparently even surprised the doctors. But it enabled the hospital to use the chemo treatment more effectively, thus giving them a slightly better chance at recovery. The hospital is now actively searching out said family member to work with them.

Another case is a patient with parkinsons disease, where the acupuncture treatments have seriously slowed down the decline of his motor functions for some 7 years now. Again, the doctors confirmed the slowing down of his decline and recommended that whatever he was doing, he should keep doing that.

A funny part was when an obese person sought her advice, and got the reply that the only way needles could work was when they were used to sow his mouth shut...

 

[drgs]

It makes you feel better, but it does not cure anything

 

[AlPrest]

I had accupuncture for a couple of years and was very impressed. Initially I had it for mild vertigo. I'd had this for years but was cleared up within a month of regular sessions. I also got my hayfever treated and an injured ankle tendon.

The hayfever was the most interesting. I'm a massive sufferer and have been since a kid. My accupuncturist cleared this up for a summer. I didnt have to take pills despite playing golf on sunny days and even 5 days at a sunny Glastonbury. The only issue was that it wasnt a long term cure and costly to keep up as a remedy. I stopped the treatment, the hayfever returned and now back on the tablets or Kenalog injection.

I would certainly recommend but the treatments will vary between praticioners. Mine was very experienced, Chinese origin an trained in Hong Kong. I would guess that could make a difference in the training.

I think done properly it's fantastic and certainly helps balance your body rather than using drugs.