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Acupuncture May Trigger a Natural Painkiller
Pickens writes "USNWR is reporting that the needle pricks involved in acupuncture may help relieve pain by triggering the natural painkilling chemical adenosine. There are also indications that acupuncture's effectiveness can be enhanced by coupling the process with a well-known cancer drug — deoxycoformycin — that maintains adenosine levels longer than usual. Dr. Maiken Nedergaard of the University of Rochester Medical Center and her colleagues administered half-hour acupuncture treatments to a group of mice with paw discomfort. The investigators found adenosine levels in tissue near the needle insertion points was 24 times greater after treatment, and those mice with normal adenosine function experienced a two-thirds drop in paw pain. By contrast, mice that were genetically engineered to have no adenosine function gained no benefit from the treatment."
Read below for some acupuncture skepticism engendered by other recent studies.
However, many remain skeptical of acupuncture claims. Ed Tong writes in Discover Magazine that previous clinical trials have used sophisticated methods to measure the benefits of acupuncture, including 'sham needles' (where the needle's point retracts back into the shaft like the blade of a movie knife) to determine if the benefits of acupuncture are really only due to the placebo effect. 'Last year, one such trial (which was widely misreported) found that acupuncture does help to relieve chronic back pain and outperformed "usual care". However, it didn't matter whether the needles actually pierce the skin [paper here with annoying interstitial], because sham needles were just as effective,' writes Tong. 'Nor did it matter where the needles were placed, contrary to what acupuncturists would have us believe.'"
However, many remain skeptical of acupuncture claims. Ed Tong writes in Discover Magazine that previous clinical trials have used sophisticated methods to measure the benefits of acupuncture, including 'sham needles' (where the needle's point retracts back into the shaft like the blade of a movie knife) to determine if the benefits of acupuncture are really only due to the placebo effect. 'Last year, one such trial (which was widely misreported) found that acupuncture does help to relieve chronic back pain and outperformed "usual care". However, it didn't matter whether the needles actually pierce the skin [paper here with annoying interstitial], because sham needles were just as effective,' writes Tong. 'Nor did it matter where the needles were placed, contrary to what acupuncturists would have us believe.'"
...for those trying to defend the scientific method saying that a pseudoscience "cannot possibly work" because "there aren't any known methods through which it could operate".
The way to disprove a non-effect is by showing it indistinguishable from chance. Not by declaring that we can't think of any possible explanations.
Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
Exactly. There are many things that like acupuncture that have been used medicinally for centuries. Just because we may not, at the time, understand any underlying mechanisms doesn't mean that they don't work; it just means that we don't understand the underlying mechanisms and therefore, have no proof that it works or does anything. But saying that is very different from saying that same thing doesn't work at all.
For example, we didn't understand the underlying mechanism for aspirin until 1971, but before that salicylates had been used for centuries.
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Except that you can not only get benefits, but also nasty side-effects from placebos.
after wondering how they measure
"mice with normal adenosine function experienced a two-thirds drop in paw pain"
By facial expression.
http://www.google.fr/search?hl=fr&q=facial+expression+mice+pain+&meta=
Did you even read the rest of the summary, particularly the part about existing studies that conflict with this one?
So, what you're saying is that studies that contradict this one are more important?? That they should be taken more seriously, because everybody knows "acupunture is BS" right?!
As it is, there's not a whole lot of research on acupuncture, and much of it appears to conflict each other.
They usually don't, but it looks like that due to people exaggerating the scope of the conclusions.
If you're suddenly rushing to mock skeptics ...you either don't understand how this "science" thing works at all,
No, it's the "skeptics" that don't understand how this 'science' thing works. And worse, don't know squat about the history of science.
As the example I gave in my post, most of the initial development of electromagnetism/electricity was called BS for a long time
The discovery of Helicobacter pylori and appropriate treatment also was hampered by those 'skeptics'. But it's ok I'm sure only a few people died because of that.
Also I'm sure not a lot of people died or got maimed because that thing called X-Ray is no good as a diagnosis help.
Also, it's easier to come up with results that match previous WRONG results www.lhup.edu/~DSIMANEK/cargocul.htm (search Millikan)
So yeah, I'm in no position to question that, sir because obviously I don't know anything about science or history of science...
how long until
But then it's not placebo, it's nocebo.
Similar pains in different people are triggered by different energetic imbalances. Oriental medicine has five elements, five rhythms that run through a person: Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal (Air). Each meridian has characteristics of one of the elements.
But westerners who study acupuncture try to use the same points in their trials, when the study should be designed to address the individual's specific imbalances.
I've met a few mystics in the last few years, and my experience says that people who "scoff" at the notion that acupuncture is quackery are idiots. YMMV.
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
www.teslabox.com
To make it clear what acupuncture is: It was believed that directly massaging another person with your hands drains your energy over the long term, leading to a shorter life. The needles were introduced to eliminate the need for this contact. Also the acupuncture/qigong meridians along with the 5 phase theory are the practical result of several thousands of years of Chinese culture. P-R-A-C-T-I-C-A-L. Yes, you can call it psuedo science, but you would be ignoring the many many many instances of real people affected in real ways.
Chiropractic care for asthma when your asthma is caused by pressure and irritation to the lungs based on your crooked ass posture: Fact.
No, it's not. It's bullshit. Show me a single study that proves chiropractic care treats asthma, and I'll show you a flawed study.
And as an aside, anyone who believes "asthma is caused by pressure and irritation to the lungs based on your crooked ass posture" has no fucking clue what asthma actually is.
Not that I ever had asthma officially
Ah. I see. So you feel you can make concrete statements about asthma treatment when you've never actually been diagnosed with it. Well, I'll definitely take your opinions seriously...
Uh, that's because most water tables are large, so if you are above one, you can pretty much poke a well anywhere and find water. Of course the depth of each well may vary depending on substrate and which water table you actually hit. Also, the rate of available water (to pump or even if naturally pressurized) depends on the water table you strike.
Sorry man, you fell for the scam. (He may have "witched" past wells in the larger area and has studied the underlying aquifers. Every well drilled to depth and through various substrate will inform him. Shit, he may be a Geology drop-out.)
Personally, i use acetaminophen (Tylenol)almost exclusively as a fever reducer, rather than as a general pain reliever.
For that purpose, it is demonstrably effective. I can survive having protracted muscle aches. I can't survive a protracted 103F fever.
For that reason I consider it (tylenol) a life saving drug.
(granted, many different NSAIDs reduce fever; but the same methodologies through which you denounce tylenol as being only marginally effective (at pain relief) is also true with pretty much all NSAIDs. The real power of NSAIDs is not in relieving pain, but in reducing general inflammatory responses, and in treating fevers.)