This is like a double barrel thread for 2 things I've been considering buying/doing recently that I've heard good things about.

First of all is CBD oil, it's cannabis oil that's supposed to be good for inflammation and anxiety and various other vague things.  

Secondly there's acupuncture. Someone in work recommended this to me but he didn't help his case by also believing in a million odd conspiracy theories about weather control devices and ancient Egyptian technology.  But more recently an ex army guy has joined out workplace  and recommended acupuncture to me, he said the military actually paid for him to have it after he was running along a hill and got his leg stuck in a hole and injured his knee.  He said his leg has been great ever since the acupuncture.

So my question is does anyone have experience with these things?

I had acupuncture as a kid. It’s a pseudoscience, probably has some placebo effects but nothing else. If getting stabbed with tiny needles is your thing (they leave them in for a while) then knock yourself out.

On principle I refuse to give my money to charlatans and quack doctors though.

AFAIK, there aren't any credible studies that vouch for the efficacy of acupuncture. That being said, my sister swears by it. Give it a try. If anything, it should prove to be a relaxing hour in a candlelit room with zen music playing in the background.

Dunno about the oils.

I didn’t find having my face covered in needles relaxing, but maybe that’s just me. Don’t assume that they will stab you in the leg if the problem is in your leg btw, they have this bullshit idea about nerves and they use that to choose the stabby location.

Interesting graph here.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-...since-1770

It seems China had no more success with life expectancy than anywhere else until the introduction of Western Medicine.

(May 11, 2018 at 1:04 pm)Tiberius Wrote: I didn’t find having my face covered in needles relaxing, but maybe that’s just me. Don’t assume that they will stab you in the leg if the problem is in your leg btw, they have this bullshit idea about nerves and they use that to choose the stabby location.

The guy from the army said they they used one inbetween one of his toes and the rest were in his leg for his knee issue.  If I get one of the ones who's stabbing me in the face then yeh I'll probably be worried.

(May 11, 2018 at 12:48 pm)paulpablo Wrote: This is like a double barrel thread for 2 things I've been considering buying/doing recently that I've heard good things about.

First of all is CBD oil, it's cannabis oil that's supposed to be good for inflammation and anxiety and various other vague things.  

Secondly there's acupuncture. Someone in work recommended this to me but he didn't help his case by also believing in a million odd conspiracy theories about weather control devices and ancient Egyptian technology.  But more recently an ex army guy has joined out workplace  and recommended acupuncture to me, he said the military actually paid for him to have it after he was running along a hill and got his leg stuck in a hole and injured his knee.  He said his leg has been great ever since the acupuncture.

So my question is does anyone have experience with these things?

Yes. Ex-wife swears by it.

I am not prepared to say acupuncture has no clinical effect at all. But the effect is unlikely to be clinically dramatic, otherwise it would be easily studied. The placebo effect is definitely dominant. Amongst the practitioners my ex-wife saw, It appears the more ridiculous the Mumbai jumbo that the acupuncturist spews, the higher the esteem of his patients. If that is not evidence of placebo effect I don’t know what is.

(May 11, 2018 at 12:59 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote: AFAIK, there aren't any credible studies that vouch for the efficacy of acupuncture. That being said, my sister swears by it. Give it a try. If anything, it should prove to be a relaxing hour in a candlelit room with zen music playing in the background.

Dunno about the oils.

And a big weight lifted from paupablo's thigh.

Acupuncture is bunk, so mich so that the Chinese abandoned it in the 13th century.

CBD: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4189631/  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/

Acupuncture is no more effective than sham procedures/placebo.

We have some dog owners who swear by acupuncture for their dogs.  Dogs of course are immune to the placebo effect but not so their owners.  Generally it seems to me that people who submit to acupuncture themselves swear it works wonders on their dogs while those who don't are unimpressed.

A vet I used for one of my old guys offered a couple of free acupuncture 'treatments' when she started down the road of Chinese medicine and herbs.  He was 12 years old and needed some help getting up.  He had two treatments and I saw no difference.  I frequently had to lift his butt up for him.  After the second treatment I found one of the pins that they left in him when I got him home.  That was the end of that.  I switched vets.