RE: WHO endores acupuncture?
January 23, 2013 at 1:45 pm
(This post was last modified: January 23, 2013 at 1:47 pm by killybob.)
(January 23, 2013 at 6:52 am)pocaracas Wrote: My 2 cens worth...
My wife was an asthmatic. The kind that needed to carry an inhaler around with her.
Then, at the suggestion of her father's friend, she underwent acupuncture to try to deal with this nasty problem.... worth a try, no?
This happened before I met her, over 15 years ago.
After that, she never had any more asthma attacks, nothing.... well, she became a bit extra allergic to dust, which causes a uber-production of snot, but it's much more manageable than asthma.
Now, she considers herself an asthmatic with no episodes for 15 years and counting.
Placebo?
I don't know....
Yes, it probably was a placebo effect. Asthma is the result of an over active immune response, where the mucus glands in your lungs make too much mucus when it comes into contact with just a little dust or other small particles. The immune system is partly controlled by the brain, usually the Hypothalamus, which tells the pituitary gland what hormones to release. These hormones then trigger different glands in the body to produce (or stop producing) whatever it is they make. If the woman truly believed she would be cured by acupuncture, or her subconscious mind did at least, then it is easily conceivable that the procedure could have gotten rid of her asthma.
Why her inhaler didn't produce similar effects, like the acupuncture, is not clear. Perhaps humans have a disposition to believe superstitious nonsense over real remedies. If that is so, then it would explain a fucking lot about society, eh?
