WHO endores acupuncture?

[Angrboda]

Apparently the World Health Organization has a whole list of diseases that it approves acupuncture as a treatment for.

http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Js...#Js4926e.5

What's the problem with this? Well.... acupuncture is based on the idea that disease is caused by the disruption of qi, or your life energy, and that acupuncture points correct this balance. Great, except that there is no qi, this is medieval medicine that has been thrust upon the modern world. Numerous studies have been done where 'incorrect' acupuncture points have been done, and all of them have come to the same conclusion: Placebo affect.

The world health organization endorsing something like this is irresponsible, dangerous, and results in them losing significant credibility when it comes to real science.

What evidence of your credentials do your present to support your implicit assertion that your second guessing the professional judgement of WHO is worth listening to?

One doesn't need a lot of credentials to read the report and conclude it's rubbish. The report, by a TCM doctor, lists acupuncture as effective for angina pectoris based on patients with aphasia (difficulty comprehending or producing speech) improving slightly better according to a scoring system while receiving acupuncture than those who received no treatment (80% versus 70%). I stopped reading at that point.

[frankiej]

My mother is a physioterrorist physiotherapist working in the NHS and she says that she has used acupuncture for certain muscle problems... I have no idea what though.

[pocaracas]

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?

could be...

[CapnAwesome]

What evidence of your credentials do your present to support your implicit assertion that your second guessing the professional judgement of WHO is worth listening to?

I'm a professional bullshit detector. Unless Qi exists, the whole principle of acupuncture is flawed. You don't need a medical degree to know that Qi was thought up by primitive people who didn't understand disease at all. Is the WHO going to endorse witchdoctors next?

[AtheistPilot]

Having flown in a fighter squadron most of my life, pulling 9g's looking over your shoulders behind you is a game for the young. Approaching 40, 800mg Motrin tablets was the start of a healthy breakfast every day as was popping your back. Most of the older fighter pilots had some back pain, some so severe their leg would feel like it was on fire in certain positions, but fighter pilots refuse to seek medical attention like the plaque at the risk of loosing their flying status.

While based in Japan, word got round about some acupuncture. Those of us with pancaked, herniated disks thought we might as well give it a shot...

It took about 45 minutes. Was quite sanitary, all new needles, all disposed of just like you would see in a U.S. physicians office. Basically, he ran current - different frequencies, different voltages and amps through the 40+ needles I had in my back.

It did several things. One - It took away about 90% of the pain that I had non stop in my back for years. After about the 5th or 6th treatment, you could see the muscles around the injured disks were much larger and more defined..Different than what you see lifting. 3. My MRI of my back at 45 looked much better than it did at 40. The doctor thought they had gotten them mixed up. The combination of relaxing the injury site, building muscle to stabilize the injury, all had done wonders. It was very inexpensive physical therapy.

There are a lot of acupuncture sites that are noting but quacks, but don't trash the entire industry. There are some good uses for it.