Acupunture - pseudoscience?

[Sal]

The mind is part of the body, the control center if you will. Of course it has an effect on the whole body. We can, just by thought, affect a bunch of systems both directly (like breathing) and indirectly (like heart rate) by just the power of thought.

This is where the not-well-understood placebo effect comes in. If you believe something works and you have a positive attitude to something otherwise non-factory effect (sugar pills, acupuncture and other woo), it's been shown to positively affect stuff like immune response, just because you believe it to work and get a well-being in thinking so. Does that mean our brains has some special control on our bodies or that acupuncture works? Hell no. Just means that our brains has a very potent effect on our bodies, by simply the power of thought and feeling.

[bennyboy]

The mind is part of the body, the control center if you will. Of course it has an effect on the whole body. We can, just by thought, affect a bunch of systems both directly (like breathing) and indirectly (like heart rate) by just the power of thought.

This is where the not-well-understood placebo effect comes in. If you believe something works and you have a positive attitude to something otherwise non-factory effect (sugar pills, acupuncture and other woo), it's been shown to positively affect stuff like immune response, just because you believe it to work and get a well-being in thinking so. Does that mean our brains has some special control on our bodies or that acupuncture works? Hell no. Just means that our brains has a very potent effect on our bodies, by simply the power of thought and feeling.

Good until the last words.  It's not "by simply the power of thought and feeling."  It would be by the release of hormones, improved regulation of oxygen and blood flow, etc.

[johan]

I was searching through the hard drive for an old picture today when I found this pic.


I don't recall when or where I took it. But I took it because it effectively sums up my biggest beef with all forms of alternative medicine including acupuncture. 

Just about everyone loves to slam pharmaceutical companies as being nothing but pure evil but here's the reality. No pharma company can make ANY claim about one of their products without having hard data to back that claim up. And that data must be produced by outside labs using study methods approved by the federal government. Right wrong or indifferent, that's how it is. If big pharma wants to advertise a claim, they MUST be able to back it up and if they make a claim they can't back up, they get fined up the wazoo by the feds. 

But this fucking yahoo can plant as many signs as he likes claiming that his bullshit human needle point hobby will definitively prevent swine flu or cancer or aids or whatever else he wants to claim and he has to have zero data in order to do it and he has to answer to no one if he's proven wrong. Plain and simple, that is just not right. Anyone making health related claims about their product or service should be held to exact same standards as the pharma industry and should face the same level of penalty if their claims are shown to be bogus.

[Anomalocaris]

The swine part is right.

[Amarok]

Not to mention that in general, the people who actively seek out acupuncture are those who already believe that it should work, which only increases their susceptibility to the placebo effect.

And even the ones who don't generally are in enough pain to make themselves believe even without there knowledge