Acupunture - pseudoscience?

[mcolafson]

1. What makes you think it is pseudoscience?
2. If it is pseudoscience, how does it help people?

[account_inactive]

It's a load of shit, yes.

[Alex K]

Studies
Placebo

Next

[FatAndFaithless]

No repeatable, consistent effects. Fails under scientific conditions - does no better than placebo effect.

Placebo effect.

[Esquilax]

1. What makes you think it is pseudoscience?
2. If it is pseudoscience, how does it help people?

I feel like the fact that you don't know how it helps people, such that you could just point to that and not have to ask that question, precludes it from being science right off the bat.

Scientists tend to, you know, require an understanding of the mechanism behind what's happening, before they'll accept that something is happening.

[mcolafson]

Studies
Placebo

Next

I highly doubt placebo effect would have helped me two times.

Then I know another person who it helped.

What studies?

Why should I believe these studies more than personal experience?

(damn, I know that theists also have personal experience with their God, but I am sure my p.e. is different)
----
On a side note, is it too hard for you people to express yourselves without vulgarisms?

[FatAndFaithless]

Studies
Placebo

Next

I highly doubt placebo effect would have helped me two times.

Then I know another person who it helped.

What studies?

Why should I believe these studies more than personal experience?

(damn, I know that theists also have personal experience with their God, but I am sure my p.e. is different)
----
On a side note, is it too hard for you people to express yourselves without vulgarisms?

Bolded mine.

That's...literally the logic for every pseudoscience out there.. That's how people justify healing crystals, homeopathy, the power of prayer, and being anti-vax.

[Esquilax]

I highly doubt placebo effect would have helped me two times.

Next time, you can just say "I don't know what the placebo effect is." Because I'll give you a hint: you can't develop an immunity to it.

Then I know another person who it helped.

And I know one that it didn't. Why privilege the experiences that align with what you want to be true, over ones that don't?

Why should I believe these studies more than personal experience?

Because if you believed personal experience over and above verifiable scientific data, then you would be obliging yourself to believe a large number of contradictory claims; I don't know if you've noticed, but you can kinda find people willing to claim personal experience of anything.

Oh, there's also that, you know, your personal experience does not contain any sort of verifiable evidence by which you could claim that it was the acupuncture itself that caused the effect you experienced, which would mean that you have, at best, a correlation that you're irrationally spinning into a causation, but why would simple logic stop you after the fallacious statement you just made above, right?

(damn, I know that theists also have personal experience with their God, but I am sure my p.e. is different)

So you understand that you're accepting those personal experiences you want to be true, while rejecting those you do not, and you don't see the special pleading there because...?

[FatAndFaithless]

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.

[Alex K]

Studies
Placebo

Next

I highly doubt placebo effect would have helped me two times.

Then I know another person who it helped.

What studies?

Why should I believe these studies more than personal experience?

(damn, I know that theists also have personal experience with their God, but I am sure my p.e. is different)
----
On a side note, is it too hard for you people to express yourselves without vulgarisms?

Why do you doubt that highly?

The many studies comparing 'real' acupuncture with sham acupuncture.

It's very easy to fall prey to confirmation bias, regression to the mean etc, and well-designed studies control for many things that mislead you when subjectively reporting your experiences.

Fuck cunt asshole! (*)

(*) we have a profanity / vulgarity quota we have to meet here, sorry if you find it off-putting