A website I recently came across promised to teach me 7 things about acupuncture. This sort of thing is always of interest to me; so I read them with interest and found them so remarkable that I decided to reproduce them here:
1. Addiction recovery
Acupuncture calms and relaxes the mind making it easier for people to overcome addictions to drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol by reducing the anxiety and stress they feel when quitting.
2. Helps the body heal itself
The body contains natural pain relief chemicals, such as endorphins and has an amazing capacity for self-healing. Acupuncture helps stimulate the natural healing mechanisms and causes the body to manufacture pain relieving chemicals.
3. Builds a stronger immune system
The body’s immune system is negatively affected by stress, poor diet, illness and certain medical treatments, but acupuncture targets the underlying imbalances naturally and helps it to regain balance.
4. Eliminate that killer hangover
While it may not have been the best choice to finish off that bottle of wine, acupuncture can help the body detox and flush out the morning side effects.
5. Mood stabilizer
If you find yourself snapping at friends, family, or co-workers for unexplained reasons, acupuncture can get to the root of the problem, find the imbalance and help your body return to a healthier state of mind.
6. Chronic stomach problems
Some people suffer from stomach problems and never find the cause. Acupuncture targets your whole body, including the digestive tract and helps it to work in harmony with the rest of the body’s systems.
7. Coping with death
Grief can have an overwhelming effect on the body and manifest itself physically. Acupuncture helps reduce the anxiety of dealing with loss and help you cope with the stress.
END OF QUOTE
The ‘7 things’ are remarkably mislabelled – they should be called 7 lies! Let me explain:
- There are several Cochrane reviews on the subject of acupuncture for various addictions. Here are their conclusions: There is currently no evidence that auricular acupuncture is effective for the treatment of cocaine dependence. The evidence is not of high quality and is inconclusive. Further randomised trials of auricular acupuncture may be justified. There is no clear evidence that acupuncture is effective for smoking cessation. There is currently no evidence that auricular acupuncture is effective for the treatment of cocaine dependence. The evidence is not of high quality and is inconclusive. Further randomised trials of auricular acupuncture may be justified.
- Even if the ‘endorphin story’ is true (in my view, it’s but a theory), there is no good evidence that acupuncture enhances our body’s self-healing mechanisms via endorphins or any other mechanism.
- Stronger immune system? My foot! I have no idea where this claim comes from, certainly not from anything resembling good evidence.
- Acupuncture for hangover or detox? This is just a stupid joke with no evidential support. I imagine, however, that it is superb marketing.
- The same applies to acupuncture to ‘stabilize’ your mood.
- Unexplained stomach problems? Go and see a doctor! Here is the conclusion of a Cochrane review related to IBS which is one of the more common unexplained stomach complaint: Sham-controlled RCTs have found no benefits of acupuncture relative to a credible sham acupuncture control for IBS symptom severity or IBS-related quality of life.
- I am not aware of any good evidence to show that acupuncture could ease the grieving process; I even doubt that this would be such a good or desirable thing: grieving is a necessary and essential process.
So, what we have here are essentially 7 fat lies. Yes, I know, the literature and the internet are full of them. And I suspect that they are a prominent reason why acupuncture is fairly popular today. Lies are a major marketing tool of acupuncturists – but that does not mean that we should let them get away with them!
Why?
Bogus claims may be good for the cash flow of alternative practitioners, but they are certainly not good for our health and well-being; in fact, they can cost lives!!!
IN THIS SPIRIT, LET ME ADD SEVEN THINGS YOU DO NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ACUPUNCTURE
- Traditional acupuncture is based on complete hocus pocus and is therefore implausible.
- ‘Western’ acupuncture is based on endorphin and other theories, which are little more than that and at best THEORIES.
- Acupuncture is often promoted as a ‘cure all’ which is implausible and not supported by evidence.
- Meridians, acupoints chi and all the other things acupuncturists claim to exist are pure fantasy.
- For a small list of symptoms, acupuncture is backed up by some evidence, but this is less than convincing and could well turn out to rely on little more than placebo.
- The claim of acupuncturists that acupuncture is entirely safe is false.
- Acupuncture studies from China cannot be trusted.
4 Responses to Seven things “you didn’t know about acupuncture” + 7 TRUTHS
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These claims were made by ‘Bolton Physiotherapy Clicic’.
I am sure Alan Heness will asking the Nightingale Collaboration to look at the claims, but I am going to check out what physios code of practice syas about practitioners who lie to patients in order to further their business.
As this claim was made in Bolton Ontario, my previous post is redundant!
So are those who made the claims!
I heard of the endorphin hypothesis from one of my professors when I was in med school in the late 70s. To the best of my knowledge, no one still gives it credence. It doesn’t make much sense from the start. It’s like beating someone up in the hope that the individual will produce enough endorphines to no longer feel, say, back pain.
That would still be fine, if it were proven that it is effective. I am unaware of credible evidence that it is.
Case dismissed, until someone comes up with some really intriguing evidence.
Dr Crislip already deconstructed the endorphin myth of acupuncture.