Someone wrote in [personal profile] pozorvlak 2010-10-27 09:06 pm (UTC)

acupuncture doesn't use gate control

Electroacupuncture does though. Man that shit is awesome. I love it. TENS is gate stuff too.

Standard acupuncture* has a measurable effect on the human body. If you put someone in an MRI machine and needle them, their brain lights up in a way it doesn't under acupressure or nothing. Manipulated needles cause a measurably greater effect than not.

Acupuncture is not very well understood. That doesn't stop it working very well for chronic pain relief. Every physiotherapist I've seen (which is a lot) does acupuncture. There's got to be a reason for that above the placebo effect - which is, admittedly, very powerful.

The meridians/energy stuff is the theatre. The needling is not.

Problem is it's very hard to study acupuncture using standard methods. How do you placebo sticking a needle in someone?


--mmmmat.

* by this I mean some form of needling therapy. meridians and chi are not involved.

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