Acupuncture Article in CNN

[JoeTheJuggler]

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place for this. I just ran across an article on cnn.com that's from health.com and, I think, is mostly an advert for Health Magazine (health.com).

http://tinyurl.com/ynoxxk

Here's an excerpt:

No one is entirely sure how acupuncture works, but groups like the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization agree it's a useful remedy. The WHO lists more than 40 conditions for which acupuncture is often used, including addictions, nausea and vomiting, asthma, digestive issues, sinusitis, osteoarthritis, and allergies. It's also used increasingly for infertility. Some of the best evidence shows it may offer relief for pain -- from post-surgery dental pain to menstrual cramps, from migraines to tennis elbow.

Does the NIH and WHO actually agree that acupuncture is "a useful remedy"? I have no problem with WHO saying it's "frequently used" for a litany of things--but I doubt if they claim that it's useful for all those ailments.

The larger question I have is, is this a paid advertisement? Nothing on the page says so, but it is an article credited to Health Magazine but displayed within CNN's website. I see that Health.com uses Time Inc's name server. Is CNN part of AOL Time Warner?

 

[JLam]

I'm too lazy to google any references, but I have read a thing or two that suggests that acupuncture should not just be dismissed outright, because in some cases it has shown some beneficial effects. Though it should be noted that "real" acupuncture, where pins are stuck in the "correct" spots that stimulate the body's "chi" or whatever, have the same results as "fake" acupuncture where the pins are stuck in "incorrect" spots.

Regardless, there does seem to be something to it, even if we can't currently explain it, and the benefits may be small.

 

[Blue Wode]

I have no problem with WHO saying it's "frequently used" for a litany of things--but I doubt if they claim that it's useful for all those ailments.

Unfortunately, in 2002, the WHO issued a report entitled ‘Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials’ in which it claimed that acupuncture had been “proved” through controlled trials to be an effective treatment for the following:

Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy, allergic rhinitis (including hay fever), biliary colic, depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke), acute bacillary dysentery, primary dysmenorrhoea, acute epigastralgia (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm), facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders), headache, essential hypertension, primary hypotension, induction of labour, knee pain, leukopenia, low back pain, correction of malposition of fetus, morning sickness, nausea and vomiting, neck pain, pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction), periarthritis of shoulder, postoperative pain, renal colic, rheumatoid arthritis, sciatica, sprain, stroke, tennis elbow.


More…

http://www.drgrotte.com/AcupunctureWorldHealthOrganization.shtml

However, a Skeptical Inquirer article claimed that the report “circumvented public evaluation and totally avoided the peer-review system”:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_5_29/ai_n15763205

 

[JJM]

See Clin Med. 2006 Jul-Aug;6(4):381-6. Derry CJ, Derry S, McQuay HJ, Moore RA. "Systematic review of systematic reviews of acupuncture published 1996-2005"

Six reviews with more than 200 patients in randomised, double blind studies had good evidence of no benefit. Systematic reviews of acupuncture have overstated effectiveness by including studies likely to be biased. They provide no robust evidence that acupuncture works for any indication.

Acupuncture makes thousands of claims, each requires verification. Some people take comfort from poor quality research supporting afew claims- the highest quality of research does not support any of the claims.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

And, of course, the studies that do try to make an appropriate placebo (fake needles or intentional misplacement) lose the ability to do the study double blinded.