Allaxys Communications --- Transponder V --- Allaxys Forum 1
FRAUENPOWER! => ~~~ FRAUENPOWER! ~~~ => Topic started by: YanTing on August 10, 2019, 12:38:11 AM
-
Dr. Harriet Hall addressed this paper in her column, which can be seen at:
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/american-family-physician-endorses-acupuncture/
She explained how the evidence for acupuncture is not as strong as the authors claim, nor is it as safe. She gave examples from the accompanying editorial of "quack-speak" designed to persuade patients. I will give some more excerpts from this below, as well as from the patient information sheet.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Acupuncture for Pain
ROBERT B. KELLY, MD, MS, and JOEL WILLIS, DO, Cleveland Clinic Family Medicine Residency, Cleveland, Ohio
Am Fam Physician. 2019 Jul 15;100(2):89-96.
Abstract
Acupuncture has been increasingly used as an integrative or complementary therapy for pain. It is well-tolerated with little risk of serious adverse effects. Traditional acupuncture and nontraditional techniques, such as electroacupuncture and dry needling, often result in reported pain improvement. Multiple factors may contribute to variability in acupuncture's therapeutic effects, including needling technique, number of needles used, duration of needle retention, acupuncture point specificity, number of treatments, and numerous subjective (psychological) factors. Controlled trials have been published on pain syndromes, such as acupuncture for acute and chronic low back pain, knee osteoarthritis, headache, myofascial pain, neck pain, and fibromyalgia. For some conditions, enough data are available for systematic evaluations or meta-analyses. Acupuncture may provide modest benefits in the treatment of chronic low back pain, tension headache and chronic headache, migraine headache prophylaxis, and myofascial pain. Although patients receiving acupuncture for acute low back pain and knee osteoarthritis report less pain, the improvement with true (verum) acupuncture over sham acupuncture is not clinically significant for these conditions. These two conditions illustrate a recurring pattern in acupuncture trials, in which the additional improvement that can be attributed to verum over sham acupuncture, even when statistically significant, is of less clinical significance. This pattern supports the notion that acupuncture treatment has a notable placebo response, or meaning response, that may be responsible for much of its demonstrated benefits. For certain patients, especially those who are unresponsive or intolerant to standard therapies, acupuncture is a reasonable treatment option.
https://www.aafp.org/afp/2019/0715/p89.html
The article was accompanied by an editorial and a patient handout, "Information from Your Family Doctor."
Here is the editorial:
Integrating Medical Acupuncture into Family Medicine Practice
CHRISTY J.W. LEDFORD, PhD, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland
PAUL F. CRAWFORD III, MD, Mike O'Callaghan Military Medical Center, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada
Am Fam Physician. 2019 Jul 15;100(2):76-78.
Free full text:
https://www.aafp.org/afp/2019/0715/p76.html
Additional quotes not used by Dr. Hall:
"Avoid technical terms. Instead of: 'I'm going to stick the needle in your Gall Bladder 41, and then I'm going to take this into Spleen 6.' Try....."
"Carefully use or avoid traditional Chinese medicine terms. Instead of: 'We're going to try a treatment called dragons, in which we move your energy to remove the demons.' Try..."
Here is the patient handout:
Information from Your Family Doctor
Acupuncture for Pain Relief
free full text:
https://www.aafp.org/afp/2019/0715/p89-s1.html
Excerpts:
"Acupuncture has been an important part of traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years." (Comment: this is a myth. Acupuncture as practiced today is a modern invention.)
"How does acupuncture work? Doctors are not sure how it works. The traditional explanation is that acupuncture restores the normal flow of energy in the body." (Comment: the handout doesn't explain that this is unscientific and that "energy" does not "flow" in the body as envisions in traditional Chinese medicine. Also, we don't know that acupuncture works at all.)