Showing posts with label Acupuncture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Acupuncture. Show all posts

Monday, December 19, 2022

Medicare And Alternatives To Medicine

"I recently wrote about the free preventive medicine appointments offered by Medicare. Those are worthwhile and are based on good science, but I was surprised to see that Medicare sometimes departs from rigorously science-based standards. They also cover alternative medicine treatments based on fantasy."

It's not just Medicare. Why is ANY health insurer covering bullish!t? Click on the link below for details:

Medicare doesn’t support good science-based medicine

Saturday, August 27, 2022

A Reminder: Your Brain Alone Is Not Reliable

Recently, I have received a great deal of push-back on my Facebook page regarding some topics, for example: chiropractic, acupuncture, corporal punishment, GMOs, and nuclear power. Frankly, their arguments are no different than the Intelligent Design folks. As I frequently say, tell me what other than the consensus of scientists actually working in the discipline under discussion will give you a better understanding of reality regarding such.

Regarding consumer products, including food from GMOs, unfortunately, there is a strong unsupported conspiracy theory that for-profit corporations cannot perform unbiased scientific studies. Should we ignore any research funded by companies or special interest groups? Certainly not. These groups provide invaluable funding for scientific research. Furthermore, science has many safeguards in place to catch instances of bias that affect research outcomes. Ultimately, misleading results will be corrected as science proceeds. (link)(link)


Sunday, March 20, 2022

More Acupuncture Quackery

"One of my fans sent me a clipping from a community newsletter, Colorado Serenity, with an article by acupuncturist Christina Fick, who calls herself a doctor. The title is “Give Your Immune System Some Love!” It is full of pseudoscientific advice about the things that harm and help the immune system. My correspondent thought it was “a cornucopia of questionable medical advice and treatments, including her own proprietary mushroom medley, which is bad enough.” But what really concerned him was the claim that acupuncture increases your red and white blood cell counts, along with your T-cell counts. He searched the Internet and found a few supporting articles about red and white blood cells; but none were from a reputable medical source, and he was unable to find any mention of T-cells."

Click on the link below for details:

DOES ACUPUNCTURE INCREASE RED AND WHITE BLOOD CELLS AND T-CELLS?

Monday, August 1, 2016

Acupuncture Is Bogus, Get Over It

"Acupuncture has been studied for decades and the evidence that it can provide clinical benefits continues to be weak and inconsistent.

"There is no longer any justification for more studies. There is already enough evidence to confidently conclude that acupuncture doesn’t work. It is merely a theatrical placebo based on pre-scientific myths." 

Is there any place for acupuncture in 21st century medical practice? 

Harriet Hall has a 31 minute video on the second most common form of quackery.

Friday, July 29, 2016

Quackery And Pediatric Facial Nerve Palsy

"Although there are no medical therapies that have been shown to significantly hasten recovery, it is important for the correct diagnosis to be made, particularly in children who are more likely than adults to have a more concerning etiology of their facial weakness. Rather than one of the many implausible and unproven alternatives, your best bet is science-based care from an appropriately trained medical professional."

Separating Fact from Fiction in Pediatric Medicine: Facial Nerve Palsy

Monday, July 25, 2016

Acupuncture: My Final Word

"Acupuncture has been studied for decades and the evidence that it can provide clinical benefits continues to be weak and inconsistent. There is no longer any justification for more studies. There is already enough evidence to confidently conclude that acupuncture doesn’t work. It is merely a theatrical placebo based on pre-scientific myths."

On the pointlessness of acupuncture in the emergency room…or anywhere else

Friday, May 27, 2016

Dry Needling

Sad to see my former profession, physical therapy, continue to drift into the land of Woo.

If dry needling is not acupuncture, then a PT or a DC or an ND or whoever is free of those onerous requirements and can needle without the worry of acupuncture boards and regulations.

NOTE: I have received a private email from Liz Martin, who is involved with a website called Healthy But Smart. This article generally is supporting my contention on this topic. Just another resource attempting to objectively evaluate acupuncture and dry needling.

Friday, May 6, 2016

Cochrane Systematic Review Fails Again

"Cochrane is generally considered to be the gold standard for evidence-based systematic reviews, but their history is dodgy when it comes to unconventional treatments. For example, they famously had to withdraw their review of homeopathic occillococcinum for the flu because they concluded, although the evidence was insufficient to recommend it, was 'promising' and deserved further research."

Acupuncture for Tension-Type Headache

Monday, April 11, 2016

Science-Based Medicine (SBM) Vs Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM)

Most people do not know the difference between science-based medicine and evidence-based medicine.  While the two terms look the same, as science is based on evidence, in practice, the former looks more skeptically at plausibility and challenges the "further research is recommended" mantra regarding research failing to support alternatives to medicine.  This article is a good example of the difference regarding acupuncture, which has zero plausibility and has been repeatedly studied without showing a clinical effect other than placebo.  Under SBM criteria, NHS would have not recommended it so long, if at all.

Acupuncture for low back pain no longer recommended for NHS patients

Saturday, February 13, 2016

The Difficulty Of Giving Up Alternatives To Medicine

"I sometimes still catch myself hoping to find validity for acupuncture and TCM. I think it is indeed “hope” that drives people to alternative medicine. We want to believe that when scientific knowledge falls short, there is another way to gain control of our bodies. The desire for hope is so strong, that perfectly intelligent people can blind themselves beyond basic reason."

What’s the point of acupuncture? A TCM practitioner wants out

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Choose how you look at reality wisely. Yes, it is a binary choice.

Choose how you look at reality wisely. Yes, it is a binary choice.
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