This article drew attention to a new acupuncture study that showed there are significant differences between groups of acupuncture and groups with no acupuncture treatment although there are no differences between groups of real and sham acupuncture.
Throughout the article are refered three review articles on acupuncture in the treatment of osteoarthritis. Read the rest of this entry »
Judith Schlay, et ally, have developed a randomized controlled study to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture and amitriptyline in the treatment of pain from peripheral neuropathy in patients with HIV (HIV positive).
Patients were divided into 3 groups:
(1) a modified double-blind 2 × 2 factorial design of SAR, amitriptyline, or the combination Compared with placebo
(2) amodified double-blind design of an SAR vs control points
Auriculotherapy is highly recommended, in the realms of non-conventional medicine in treating addictions. However as mentioned in other articles, there are no studies that actually prove their effectiveness.
Arthur Margollin, et ally, conducted an investigation to study the true efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of cocaine dependence/addiction. To do this they created a randomized controlled study over 3 years (November 1996 to April 1999).
In the study, with more than 600 patients, were created three groups: one group with auriculotherapy (ear acupuncture), a sham acupuncture group and a control group (relaxation control condition). Read the rest of this entry »
Smoking represents one of the greatest current risks to public health. Among the several therapies for quit smoking (addiction treatment programs) advertised is common to find acupuncture. In particular, auricular acupuncture.
The auricular acupuncture can be done with needles, electrical stimulation or by placing small bead – can be seeds – into specific acupuncture points located on the ear. A pilot study entitled “Acupressure for smoking cessation – a pilot study”[i] intended to study the effectiveness of pressure on auricular acupuncture points in patients treated to quit smoking.
All patients were subjected to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and psychological group therapy. Read the rest of this entry »
The manipulations performed on the acupuncture needle may have several purposes. One is to “Arrival of Qi” ie, get a physical sensation of electric shock, for example. There are several techniques that can be used since “pressing the path of the meridian,” “trembling” (consisting of shaking the needle) or my favorite “plucking” among other. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the traumas of acupuncturists today is knowing whether acupuncture, that they practice, is only a placebo or have real value and to what extent is it negative just being a placebo. For some months I have walked around with this issue and would like now to share my doubts with the reader.
I will present the data as inconclusive and raise several questions. Unlike other texts I have not yet a fully formed opinion and would like to raise issues for discussion and develop them into future texts.
One of the first problems that arise on placebo is in the history of Chinese medicine. Today modern science has developed tools that allow us to distinguish between placebo effect and real effect of a given drug or therapeutic strategy. However, for the Chinese the placebo effect must always have seemed a real clinical effect. Read the rest of this entry »
A recent study showed that needling acupuncture points can help relieve pain by activating a natural chemical called adenosine. The researchers also found that they can increase the analgesic effect by combining acupuncture with a medicine used to treat cancer called deoxicoformin. This drug is known, is able to maintain high levels of adenosine during longer time.
The study’s author, Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, co-director of the Center for Translational neuromedicine, University of Rochester Medical Center said:
“Acupuncture Has Been the mainstay of medical treatment in Certain parts of the world is 4.000 years, But because it Has not Been Completely Understood, Have many people remained skeptical, … In this work, We provide information about one’s physical mechanism through acupuncture Which Reduces pain in the body. “[i]
Recent Comments