acupuncture...sorry :(

Hi guys,

hate to waste your time with this lame question but my girlfriend and I have been arguing about the effectiveness of acupuncture. It seems to work on some people and my girlfriend pointed to a case where a surgeon completed a brain opperation without anesthetics using only acupuncture (citation indeed needed). Can you inform me on what the current meta data says about how acupuncture works or what the “deal” is with needles? Maybe just a good large meta data type study would help. Because the common folk go to these therapies since it’s offered from a doctor AND is paid for by the German Krankenkasse (health insurance) system. So people assume it has legit healing powers. P.S. Mortal Kombat videos are awsome. can’t wait till Austin and Jordan face off.

In general, most well-controlled studies tend to show no difference between “real” and fake/sham acupuncture.

Unfortunately I don’t have time to dive into the literature on this at the moment, so I’ll move this discussion to the unmoderated pain/rehab forum for others to chime in.

Dry needling: a literature review with implications for clinical practice guidelines - PMC heres one, although a bit older(2014).
http://www.journaltcm.com/modules/Jo…ries/161/1.pdf