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How Acupuncture May Work
- bjcubsfan 16y agoThese methods for how acupuncture may work seem to be reaching, especially for something that has been shown to be no more effective than a placebo. Some better reading on acupuncture may be this great book that I read: http://www.amazon.com/Snake-Oil-Science-Complementary-Alternative/dp/0195383427/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275404320&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Snake-Oil-Science-Complementary-Altern... Also you can check out the links at this great website: http://sciencebasedmedicine.org/reference/acupuncture/ http://sciencebasedmedicine.org/reference/acupuncture/
- lhorie 16y agoInteresting that you mention placebo, given the criticism it has been receiving lately (e.g. placebo studies often rely on patients stating how they feel, rather than measuring chemical levels). The study published in Nature essentially opens the possibility to study acupuncture without relying on patient-reported data.
- jimfl 16y agoFlaccid lede. A very flat and not particularly informative article.
- lhorie 16y agoThe paper on Nature is much more in-depth, if you're interested. http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.2562.html http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.25... This is actually a somewhat big milestone for acupuncture. It's been historically accused of being snake oil because there was no known mechanism of action. Now there is. This part of the study is particularly promising: "Acupuncture combined with pharmacological suppression of AMP deaminase activity should theoretically increase the availability of adenosine and thereby enhance the clinical benefits of acupuncture. As a proof of principle, we found that mice treated with a Food and Drug Administration approved deaminase inhibitor, deoxycoformycin, exhibited more potent increases in adenosine and benefitted from a longer-lasting suppression of chronic pain following acupuncture."