Arthritis - Acupuncture: it's as good as drugs for treating pain

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Acupuncture: it's as good as drugs for treating pain

Roman Bystrianyk

2005-05-06, 8:47 am

http://www.healthsentinel.com/news....ist_item&id=780

Severin Carrell, "At last the truth about acupuncture: it's as good as
drugs for treating pain", Independent, May 1, 2005,
Link:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/he...sp?story=634685

Sceptics have long claimed that acupuncture is all in the mind. But a
ground-breaking new study has found that the ancient Chinese practice
is as effective as popular painkillers for treating disabling
conditions such as arthritis.

A team of scientists from two British universities made the findings
after they carried out brain scans on patients while they underwent the
2,500-year-old treatment. The scans showed differences in the brain's
response to acupuncture needles when compared with tests using "dummy
needles" that did not puncture the skin.

Doctors found that the part of the brain that manages pain and the
nervous system responded to acupuncture needles and improved pain
relief by as much as 15 per cent.

Dr George Lewith, from the university of Southampton's Complementary
Medicine Research Unit, said the improvement might seem modest, "but
it's exactly the same size of effect you would get from real Prozac
versus a placebo or real painkillers for chronic pain". "The evidence
we now have is that acupuncture works very well on pain," he said.

The findings, which will be published today in the scientific journal
NeuroImage, have been welcomed by acupuncturists, who have long faced
scepticism from scientists that the benefits are derived from the
placebo effect. Although some clinical trials have shown an improvement
in pain relief, the practice remains controversial. Other trials, for
instance, have found little difference between acupuncture treatments
and placebos.

Persis Tamboly, of the British Acupuncture Council, said: "We're really
thrilled about this research. There will be critics of this subject
until our dying days, but research like this substantiates what we've
always maintained - that acupuncture works."

The council hopes the findings will help to make acupuncture become
accepted as a National Health Service treatment. Despite its
controversial status, more than two million acupuncture treatments are
performed each year. Its supporters include Cherie Blair, Kate Winslet
and Joan Collins.

The 14 patients who participated in the study were put through three
tests in random order, while "brain maps" were created using
sophisticated positron emission tomography, or PET, scans at University
College London. In one test, researchers used blunt needles that
pricked the skin, but which the brain registered as the sensation of
touch. Dummy needles, where the tip was pushed back once it touched the
skin, were then used, and in the third test the patients underwent
acupuncture treatment with real needles.

The acupuncture needles had two measurable effects on the patients'
brains: as with the dummy needles, the brain released natural opiates
in response to the expected effect of the needles. But the scans showed
that the real needles had an extra effect and stimulated another part
of the brain called the ipsilateral insular. This improved pain relief
by 10-15 per cent - similar to the effect of taking conventional
analgesic drugs.

The study, though, does not explain how acupuncture treats other
problems such as stress or disease.

Dr Lewith said: "Further research is definitely planned. This is a very
interesting area. I have been involved in acupuncture research for 25
years, and I'm now getting a very realistic understanding of the
effects of this mechanism," he said.

At the sharp end

* Developed in China about 2,500 years ago, using stone needles at
first and later bronze, gold and silver. The first medical reference
was in The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, written
around 300BC.

* There are about 500 acupuncture points on the body, which can affect
the body's "chi" or energy. A headache can be treated with needles
inserted in the hand or foot.

* Fine needles are inserted into "energy channels" in the body called
"meridians". Needles help natural healing processes or relieve pain.

* Other techniques include the use of massage, smouldering herbs, and
tapping with a rounded probe, as well aslasers and electro-acupuncture

* UK scientists say they have now proved that acupuncture directly
affects the parts of the brain that control pain, and is as effective
as taking painkillers.

none

2005-05-06, 8:47 am

Roman Bystrianyk wrote:

> http://www.healthsentinel.com/news....ist_item&id=780
>
> Severin Carrell, "At last the truth about acupuncture: it's as good as
> drugs for treating pain", Independent, May 1, 2005,
> Link:
> http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/he...sp?story=634685
>
> Sceptics have long claimed that acupuncture is all in the mind. But a
> ground-breaking new study has found that the ancient Chinese practice
> is as effective as popular painkillers for treating disabling
> conditions such as arthritis.
>
> A team of scientists from two British universities made the findings
> after they carried out brain scans on patients while they underwent the
> 2,500-year-old treatment. The scans showed differences in the brain's
> response to acupuncture needles when compared with tests using "dummy
> needles" that did not puncture the skin.
>

--snip--

Guess what, the same effect comes from playing videogames or having
virtual reality goggles placed on your head while something painful is
being done to you (they do this with patients with severe burns who get
their bandaging changed, an extremely painfull procedure for which no
painkiller has any effect).

I don't think anyone is surprised by the fact that poking around with
needles has an effect. It's the claimed basis of this effect - Chi,
meridians and all that. That is and will remain pure bullshit.
The real basis is distraction and counterirritation, i.e. if you hit
someone with a hammer on his thumb he's gonna forget his headache for a
while. It's already been shown you get exactly the same result if you
rub someone's skin with sandpaper. And it doesn't matter where you poke
the needles, as long as it's not in a dangerous location like your
eyeball, so who needs acupuncturists. The same effect can be achieved
safer, cheaper and easier, is wellknown in special painclinics.

And mind you, this is not proof acupuncture works. It might be proof
that using a human as a voodoo-doll has some analgesic effect, but not
that acupuncture 'works'. Even if this one claim for acupuncture turns
out to be absolutely true, it is complete bullshit (non sequitur
reasoning) to claim that therefor all other claims of acupuncture are
true as well.

So:
- the result of this study is no surprise
- even if the study is valid and flawless it is not proof acupuncture
'works'
- this does not prove that Qi and meridians and such exist
In short, a perfect example of a red herring, a non-event, the dog that
didn't bark.

Johnny Huang

2005-05-06, 8:47 am

Guess what, the same effect comes from playing videogames or having
virtual reality goggles placed on your head while something painful is
being done to you (they do this with patients with severe burns who get

their bandaging changed, an extremely painfull procedure for which no
painkiller has any effect).

No, that's not what happens during bio-feedback. The isilateral
insular is affected by acupuncture, not sham acupuncture & not
bio-feedback.

What would it take for you to accept that Acupuncture has efficacy
beyond that of distraction?

Peter Moran

2005-05-06, 8:47 am

"Paul T. Holland" <pholland@bellatlantic.net> wrote in message
news:4276C326.22FB0455@bellatlantic.net...
> Peter, while you are entitled to your opinion, NIH does not agree with
> you.

The Cochrane collaboration agrees with me in their recent revision of the
subject, but I do make up my own mind. There are as many negative trials
appearing as positive, there is a trend towards the better quality trials
being negative, and you have to factor in that theatrical, novel,
difficult-to-fully-blind treatment methods like acupuncture are always
likely to produce some positive trials whether better than an authentic
placebo or not.

I have also allowed that acupunture may have minor clinical effects. My
main concern is that many seem happy to believe that ancient Chinese
theories are being validated. They are not.

Peter Moran

Orac

2005-05-17, 8:49 am

In article
<42772ec5$0$247$61c65585@uq-127creek-reader-03.brisbane.pipenetworks.com
..au>,
"Peter Moran" <moringa@gil.com.au> wrote:

> "Paul T. Holland" <pholland@bellatlantic.net> wrote in message
> news:4276C326.22FB0455@bellatlantic.net...
>
> The Cochrane collaboration agrees with me in their recent revision of the
> subject, but I do make up my own mind. There are as many negative trials
> appearing as positive, there is a trend towards the better quality trials
> being negative, and you have to factor in that theatrical, novel,
> difficult-to-fully-blind treatment methods like acupuncture are always
> likely to produce some positive trials whether better than an authentic
> placebo or not.
>
> I have also allowed that acupunture may have minor clinical effects. My
> main concern is that many seem happy to believe that ancient Chinese
> theories are being validated. They are not.

Correct. The newer studies tend to show minimal or no effect from
acupuncture, and the Cochrane reviews agree for now.

--
Orac |"I am not *trying* to tell you anything. I am simply not
| interested in trying to compensate for your amazing lack
| of observation."
| http://oracknows.blogspot.com

George Lagergren

2005-05-17, 8:49 am

xxxxx wrote:
> I have also allowed that acupunture may have minor clinical effects. My
> main concern is that many seem happy to believe that ancient Chinese
> theories are being validated. They are not.

"Orac" <orac_usa@hotmail.com> replied:
> Correct. The newer studies tend to show minimal or no effect from
> acupuncture, and the Cochrane reviews agree for now.

I know a local medical doctor (M.D.) who was a good doctor but
switched to doing acupuncture in his older years. According to his
patients, this doctor is also quite good at using acupuncture to relieve
pain in his patients.

Orac

2005-05-18, 8:51 am

George Lagergren

2005-05-18, 8:51 am

Orac

2005-05-20, 11:46 am