Comments on: Another Worthless Acupuncture Study

By: NeuroLogica Blog » Through the Looking Glass of Acupuncture Research

NeuroLogica Blog » Through the Looking Glass of Acupuncture Research — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:00:47 +0000

[...] Coming next – functional studies of acupuncture in IVF. This means that the control arms will be discarded in favor of studying acupuncture for IVF in a more “natural and condusive” setting. Well-controlled studies are negative, so proponents will go back to doing poorly-controlled studies where their biases can assure a favorable outcome, and they will justify this travesty of science and reason with pleasing language about studying acupuncture in its more “pragmatic” context. This has already happened for acupuncture in other applications, like for headaches. [...]

By: Science-Based Medicine » On the dangers of using valid placebo controls in clinical trials of acupuncture

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:03:20 +0000

[...] mechanism by which it could be reasonably postulated to have an effect. Arthritis, allergies, headache, back pain, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), Parkinson’s disease, post-operative [...]

By: Science-Based Medicine » Placebos in the news again

Science-Based Medicine » Placebos in the news again — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 08:02:15 +0000

[...] of “alternative” medical therapies, as documented by bloggers for SBM (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). One thing that has to be emphasized, though. Placebo effects have limits. For example, I am [...]

By: Science-Based Medicine » Acupuncture for Hot Flashes - Or, Why So Many Worthless Acupuncture Studies?

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:00:53 +0000

[...] is not an isolated case. Three weeks ago a similarly worthless study of acupuncture study for the treatment of headaches was published. This study, too, was not blinded [...]

By: self help

self help — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:01:23 +0000

self help…

I think this is a most excellent idea; I just spent approx 90 minutes on the phone walking through various parts of the SCM (and metalink 3) and provided a good chunk of opinions and observations. In closing, and I mentioned this on the phone to the ni…

By: psamathos

psamathos — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:25:03 +0000

Wow, what a waste of time and money.

By: Have Coffee Will Write » Blog Archive » WHAT THEY SAID…

Have Coffee Will Write » Blog Archive » WHAT THEY SAID… — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:15:02 +0000

[...] Steven Novella wrote: Comming (by coincidence) on the heels of my recent blog entry on why I am skeptical of acupuncture, another major acupuncture study has just been published. This study looked at acupuncture for headaches, and was published in a major headache journal – Cephalalgia. The media, in typical fashion, gets the bottom line wrong, declaring: “Acupuncture may ease chronic headache pain.” [...]

By: daijiyobu

daijiyobu — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:52:19 +0000

This is where I write:

CHI-nese medicine!!! Quackupuncture!!!

Oh, how the slippery health sectarians so deftly avoid reality crashing down upon their idealistic sand castles!

This reminds me of Wohler’s statement, in the late 1820s, when he synthesized urea and put one of the major nails into the coffin of vitalism:

“[this is] the great tragedy of science, the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”

Yet, the slippery sectarians soldier on, dreams intact — reality denied:

as Adam Savage facetiously stated in a Mythbusters episode [with my addendum],

“I reject your reality…and substitute my own [definition of legitimate science].”

-r.c.