Yes, and that is all you know. You do not know if the acupuncture had any real effect at all beyond placebo. You do not know whether the outcome would have been the same without the acupuncture; you merely know that it turns out that the surgery was apparently not required to alleviate your suffering.

As a member of your entitled boomer generation, may I ask what it is I feel I am entitled to? Apparently I am ignorant of something about myself that you hold as knowledge. The question is rhetorical; the fact is there is more exception than rule in your sweeping generalization.

Sonic: Thy name is personal anecdote. You are welcome to value your experience with acupuncture and your elbow, however, the medical community is ethically bound to consider the entirety of the evidence as regards the efficacy of acupuncture as a medical intervention.

Three accupunture treatments and the pain was gone and I don’t need the operation. This is what happened to me 5 years ago. (Pain still gone- elbow healed) You can understand that I don’t care that somebody thinks that accupunture doesn’t do anything. I know I saved over $5,500, got full use of my arm in a couple days instead of months, and did not have to subject myself to the addictive, liver killing drugs.

You are both correct that the standard that these treatments are generally held to is- “This works for me.”
I would suggest this is a reasonable standard for someone wishing to be healthy, since “I feel good,” is somewhat subjective as well.

How did you discover the “crimes” you decry? I’ll tell you- scientific medicine is constantly seeking to correct itself. Every treatment carries a risk; however, quacks deny it. Since they won’t do the job, somebody should.

Consider the useless, chiropractic neck snap. As the evidence mounts that the risk of stroke (and death) exceeds any small benefit (which can be achieved more safely, other ways) chiros deny the reports. It has become clear that the bilateral vertebral artery dissection is chiropracty’s unique gift to humanity; but you won’t hear it from them, you’ll hear just the opposite.

In fact, their argument is outrageous: “We don’t cause strokes, victims arrive with the artery dissection in progress as demonstrated by their stiff necks and headaches.” So, DCs have not figured out that they should not snap the necks of people with these complaints!?

When will the alties police themselves?

With the above caveat- from the current report-

On page 1 the claim is that Asian adults use CAM less than white adults- a result I find funny since the numerous Asian adults I know (my business partner for years is Asian) all use Chinese medicine at times. So it seems the report is no doubt underestimating the use of ‘alternative’ therapies.

This is from the Newsweek article- “The report, which uses data from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey, also provides even more specific clues about the most likely consumers of these treatments: 50-somethings who have graduate degrees, are relatively well off financially, live in the West and have quit smoking.”

So we have a group of well-educated, successful, physically active people taking part in these treatments. That certainly fits with my experience. These people no doubt feel the treatments work and that they can make up their owns minds in regard this. (I’m guessing this due to the fact that older, well educated, successful people are often this way.)

If we want to go after fraud and stop those using fraud to enrich themselves- consider this-

If we look at the ‘scientific ethical’ drug industry we have different findings. According to the Wall Street Journal today (and this has been well known for years) the drug companies publish about 40% of the trials they run on drugs that get approval. We can guess this is because 60% of the trials show the drugs to be ineffective. This is a worse record than one would have testing placebos.
It takes billions and billions of dollars in advertising to get people to take these drugs and the people who prescribe them need to spend billions of dollars on the largest team of lawyers in the world to protect them from the mountains of litagation that the poor people who are maimed by these drugs produces.
So we have a fraud that effects every person (your tax dollars pay for these drugs) that is costing people literally 100’s of billions of dollars and has been going on for decades.

This also makes it seem the real valuable drugs are more dangerous and less effective than they actually are because they are promoted in the same way by the same people who are selling the poisons.
This causes people to question the value of science as well. (Vioxx is science?= Science is a horrible death producing fraud. Not an illogical conclusion…)

When will the skeptics take on the real criminals?

For example, you write “Also, the numbers reveal the hollowness of the CAM label – what does CAM really mean [damn right]? … Also, manipulative therapy is reasonable for uncomplicated acute lower back strain, [which] is what about 60% of manipulation is used for.” That number is doubtful- there is evidence that chiros offer relief comparable to that offered by masseurs. However, how much of that 60% is wasted on “maintenance” adjustments?

Quacks want to inflate the number for ad pop arguments. We want to advocate for a large problem from sCAM. I remain confused about how many people are affected by quackery.