http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/128/Supplement_4/S187.abstract/reply#pediatrics_el_51800

It is an uphill battle because it is much easier to go with the CAM answer than actual science.

To bolster your spirits (and hopefully those of others here) I had a number of my med school classmates who were in the same camp. They genuinely thought that acupuncture “worked” and had a “what’s the harm attitude.” After much discussion and a few emails with articles (many here, and SBM as well along with some current PubMed stuff) I have them duly convinced about everything we have learned via active skepticism around these parts. They were truly amazed at the claims and the paucity of evidence and special pleading.

So I ask each person I take the time to do that with, whose eyes I have opened, not to be an active skeptic and write constantly about it (since that is a lot of effort and not everyone is up for it) but merely to spread the word whenever they can over their careers. Get people thinking a bit. Stop people from being shruggies. And stand firm when nonsense comes their way. I explained to them that if they can do so for just a handful or two of people and just a couple of those do the same, we can keep things moving the right way. They’ve agreed and I feel like I’ve done my part (for now).

Sometimes I get so angry at how this crap has pervaded our society, and I feel mostly powerless to fight it.

@Jim
I think a lot of us are in the same boat. I have slowly seen how CAM has creeped into my near social circles, most of them having university degrees even.

I even know two medical students buying into acupuncture, who no matter how thoroughly I shred their arguments to pieces from every angle (in a civil way of course), persists in the “but if a person feel that it works, well then it works” argument.

And this is after I have gotten them to acknowledge it is pure placebo by explaining the lack of plausibility and the research. And after I have told them that even a small risk is unacceptable for placebos, and that it takes focus away from legitimate treatments, plus it can be resource exhausting – thus hurting people with limited time/money/energy.

A lot of people just tend to let their gut conquer all reason, no matter what you tell them.

At least I have managed to convince a couple of people who just didn’t know a lot about the subject, but thought acupuncture was legitimate.

Especially one friend I have, a really sweet woman, has turned out to be quite into some far out woo. The problem is that it is so so hard bringing up the subject and keep a friendly tone, because you are implicitly criticizing their beliefs and intellect. It is also hard to debate the subject in a casual non conflicting way, without coming of as a dick.

This of course doesn’t mean I will stop trying, but it is so f’ed up that the truth is an uphill battle, because correcting misinformation and misconceptions is many times harder than spreading them.

The other day, I attended an open house event at my son’s grade-school, where they also had a health fair in the gym. I put on my “Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe” T-shirt (which I often wear at public gatherings such as this) and went into the health fair, half expecting to see at least some form of SCAM (“So-called CAM”, as I like to put it) in there.

Sure enough, the local chiropractor was represented there by his wife and a nurse, and they were offering some sort of free spinal measurements (which certainly did look impressively technical, with a little hand-held ultrasound device connected to a notebook computer). Among the many services listed on the sign was acupuncture, so I thought I would stop and ask the ladies a few questions.

The nurse told me that acupuncture works by removing toxins from the body, using the body’s “pressure points”. I said, “Really?! I had no idea. So are the needles hollow, then?” She said they were not hollow and were very tiny, so I asked her how the toxins were removed, and she referred me to the chiropractor’s wife, who “knows a lot more about it.”

When I talked to the chiropractor’s wife, I started by asking what acupuncture is and how it works. Her answers astonished me. She began listing all the ailments it can cure. Second on the list after pain was infertility, so I asked her how it was possible that poking tiny needles into a woman’s skin nowhere near her reproductive organs could cure her infertility. She said that her husband was an expert, with 400 hours of acupuncture training, the “most you can get” (?!), and that a woman came in and they cured her.

I was tempted to say, “You’re husband has 400 hours of training in nonsense,” but instead I told her that I was surprised to hear that acupuncture could cure diseases, and that I would have to investigate further. (I kept hoping that she would read my T-shirt, but I don’t think she ever did.)

Sometimes I get so angry at how this crap has pervaded our society, and I feel mostly powerless to fight it. Oh yeah, I also learned that my son’s first grade teacher has the class say a prayer together before lunch every day. This is a public school.

Steve, you’re an inspiration. Please keep doing what you do to fight superstition and medical quackery. I’ll keep asking questions. Now I need to go make an appointment to talk to the principal.

Physican ethics simply don’t allow using or suggesting non-standard of care treatments and that includes placebos like acupuncture.