The Myth of Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been around for a long time, most say around 4000 years. It evolved in China and has since become quite prolific in Eastern and Western culture.

Western medicine has been quite skeptical as to the efficacy of acupuncture, however. And with good reason. The scientific evidence does not support the improvement of conditions treated with acupuncture.

More accurately, no study has conclusively shown that acupuncture provides any added benefit other than the placebo effect. In fact, “sham” acupuncture, in which needles are placed at random places in the body, has been shown to be just as effective as “real” acupuncture. Hell, even just jabbing someone with a toothpick has demonstrated the same effect.

Traditional acupuncture is supposed to work by manipulating the body’s energy, the Qi (pronounced ‘Chi’). The Qi flows through the body in pathways known as “meridians”. When the energy flows are out of balance, this causes pain. By placing needles in the body at certain places in the body, the energy flow through the meridians can be corrected, and cure people of chronic pain.

This is a crock. You can’t blame people in 2000 B.C. for thinking that acupuncture would work this way, since they didn’t know any better. But people, this is 2000 A.D., and we know how the body works. And it doesn’t work this way.

But is it possible that this ancient explanation is wrong, but acupuncture could still work somehow?

Well this has been debated for a long time now. As I said above, evidence does not support the traditional practice of acupuncture, and most Western doctors are skeptical.

But there may be something more going on. When the body experiences pain, it releases pain fighting chemicals, such as endorphins. The same thing happens when we eat spicy food, and this is why we like it so much. The body feels the pain on the tongue and responds with a pleasurable release of endorphins.

It is conceivable that something similar could be happening during acupuncture treatments. But, is this truly “Acupuncture”? Does it really matter where you stick the needle? The current scientific evidence points to either just a placebo effect, or the same process occurring in both sham and real acupuncture treatments. Therefore, either nothing at all is happening, or it just doesn’t matter where you stick the needle or what type of pain stimulus you use. The effect is the same.

You may have heard about a recent study published in Nature. It seems that a neuromodulator called adenosine was released in mice when they received “acupuncture”. In this study, the scientists placed needles near the knee of mice in which pain was earlier induced in the foot. It seems that twisting the needles released the adenosine, causing a reduction of the pain in the mouse foot.

There are a few problems with the way this study has been reported. It is not acupuncture. They stuck the needles in the mice, and twisted them. The traditional practice of acupuncture has nothing to do with this study. Yet, the paper itself, and the way Nature is reporting it on their website, is that it is directly related to acupuncture, which is not the case. I find it disturbing that a prestigious, perhaps THE most prestigious journal in the world, would report the study this way. It complete and utter pandering.

The media touted this study as evidence that acupuncture works. But does it really? Does acupuncture have absolutely anything to do with mice? Certainly not in the traditional form of acupuncture involving the treatment of Qi.

My opinion is that acupuncture has nothing at all to do with this study. The pain stimulus could have been anything. Just because they used needles does not make it acupuncture, and certainly is not evidence that acupuncture works in humans.

At best, this study demonstrates a new method of controlling pain in the body in response to a stimulus. Which is interesting, but certainly not any sort of definitive proof that acupuncture in its true form, actually works.

Be careful with what the headlines you read, and even what the article states. It does not take an advanced science degree to note that what happens in mice, may not necessarily translate to humans. Particularly, when it comes to a 4000 year old supposed pain remedy designed specifically for humans.