Claims for Efficacy are Often Based Upon a Bait-and-Switch Deception
The most common example of the "bait-and-switch" for acupuncture are studies that examined the effects on pain of electrical stimulation through acupuncture needles. This is not acupuncture - this is transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TENS), which is an accepted treatment for chronic pain, masquerading as acupuncture.
This is not a quibble. Science requires unambiguous definition of terms and concepts. If acupuncture is said to be something scientifically then it must have some specific and unique characteristics. In medicine that means it should have a specific mechanism of action - and it is that mechanism that we would call acupuncture. Electrical stimulation is no more acupuncture than if I injected morphine through a hollow acupuncture needle and then claimed that any resulting pain relief was due to "acupuncture."
Further, during a typical acupuncture treatment there are many other incidental effects that may occur. The atmosphere is often relaxing, and practitioners typically will palpate the "acupuncture points" prior to inserting the needles, for example. Practitioners also provide their kind attention, which has a positive psychological therapeutic value. There are therefore many nonspecific subjective effects that could lead to clients feeling better, making the actual insertion of needles an unnecessary component.
Reports of acupuncture anesthesia are also misleading. Independent investigation shows that patients having surgery under anesthesia (dramatic reports of which are largely credited with acupuncture's popularity in the West) reveal that patients were receiving morphine in the IV fluid. Other reports indicate that patient were experiencing great pain, but were simply instructed to remain quiet by the surgeon (a product of Eastern culture). There are no verified reports of acupuncture serving as effective anesthesia during surgery.
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My husband is a Certified Classical Five-Element Acupuncturist, Martin Murphy, C.A., L.Ac. Dipl. OM. He uses absolutely no electrical stimulation during acupuncture.
He has treated patients who have been referred to him by Chiropractors, regular MD's, oncologists, psychologists, physical therapists, & cardiologists. All of his patients have documented verifiable results, confirmed by observation and/or tested by standard radiology and blood work showing the improvements that were achieved in very hard cases only AFTER receiving acupuncuture. Our most moving case, being a patient with metastisized cancer whose belly was so swollen he looked 9 months pregnant and had been told by his specialists that the best they could do was to slow down the progress, if that. He began acupuncture to treat the pain, discomfort, and exhaustion caused by chemo and radiation. My husband was more determined to heal him then that and would not settle for mere pain relief. After six months of care, not only has did his stomach flatten, and his health and vitality return so that you wouldn't even know he was sick, but his MRI's showed consistently that his cancer was shrinking and his blood work steadily improved. Then he moved out of state, and stopped coming in for acupuncture for two months. He was still receiving all the same Western care, the only change was missing the acupuncture. He deteriorated quickly, and his stomach swelled back up again, and had several gallons of fluid drained out three times over those two months, until finally is desperation he chose to fly here to see my husband again. With acupuncture he has again improved, is no longer swelling or needing to be drained, and his vitality is returning again.
Our most profound case to me, is that of a 4 yr old girl who had been taken to every specialist imaginable for profound and severe allergies to almost everything, that resulted in a very limited diet, extreme care necessary in her daily life and environment to protect from allergens. She was brought in due to extraordinarily terrible eczema all over her body, that none of the Western specialists had been able to help at all through any of the means they tried. This resulted in an inablility for both the child and the mother to sleep, the child was miserable, lethargic, with no energy or desire to even play. She was too young to even understand what was being done during her treatment, must less "believe in her mind" that it would help her, when none of the other numerous things others had done had helped her at all. After 3 treatments she was sleeping through the night and the eczema rash was healing and disappearing. After 5 treatments there were only a few small patches on her hands and lower legs, and she was running around our office and chattering. After 7 treatments she was completely healed, and her grandparents didn't recognize her as the same child and her parents were proudly reporting that her school teachers were noticing extraordinary improvement.
You can't "bait & switch" an unknowing severely miserable 4 year old. And you can't fool an MRI, or ignore the difference between a belly swelling with gallons of fluid, or not swelling.
This is just two of many at our Center.
Anecdotes led to bleeding, purgatives, and other useless treatments (such as acupuncture). Hasn't anyone explained this to you? Your stories mean nothing. Where are the controlled experiments that support acupuncture? (They do not exist; but you can look, if you have time to waste.)
I don't mind people who are simply uninformed on a topic. What I mind is people who are uninformed, yet pontificate on a topic as if they were informed: Justin Kruger and David Dunning "Unskilled and Unaware of It" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1999, Vol. 77, No. 6. ] 1121-1134. This is free, online, but the URL is not handy.