Patients Experience Benefit Because of Placebo Effects
So is the benefit many patients perceive after having had acupuncture not real? The benefit is real alright, it is however, often not related to the specific therapeutic effects of acupuncture. It is, on the contrary, caused by a range of non-specific effects which we often call placebo-effects. These can be due to expectation, the empathic therapeutic relationship with an acupuncturist, the time spent etc. In a way, this could be seen as justifying the use of acupuncture even for conditions for which it is not effective. But we should remember that even effective treatments come with a “free bonus” of a placebo effect. Therefore we don’t need a placebo-response.
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My husband is a Certified Classical Five-Element Acupuncturist, and Dipl. OM with a Master's Degree in Traditional Oriental Medicine. I run the office. Not only do I personally receive acupuncture regularly, but I also see every single day the efficacy of the treatment in his patients. And he has been teaching me a bit about the techniques.
If acupuncture were merely a placebo effect, then you could just stick needles anywhere in the body if a person was "convinced" it would work, and they would all have the same effect... and that just doesn't happen. I can feel the difference in my own body in where the needles are placed, and can tell by the sensation if he got the point right or was off by a millimeter. I can also tell, as can he, what it feels like on the needle when it goes into the right spot. An acurate acupuncture point being needled has a very specific feel to it, there is a "tug" and a density to the point. If it is missed, it feels like the needle is sliding into soft butter, no resistence or tug at all.
And if you don't needles the right points in the right order, in the right direction, then there is no noticable change. My husband can tell immediately if the treatment has worked by changes in the patient's pulses, their color, odor, sound of their voice, and emotional state. After spending a year working with him, even I can tell the differences now. And if something didn't work, he is the first to notice, and adjust and do the treatment over and differently to achieve the needed change.
MRI's, radiology, and blood work have reliably proven in our Center that the treatments given here have a real effect and create true healing, allowing many of our patients to stop taking pharmaceuticals for pain, hypertension, migraines, hyperthyroidism, diabetes, and others with their primary care's approval.
Personally he has stopped an extreme migraine with just five points the migraine and all of it's symptoms went away in less than 10 minutes, and I was able to eat pizza 20 minutes later. I have had migraines last two days and Imitrex, Vicodin, Excedrine, and Ibuprofen didn't touch them! If the acupuncture had a placebo effect, why didn't any of the pharamaceuticals work for me. And as he was needling me I was protesting and insisting it would not work. He was right, and I was wrong. Further I broke two of my toes the day before Thanksgiving last year, using only acupuncture, I had no pain, the swelling and bruising healed rapidly, and I was able to happily walk around Manhatten two days later. I had my tonsils out and major sinus repair surgery at the end of June of this year. My ENT said I had the worst tonsils she had ever seen,chronically inflammed since early childhood, and my septum was severly deviated and my sinuses were awful. I was able to talk the very next day. Used only 1/3 of the pain medicine she gave me, went back to work after only 4 days, and by my two week post-op, she couldn't even tell I'd had my tonsils out, I had healed so perfectly. She has since referred several of her own patients to my husband for pre- and post-op acupuncture and treatment of sinusitis and allergies.
Further, the "placebo" effect has been more thoroughly established with regards to Western Medicine Pharmacology, so perhaps we should just toss all those expensive Profit-making pills that do more harm than good and swallow Flintstones vitamins instead.
Arguments, and anecdotes/testimonials are worthless. We rely on verifiable studies. Why can you not cite any? It is simple, that is all we ask. Then we can consider the quality of your evidence.
I would like to add here - the various threads are a little complicated to follow so this may not be the ideal place.
Double blind placebo controlled trials are clearly trying to rule out the placebo affect. It has been commented on by others that the placebo affect is a remarkable thing in itself. And I hesitate to say this for fear of miss-understanding, but one possible mechanism to understand acupunture in modern terms is that it directly affects whatever mechanism is responsible for the placebo affect and so is not dependent upon a patients belief, but there may be similar mechanisms. The closest we have come yet to a verification of channel and point theory is electical properties and so it seems likely that the electrical mechanisms that Becker researched could be the underlying link here. I have just been given 'Energy Medicine The Scientific Basis' by James L. Oschman - I have not begun to read it yet, but it seems to be along the same lines and a continuation of Becker's research.
Why not simply cite the rigorous research that supports your ideas (popular books don't count).