Does Acupuncture Work?

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As a former Aerospace Engineer who flight tested helicopters and performed cutting-edge research in the field of turbulent aerodynamics, I can honestly say that acupuncture is a thoroughly proven system of healthcare.  Proving acupuncture efficacy is relatively easy - western medicine and modern science are having a difficult time understanding the underlying mechanisms as to how acupuncture works.  As an example, a common health concern I encounter in my clinic is female infertility.  Countless studies have proven acupuncture’s effectiveness in improving the viability and diameter of ova, but have not come close to explaining how it works.  In a 1993 publication entitled “Clinical studies on the mechanism for acupuncture stimulation of ovulation,” a number of reproductive hormones serum levels were measured in 34 anovulatory (non-ovulating) women before and throughout an average of 30 acupuncture treatments.  The total effective rate was 82.35%, and as quoted in the text, “the results also showed that acupuncture may adjust FSH, LH, and E2 in two directions and raise the progesterone level, bringing them to normal. The animal experiments confirmed this result. Results showed that acupuncture may adjust endocrine function of the generative and physiologic axis of women, thus stimulating ovulation.”  Postulation exists, but an absolute understanding of the mechanisms of acupuncture is still out of reach to the scientific community.

I’ve had physicians tell me confidently that there’s no proof to acupuncture’s physiologic effects on patients.  If you type in the key word “acupuncture” into the NIH national library of medicine “PubMed” database, it will return over 13,000 peer reviewed journal articles.  That doesn’t mean ALL of the articles are favorable toward acupuncture, but it demonstrates that there is a significant amount of research on the topic.  Many tests were performed by MDs with minimal (approximately 200 hours) of training in acupuncture, so the corresponding results were poor.