10 replies to this topic

[Martyn Sadler]

Another thread notes the apparent sympathy the new Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has for homeopathy.
Most qualified medical practitioners dismiss homeopathy, however, as a load of quackery.
Perhaps they are quite right to do so.
But what about acupuncture, which is another treatment that seems to have little medical grounding, and yet is widely used throughout the world?
I was a sceptic, and yet earlier this year an osteopath gave me treatment for a bad back, using acupuncture, and it cured the problem very quickly.
I would now be reluctant to dismiss acupuncture, while having no idea at all why it should work.
Has anyone else had the same experience, or even a contrary one?

[Futtocks]

Within the wide range of treatments that come under the umbrella term 'alternative therapy', there's a lot of genuine quackery and honest-but-misguided bad science. But there are also things that can and do work which get tarred with the same brush.

[Wolford6]

I am living testimony to the powers of acupuncture. When I was 31 or 32, I dislocated my shoulder quite badly playing rugby. The injury was doubly unlucky because it damaged a nerve cluster. I not only suffered muscle damage but also movement in articulating my shoulder. Conventional physiotherapy did a little good, but after six months (?) I still couldn't lift my arm sideways to shoulder height and had muscle wastage in my biceps and forearm.

I jacked in twice-a-week NHS physiotherapy classes after a few months because I felt guilty; I could do many of the exercises whereas co-patients were unable to walk unaided etc ... I'm sure that seeing me swinging on wallbars wasn't doing their recovery any good whatsoever.

I was advised to visit an acupuncturist in Hebden Bridge ... Dr Barry Landale ... who told me that my natural healing process had switched itself off but that he would try and simulate a repeat injury using acupuncture needles wired to an electric pulse. The one-session-a-week process took about four or five months and wasn't particularly cheap, but the effect was remarkable. I didn't recover full movement (still haven't) but I started playing rugby again and lasted till I was 43.

I am currently having another course of acupuncture via my NHS GP health centre ... one quarter-hour-session per week ... because tendons in my heels have developed a tendency to sieze up. Again, I have seen good progress.


I just checked out Dr Landale and he's still going, but seemingly doesn't do clinical recuperation work any more. Pity, he was brilliant for me.


http://www.morningside.co.uk/

[ckn]

My wife had seriously bad migraines since childhood that many thousands of pounds of private healthcare over at least a decade, endless combinations of drugs, etc just couldn't budge. In desperation and against what she believed about it she had a few sessions of acupuncture and her migraines all bar disappeared. She just goes for a "top up" session once every 6 months or so when she feels the migraines starting to come back.

I also had the other kind of acupuncture when I damaged my calf muscles last year. The physio offered me about 10 sessions of conventional physio treatment to help it or two sessions of deep tissue acupuncture. I chose the latter. It was massive needles inserted deep into the muscle tissue then wiggled around. I'm sure I was screaming like a six year old girl. After the second treatment my legs were far better and just sore from the acupuncture beatings. I'm not convinced whether it was the acupuncture itself or my mind conning me that I was healthy just so I wouldn't be subjected to those needles again!

[gingerjon]

I've got a spare placebo lying around here somewhere.

[Severus]

Disclaimer: I don't have any form of medical training apart from basic first aid.

I am sceptical about the merits of acupuncture (having not had any) but at least it is a physical treatment that actually does something to the patient and may have positive results. Homeopathy is essentially drinking water and expecting miracle results. Granted is may help if the patient is suffering from dehydration but little else barring the placebo effect.

Edited by Severus, 06 September 2012 - 02:52 PM.

[Stevo]

There is some reliable experimental evidence that suggests acupuncture can be an effective treatment for some ailments; there is no evidence other than the anecdotal for the efficacy of homeopathy for any ailment. That's the basic difference.

Edit to add: are homeopathic treatments still available on the NHS in the quest to "increase patient choice"?

Edited by Stevo, 06 September 2012 - 04:59 PM.

[steef]

What gets me is that people who believe in homeopathy think water has a memory yet forgets all the urine and faeces its had in it..

[longboard]

I've got a spare placebo lying around here somewhere.

Those placebos are hocus pocus quackery.

[JohnM]

see here for placebo effect

[chuffer]

What gets me is that people who believe in homeopathy think water has a memory yet forgets all the urine and faeces its had in it..

haha quite