New Study Exposes Acupuncture As Pseudoscience

by alecholmesthedetective 70 Replies latest social current

  • cofty
    cofty

    The whole of medical research is vastly corrupt or flawed.

    Does it seem likely that all researchers are involved in some gloabl conspiracy to keep people sick?

    You have the perception of a frightened child.

  • OnTheWayOut
    OnTheWayOut

    Accupuncture may not work because of the ancient "reasons" they use, but it may work. Traditional medication in many cases is a type of poison that promotes the body's own ability to fight off pain and invading cells. So accupuncture may similarly promote the body's own abilities in some ways. I have read of research that debunks quack medicine yet asks "Then why does accupuncture seem to work?"

    I do believe that in the long run, while the ancient explanation is not quite right, it is close enough. All matter is formed by atoms which contain energy. All life seems to thrive on an even greater flow of energy from cell to cell, dendrite to dendrite, and even creature to creature. Vegetation thrives on energy from the sun and animal life thrives on the energy it derives from breaking down vegetation. Some kind of "interuption" of the path of energy in the body and creation of a "detour" just might cause the body to solve it's own problems.

    Would I trust accupuncture to cure cancer over traditional medicine- NO. But neither would I dismiss the actual power of the placebo effect and possibly more that accupuncture plays in aiding one's own body to do the incredible.

  • besty
    besty

    @metatron - "The whole of *American* medical research is vastly corrupt or flawed."

    is what you are tyrying to say, but you are still wrong.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasty_generalization

  • cofty
    cofty

    But energy doesn't slosh around inside our bodies and get "stuck". Acupuncture needles are not the eqivalent of dynarod.

    Each of our cells contain a few hundred mytochondria - which were free living bacteria long ago - and every mitochondria uses molecules derived from glucose to make ATP which we later "burn" to do work or store as fat.

    Traditional practitioners need to do better at proposing possible mechanisms for their therapies.

  • metatron
    metatron

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1182327/

    No global conspiracy is needed. Money and greed accomplish it quite well. I am free from the hasty generalization that medical research is widely honest or valid.

    metatron

  • cofty
    cofty

    You said...

    The whole of medical research is vastly corrupt or flawed.

    No rational person can stand by that statement.

  • cantleave
    cantleave

    The whole of medical research is vastly corrupt or flawed.

    WOW!!! What a ridiculous statement.

  • OnTheWayOut
    OnTheWayOut

    Cofty, yes. The ancient explanations are not quite right. My overly-simplfied alternative is not quite right. Feel free to remove "quite" from the last two sentences. But there may still be something to it that is similar to that "detour" of energy. It may not be anything more than mind-over-reality and it may be much more. I am a huge skeptic, but I know that many many many people swear they have been helped by accupuncture.

    I find chiropractic therapy to be nonsense- totally quacked up. Yet the actual thought of strengthening the body through stretching and exercise AFTER AN ACCIDENT OR OTHER BODY HARMING EXPERIENCE OF LESSER IMPORTANCE is valid. Saying that a pinched nerve in the spine is the cause of cancer, headaches, the common cold, and that such a nerve can be straightened out in a ten-minute session- that is the quackery.

    Similarly, there is quackery in accupuncture. But a greater success story is told within.

  • Gypsy Sam
    Gypsy Sam

    I have gone for acupuncture quite a few times. I feel less stressed after it so that works for me.

    Cofty, I love that chart! I'm going to print one out and out it next to my logical fallacies chart.

    I started doing yoga with meditation last year. It was somewhat of a last resort, in dealing with a difficult teen. The meditation made a huge, noticeable difference in my demeanor and became an excellent coping skill.

    My daughter had some sore back issues and after two visits to the chiropractor she was back to normal. She also tried acupuncture And says she saw no difference.

  • metatron
    metatron

    Ridiculous to you, perhaps.

    What happens when vast, deep structural corruption in a scientific field is allowed to persist? Eventually, a crisis of credibility emerges in which the credibility of all results erodes, even good ones. Following this, great masses of people drift off into faddish therapies, having lost trust in the corrupt elite.

    In other words, Flawed.

    metatron

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