A short article in yesterday’s New York Times reports on a new study showing that “fake acupuncture appears to work just as well for pain relief as the real thing” in patients with painful knee arthritis. “A 2007 National Health Interview Survey found that an estimated 3.1 million Americans had used acupuncture in the past year. Back pain is the most common reason patients seek acupuncture treatment, followed by joint pain, neck pain, migraines and other forms of recurring pain.”
The article mentions one good resource: the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. NCCAM is part of NIH. The NCCAM website reviews the research on acupuncture and offers a video lecture on acupuncture that is part of their online education series. See:
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/
Here’s a link to the article:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/1 … ases-pain/
The New York Times
August 18, 2010, 11:25 AM
Well
Tara Parker-Pope on Health
Acupuncture, Real or Fake, Eases Pain