Tag: acupuncture

Acupuncture and cupping for adult idiopathic scoliosis at the VA

A veteran's adult idiopathic scoliosis was treated at a VA health clinic with acupuncture and cupping in an attempt to correct his spinal curvature, an impossibility without surgery. The ideology of so-called integrative medicine is firmly entrenched at the VA, to the detriment of veterans and taxpayers.

/ October 8, 2020
Acupuncture needles

UK Recommendations Wrong on Acupuncture

NICE draft recommendations on acupuncture don't even make sense from an EBM perspective, and utterly fail to consider SBM principles.

/ August 5, 2020

FTC warns naturopaths, acupuncturists, physicians, and chiropractors about false and misleading COVID-19 claims  

Since March, the FTC has issued almost 250 warning letters to companies and individuals making unsubstantiated claims for COVID-19 treatments. Included among these are naturopaths, acupuncturists, physicians, and chiropractors.

/ June 18, 2020
Acupuncture needles

Acupuncture for Migraine Unconvincing

The evidence for the effectiveness of acupuncture in migraines remains unconvincing, and a new study changes nothing.

/ April 1, 2020

Quackademic medicine update: UC Irvine reneges on promise of scientific rigor

In 2017, UC Irvine promised that the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute would be "rigorously evidence-based". A recent review discovers plenty of pseudoscience.

/ February 27, 2020

Legislative Alchemy 2019: Acupuncturists score Medicare coverage and scope of practice expansion 

Through the magic of legislative alchemy, acupuncture has already scored some big wins in 2020, including Medicare coverage.

/ February 13, 2020
Acupuncture

More evidence that acupuncture doesn’t work for chronic pain

Acupuncture is a theatrical placebo whose real history has been retconned beyond recognition. A new systematic review of systematic reviews of acupuncture for chronic pain highlights that conclusion and catalogues the many weaknesses in the design of acupuncture clinical trials.

/ January 6, 2020

NCCIH surveys physicians on their recommendation of “complementary health approaches,” with depressing results

The NCCIH recently published a study examining the percentage of US physicians who had recommended "complementary health approaches" to their patients in the last year. The percentages are far higher than they should be.

/ December 16, 2019
Acupuncture for xerostomia

Spinning a negative acupuncture study: Same as it ever was

Investigators at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center reported the results of a trial of acupuncture for xerostomia (dry mouth) secondary to radiation therapy for head and neck cancers. It was a negative trial, but investigators still tried to spin it as positive, but with a twist. There was a large difference between results found at M.D. Anderson and the second site in China....

/ December 9, 2019

Alternative Medicine: Placebos for Pets

A skeptical veterinarian reviews the evidence for alternative medicine for pets, and concludes it's mostly placebos.

/ December 3, 2019