Claims that acupuncture can relieve pain have been undermined by the results of a new

[Nostalgia]

This is yet another attempt to destroy the world of alternative therapies, we already have the EU regulations coming in 2011 where each herbal supplement can cost up to £100,000 to be licenced, ensuring that only the largest of corporations will be able to produce supplements, or maybe destroying the industry altogether.
http://www.rinf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7211
This is nothing but a witch hunt designed to destroy alternative medicine and which is not that disimilar to the past when healers were called witches for practicing herbal remedies.
What next, ducking stools?
If you have not seen "Acupuncture the evidence" yet, check it out

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v11124359dPnbdgmy

I just had an acupuncture session this afternoon and I feel great!

Claims that acupuncture can relieve pain have been undermined by the results of a new study.


Researchers analysed evidence from 13 acupuncture trials involving more than 3,000 patients with a broad range of common conditions such as knee osteoarthritis, migraine, lower back and post-operative pain.

They found true acupuncture - where needles are inserted along what practitioners describe as the body's "energy meridians" - only had a small painkilling effect compared to a placebo procedure, where needles are placed around the body at random.

On average, patients felt a reduction in pain levels of about 4 per cent - a statistically insignificant change classed as "minimal".

There was a 10 per cent difference between placebo acupuncture and no acupuncture, but the effect of placebo acupuncture varied considerably.

The researchers, who are based at the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen, said their findings corresponded with several Cochrane reviews on acupuncture for various types of pain, which all found there was no clear evidence that acupuncture relieved pain.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, senior researcher Asbjorn Hrobjartsson said: "Our findings question both the traditional foundation of acupuncture...and the prevailing theory that acupuncture has an important effect on pain in general."

Mike O'Farrell, chief executive of the British Acupuncture Council, said: "The British Acupuncture Council is surprised at the findings of today's research about the pain-relieving effects of acupuncture compared with a placebo being so small they may be clinically irrelevant, as it seems to contradict the majority of research previously published in this area.

"Acupuncture does work and research results consistently demonstrate the positive outcomes of treatment on patients."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090128/...n-41f21e0.html