Category: Acupuncture
How to design high quality acupuncture trials: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Acupuncture advocates have published guidelines for "rigorous" acupuncture randomized controlled trials. While that sounds good on the surface, the devil is in the details, which reveal that the dedication to scientific rigor is perhaps not so strong.
Science-based medicine isn’t just for CAM. The case of ivermectin shows that it never was.
Another large randomized controlled trial for ivermectin showed no efficacy for the early treatment of COVID-19. This is not a surprise to science-based medicine advocates. Here's why the story of ivermectin shows that SBM isn't just for "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) —and never was.
Allergy Release Technique
A dubious intervention for food allergies follows a typical pattern for such treatments.
Ivermectin: The acupuncture of COVID-19 treatments
As high-quality evidence increasingly and resoundingly shows that ivermectin does not work against COVID-19, advocates are doing what acupuncture advocates do: Turning to lower quality "positive" studies to claim incorrectly that their favorite ineffective treatment actually does "work".
Socks to Treat High Blood Pressure?
Socks that lower blood pressure? The claims for Boliav socks are too incoherent to make sense of. I can't take them seriously.
Does Acupuncture Increase Red and White Blood Cells and T-Cells?
An article by a medical acupuncturist claims that acupuncture increases red and white blood cells and T-cells. The evidence is far from convincing.
Even in a pandemic, bait-and-switch acupuncture studies still get published in Nature
Last week, a study claiming to have identified a neurologic mechanism by which acupuncture reduces inflammation was published in Nature. It does no such thing. it's another bait-and-switch mouse study that likely would never have been published in such a high profile journal if it hadn't rebranded electrical stimulation as "electroacupuncture".
American Academy of Family Physicians Supports Integrative Medicine
The American Academy of Family Physicians supports integrative medicine and makes recommendations based on less-than-rigorous evidence.
Catgut Acupuncture
Catgut acupuncture is but one example of how acupuncture's basis in pseudoscience provides an infinitely malleable template for fabricated mechanisms of action and feigned health benefits.
A Worthless Acupuncture Study in Cancer Patients
This study does not test the efficacy of acupuncture and was never designed to do so.