Category: Acupuncture

Interstitium

A blast from the past: The “interstitium,” the inspiration for that recent awful NYT acupuncture article

I'm on vacation this week and decided to repost a 2018 article that I had written for my other blog (but never published on SBM) that's oddly relevant to the SBM post last week about that awful NYT acupuncture article. Meet the introduction of the "interstitium" in acupuncture, complete with a major Deepak Chopra connection!

/ May 18, 2026

NYT Epic Fail on Acupuncture

This makes the third time in just two weeks that a major mainstream or scientific outlet published credible nonsense about acupuncture, but I had to cover it after dozens of people e-mailed me about this recent article in the New York Times Magazine. It is ostensibly about the interstitium, but pivots to using this recent discovery to retcon an alleged explanation for how...

/ May 13, 2026
A woman lies face down on a massage table with several acupuncture needles inserted into her bare upper back, receiving acupuncture treatment. A white towel covers part of her body, and she appears relaxed.

More credulous nonsense about acupuncture, this time from National Geographic

PNAS recently published credulous nonsense about acupuncture so bad that I thought it couldn't be topped. "Hold my beer!" cried National Geographic, as it proceeded to top PNAS.

/ May 11, 2026
Acupuncture for xerostomia

PNAS Publishes Rank Pseudoscience

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recently published an article on acupuncture. It's a highly credulous take that tries to convince the reader that acupuncture is more than just a highly theatrical placebo. Quackademic medicine continues apace.

/ April 29, 2026
Close-up of a hand performing acupuncture, carefully inserting thin needles into a person's skin. The background is softly blurred, emphasizing the focus on the acupuncture practice.

Latest Acupuncture Pseudoscience

JAMA Internal Medicine just published an article titled: Acupuncture vs Sham Acupuncture for Chronic Sciatica From Herniated Disk, A Randomized Clinical Trial. In an accompanying editorial comment, Jerard Z. Kneifati-Hayek and Mitchell H. Katz write: “This was a methodologically rigorous study; there were multiple experienced acupuncturists, the comparison group used a well thought-out sham control, and patients were followed up for 1...

/ October 16, 2024
Acupuncture needles

Acupuncture and Evidence Based Medicine

Over the last few decades there has been a steady infiltration of acupuncture into Western mainstream medicine. It is not unreasonable to conclude that acupuncture’s journey from an exotic Eastern practice to a fringe treatment to mainstream acceptance has been complete. Knowledgeable proponents of science based medicine (SBM) who remain skeptical of acupuncture now find themselves on the fringe. How did this...

/ July 31, 2024

Pulse Diagnostics

Perhaps the EKG of my bulldog. TCPM wouldn't have a clue what was going on.

/ July 16, 2024

Best Hospital Eye Roll

Science: Figuring things out is better than making things up. A tee shirt I recently saw. Except… In a recent post Mayo Clinic Promotes Reiki, Steve seemed surprised that the Mayo was offering Reiki. I don’t know. Maybe he was channeling Louie. I know the Mayo is a top hospital, but I trained in Minneapolis at Hennepin County and we would have...

/ March 19, 2024

More Americans turning to complementary approaches to pain control

The use of of complementary health approaches overall, and for pain management, is growing among US adults.

/ February 1, 2024