For critics of acupuncture, last week’s headlines provided ready ammunition.
News
reports revealed that hundreds of NHS patients undergoing the treatment
have suffered complications including fainting and dizziness.
A study said there were 325 reports of patients coming to harm after having acupuncture on the NHS in just two years. These included 100 cases of needles
being left inside the body, and five patients who suffered collapsed
lungs after a needle accidentally penetrated their chests.
Proof,
according to acupuncture’s critics, that its claims to be an effective
form of pain relief are not just mumbo-jumbo, but dangerous mumbo-jumbo.
But is that the whole story?
Many
would argue that all treatments have side-effects — especially if
mistakes are made — and that the number of problems reported was
relatively small.
Now a
major analysis, published yesterday, suggests the sceptics are also
wrong about acupuncture’s benefits: it really does control pain. Practitioners
claim that by inserting fine needles at 400 specific points on the
skin, they can affect the ‘meridians’ — channels of energy that run up
and down the body, blocking pain. Critics claim any relief comes purely
from the placebo effect.
Source - Daily Mail
