this post was submitted on 14 May 2024
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Difficult to prove whether acupuncture is placebo or not, because you can't really make a control group believe that they've been poked with needles without actually poking them with needles.
But at the very least, you are poking people with needles, so unlike homeopathy, it will have some non-placebo effect. The question is rather whether that's the medicinal effect you're trying to achieve.
Having said that, I've had acupuncture, because my mum dragged me there. I was not convinced that it'd help, yet it did reduce pain. That still does not fully exclude the possibility of a placebo effect, but it seems rather unlikely to me either way.
You could let the control group be poked at random places instead of whatever the acupuncture manual says.
https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/acupuncture-what-you-need-to-know
So you can spend 10 minutes to an hour getting poked with needles or you can just pop an ibuprofen.
I think that it's been tried and did yield similar effects. Unsurprisingly.
I remember many years ago New Scientist magazine did a review study of many different alternative medicine techniques and found that the only benefits they provided were placebo effect.
Except acupuncture. That was the only one with an effect greater than placebo.
The needles trigger a release of endorphins because pain
Physiotherapists use a form of acupuncture called dry needling, which can be used to trigger muscle twitching/relaxation (I'm not really super knowledgeable on it, I've just been to the physio, who use this in combination with massage, specific exercises etc)
It's certainly not placebo
As for all the other claims made, I dunno.