Quackery!

As a follow-up to my post on skepticism and hypnosis, I thought I would take a look at skepticism and acupuncture.

Needless to say, skeptics deplore acupuncture as a pseudoscientific method based on mystical principles. This attitude is perhaps most pithily expressed by arch skeptic James Randi (aptly characterized by one of the commenters on this blog as the Pope of the Church of Skepticism).

Here's a Randi quote from a fawning 1998 newspaper profile: "Even the Learning Channel has stuff on homeopathy and acupuncture. Quackery!"

The article also includes this interesting tidbit. While describing Randi as a gifted student, it goes on to say, "At 17 he dropped out of high school and joined a carnival road show as Prince Ibis, the all-knowing wizard in a turban."

I'd known Randi never went to college, but I hadn't realized he never finished high school. No matter how gifted he may be, does a high school dropout really have the qualifications to critique biochemists like Jacques Benveniste and quantum physicists like Brian Josephson?

According to pal Leon Jaroff, formerly of Time magazine, yes indeed.

"He's very smart," Jaroff says. "He has set up better double-blind experiments than scientists can. And he's meticulously honest."

Randi's critics often attack his lack of scientific training.

"But he's a magician. He's trained in the art of deception," Jaroff points out. "He knows what to look for when he's investigating a fraud."

Randi has set up better double blind experiments than scientists can?

And he's meticulously honest?

Anyway, back to acupuncture. In a 2002 Internet chat session to promote a BBC show debunking homeopathy (and Benveniste, Randi's longtime bete noir), Randi again tackled this subject.

SteveC: Do you believe acupuncture is quackry or real?

James Randi: Acupuncture is just a much older form of quackery [than homeopathy]. We have offered our million dollar prize to the acupuncturists too. Where are they?

The million buck prize never gets old, does it? Anyone who's still taken in by that PR stunt is just gullible enough to believe that Randi is "meticulously honest" - and that he knows what he's talking about.

This chat session, by the way, has its odd moments. Here is Randi presumably demonstrating his razor-sharp wit.

Vista: If the results were positive, would you still be sceptical?

James Randi: Yes, I will always be sceptical of things that are not likely to be true. Now, Sophia Loren, that's a different matter.

Huh?

And here's a bit of profundity that must have come out wrong.

checkmate: Were you always a skeptic?

James Randi: Yes, because I've always been a thinking person. Skepticism is not a bad attitude at all. If we have more skeptics we would have more problems.

You know, I could've said the same thing myself (except for the dubious grammar). If we had more skeptics, we would have more problems! But I'm pretty sure he meant to say the opposite.

You can tell that this guy is gifted, though, right? No wonder he didn't need to finish high school. His time spent touring as Prince Ibis obviously served as better preparation for evaluating the work of chemists, physicists, psychological researchers, and medical doctors.

Okay, so twice Rand has told us that acupuncture is quackery. This of course raises the question: Is it?

Answers are so terribly hard to come by that I had to spend all of five minutes on Google in order to find them.

It seems there's good evidence to show that acupuncture reduces the postoperative effects of breast surgery:

Acupuncture is just as effective as the leading medication used to reduce nausea and vomiting after major breast surgery, according to a new study conducted by Duke University Medical Center researchers. The 5,000-year-old Chinese practice also decreased postoperative pain in these women, they report.... Duke researchers believe acupuncture is an effective antiemetic (a drug that reduces nausea and vomiting) that is less expensive and has fewer side effects than medications currently used.... "We've known from previous studies that acupuncture can be an effective antiemetic when compared to placebo, but it has never been tested against one of the most commonly used medications, ondansetron (Zofran)," [a researcher] continued. "Acupuncture turns out to be just as effective as the drug or better, and our patients also reported much less pain after surgery, a finding that surprised us."

And that acupuncture can relieve shoulder pain after surgery:

The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of traditional Chinese acupuncture in the treatment of scapulohumeral pain during the early stage following heart surgery.... Reduction of pain and angular gain were almost immediate, durable, measurable and reproducible....

And that wrist acupuncture can relieve postoperative nausea at least as well as pain meds:

Wrist acupuncture is as effective as medication for easing post-operation nausea, according to research reported next Saturday in the British weekly New Scientist. Hong Kong and Australian scientists reviewed 26 trials [involving] 3,000 patients who were either given P6 acupuncture or sham treatment ... Those who received the right treatment were 28 per cent less likely to feel nauseous and 24 per cent less likely to ask for anti-sickness drugs compared to those who got the placebo treatment. Acupuncture was just as effective as routine anti-sickness drugs in preventing nausea and vomiting, but had few side effects and was cheaper, the study found.

Electrostimulation acupuncture is used instead of anesthesia by some Chinese surgeons performing invasive procedures:

A woman in her 60's presented with a fractured ulnar olecranon. The surgery would include the placing of some nails and other hardware into her olecranon to fasten it more securely to the shaft of the ulna.

Due to her advanced years, it was decided that acupuncture anesthesia would be used instead of Western drugs to avoid any possible adverse reactions.

One half hour before the surgery, while the prep was taking place, we inserted two needles into the patient.... The electro-stim began at 100 Hz ... to simply stimulate the body into secreting endorphins.... Once the surgery began, the patient complained of some discomfort and we turned the strength of the electro-stim up from "1" to "2". The idea isn't to double the amplitude, but to simply turn it up to induce the anesthetic response of the nerve being effected. We also turned down the frequency form 100 Hz to 50 Hz...

The controls didn't once change after the surgery began. The surgery lasted about 45 minutes and went off without a hitch. After the cut was sutured and the nurses were cleaning up the patient, we removed the needles. The patient was in good spirits.

Acupuncture can relieve lower back pain and leg pain:

The use of acupuncture for lumbar disc protrusion pain provided convenient and effective pain relief without side effects. Although the limitations ... of our study must be considered, classical acupuncture appears to be superior to placebo acupuncture in limiting the overall disabilities caused by the pain of lumbar disc protrusion pain.

Patients at Cedars-Sinai swear by acupuncture:

Caroll Clark is one of the Cedars-Sinai patients who volunteered for acupuncture therapy. She expected the bed rest after surgery to exacerbate an ongoing back problem.

"I have a vertebra in my back that I was a little concerned about, that I had told the doctor about," she said. "My back was hurting the first two days (after surgery) and then when they did the acupuncture, it quit hurting and I never took any pills after the second day I was in the hospital. One evening I took some Extra Strength Tylenol but as far as pain pills, the narcotic kind, I didn't have to take any after that."

Her pain relief was so complete, Clark thought she was receiving pain medication. "I asked the nurse about it. She said, 'No, you don't get pain medicine unless you ask for it. Do you want some?' I said, no, I just thought you gave it to me naturally because I wasn't having pain."

Now ... either ignore all the above information or dismiss it as unreliable. Then repeat after me, in your best Aflac duck voice:

Quackery! Quackery! Quackery!

Congratulations. You are now a skeptic.

December 02, 2006 in Paranormal