Acupuncture is placebo says the 'experts'

[Guest guest]

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AP – FILE - This Oct. 24, 2008 photo shows nurse Donna Audia

performing Reiki on a patient at the University …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione, Ap

Medical Writer

 

–

Tue Nov 10, 3:16 pm ET

 

 

 

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ten years and $2.5 billion in research have found

no cures from alternative medicine.

Yet these mostly unproven treatments are now mainstream and used by

more than a third of all Americans. This is one in an occasional

Associated Press series on their use and potential risks.

___

People looking for natural cures will be happy to know there is

one. Two words explain how it works: " I believe. "

It's

the placebo effect — the ability of a dummy pill or a faked treatment

to make people feel better, just because they expect that it will. It's

the mind's ability to alter physical symptoms, such as pain, anxiety

and fatigue.

In just the past few weeks, the

placebo effect has demonstrated its healing powers. In tests of a new

drug to relieve lupus symptoms, about a third of patients felt better

when they got dummy pills instead of the drug.

The placebo effect looms large in alternative medicine, which

has many therapies and herbal remedies based on beliefs versus science. Often

the problems they seek to relieve, such as pain, are subjective.

" It

has a pejorative implication — that it's not real, that it has no

medicinal value, " said Dr. Robert Ader, a psychologist at the University of

Rochester in New York who has researched the phenomenon.

But placebos can have real and beneficial effects, he said.

" Much of the results of certain alternative procedures are

largely placebo effects,

unless you believe there are people who exert magical powers so they

can hold their hands over your body and cure you of disease, " Ader

said. " Make you feel better? That's entirely possible, especially if

you believe it. "

The placebo effect accounts

for about a third of the benefits of any treatment — even carefully

tested medicines, scientists say. This dates to a landmark report in

1955 called The Powerful Placebo. Viewed as groundbreaking, the

analysis of dozens of studies by H.K. Beecher found that 32 percent of

patients responded to a placebo.

Later studies found that dummy pills could raise pulse rates,

blood pressure and reaction speed when people were told they had taken

a stimulant; the opposite occurred when people were told that a drug

would make them drowsy.

How does it work?

Scientists do not always know, but there are many possible ways. Brain

imaging shows that beliefs ( " I know these pills will help " ) can cause

biological changes and affect levels of chemical messengers and stress hormones

that signal pain or pleasure.

Emotions,

too, can trigger physical changes. Take the case of a child with croup.

Crying tightens the airways and makes it tougher to breathe. Many

people believe that cool mist is helpful, but when it has been tested

in hospital studies with croup tents, it has not been found to help,

said Dr. Owen Hendley, a pediatrician at the University of Virginia.

Try it at home, though, and you may get a different result.

" The

child sits in the lap of the mother and the mother holds the mist maker

close to the child. The child settles down, the mother settles down.

The setting, and the mother feeling that it is helping, makes everybody

calmer, " and the child actually is able to breathe better, Hendley

explained.

If it were not for the placebo effect, " physicians would not be

nearly as successful as we are, " said Dr. Thomas Schnitzer, a Northwestern

University arthritis specialist. He helped lead a big study that found

glucosamine and chondroitin supplements were no better than dummy pills for

arthritic knee pain.

Doctors

sometimes exploit the placebo effect to help patients. One survey found

that many doctors admitted sometimes giving patients sugar pills or drugs or

vitamins that would not really help their condition, in an effort to trigger a

placebo effect.

In Baltimore, the University of Maryland Medical Center's shock

trauma center is offering some patients Reiki

therapy, which claims to heal through invisible energy fields

manipulated by a special " master. " The hospital's anesthesia chief, Dr.

Richard Dutton, says it is self-hypnosis and compares it to Lamaze

classes that teach pregnant women breathing exercises to take their minds off

the pain of labor.

 

Roy A. Armstrong's family agreed to it after he was injured in a motorcycle

crash last year. The 39-year-old suffered cardiac arrest and had many broken

bones.

As he lay tethered to a breathing machine, nurse Donna Audia and a

partner circled his bed, waving their arms through the air and touching

his head while humming and making tunes by rubbing a crystal bowl with

a wand.

Armstrong was too sedated to remember anything, but " I think in

some way it helped him to get better, " his wife said. He is still

recovering through physical therapy.

Dutton said: " You can call it a placebo effect, you can call it

a chicken soup effect. It's all about creating the right mental state

in the person. The patients tell us they seem to like it. And in pain

management, that's the whole goal. If 30 percent of your patients get

better on placebo, why not give it to them? "

 

Swear-by-it stories and anecdotal reports of benefit are one thing. Proving a

treatment helps is quite another. Many alternative medicine studies have not

included a placebo group — people who unknowingly get a dummy treatment so its

effect can be compared.

 

Acupuncture

is especially hard to research. Positive studies tend to lack

comparison groups that have been given a sham treatment. Or they are

often done in China, where the treatment is an established part of

health care.

 

One U.S. study found that true acupuncture relieved knee arthritis pain better

than fake acupuncture, in which guide tubes were placed but no needles were

inserted. But a European study

involving twice as many patients and using a more realistic sham

procedure found the fake treatment to be just as good. The conclusion:

Pain relief was due to the placebo effect.

Advertisements and testimonials from product users can

encourage a placebo effect. The Federal Trade Commission last summer

reached a settlement over advertising claims for Airborne, a product

" invented by a teacher " that was supposed to ward off germs spread

through the air.

" Products like Airborne are what we call `credence products.'

That's a fancy word for saying it's difficult or impossible for

consumers to determine if the product has done anything for them, " said

commission lawyer Rich Cleland. " Part of that is because of the placebo

effect. Part of that is because people don't want to believe they've

been ripped off. "

Barbara Domen, a former kindergarten teacher in Caswell Beach,

N.C., said she was prone to colds and used Airborne six or seven times

a year when she flew on planes.

" It worked for me, " although it could be because since she

retired, " I'm away from all the germs, " she said. She skipped it on one

flight and caught a terrible cold.

 

" Maybe it's psychological, but I think I'll continue to use it, " she said.

 

Some placebo effects

are due to conditioning, or ascribing benefits to something you did

that may in fact have played no role in your improvement. Insomnia is

an example, said Michael Perlis, a psychologist and neuroscientist at

the University of Pennsylvania.

 

If you have trouble sleeping one night, your body's need for sleep

makes it very likely you'll sleep well the next night. If you take a sleeping

pill, you think you slept well because of the pill, he said.

 

Do any herbal remedies

work for insomnia? " Not that I know of, " Perlis said. " But all of them

have potential to be useful with time. It has nothing to do with them —

it has everything to do with conditioning. "

 

___

 

 

"

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Absolute nonsense.

 

As if only drug treatments are 'real'. . . you have to hit the body with

powerful toxic drugs or perform surgery to be practicing 'real' medicine?

 

 

On Nov 10, 2009, at 5:07 PM, Twyla wrote:

 

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> Experts: Placebo power behind many natural curesif(!){var = {};}

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Chair, Department of Herbal Medicine

Pacific College of Oriental Medicine

San Diego, Ca. 92122

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Placebos are generally only effective for 2-3 months.

 

 

 

 

-

" " <zrosenbe

<Chinese Medicine >

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 7:23 PM

Re: Acupuncture is placebo says the 'experts'

 

 

> Absolute nonsense.

>

> As if only drug treatments are 'real'. . . you have to hit the body with

> powerful toxic drugs or perform surgery to be practicing 'real' medicine?

>

>

> On Nov 10, 2009, at 5:07 PM, Twyla wrote:

>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> Experts: Placebo power behind many natural curesif(!){var =

>> {};}

>>

>> .BuzzWidgetTries = 0;

>>

>>

>

>

> Chair, Department of Herbal Medicine

> Pacific College of Oriental Medicine

> San Diego, Ca. 92122

 

[Guest guest]

one of my friends taught me to answer like this: " my placebo works better

than MD's placebos "

 

On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Mercurius Trismegistus <

magisterium_magnum wrote:

 

>

>

> Placebos are generally only effective for 2-3 months.

>

>

> -

> " " <zrosenbe <zrosenbe%40san.rr.com>>

> To:

<Chinese Medicine <Chinese Medicine%40yah\

oogroups.com>

> >

> Tuesday, November 10, 2009 7:23 PM

> Re: Acupuncture is placebo says the 'experts'

>

> > Absolute nonsense.

> >

> > As if only drug treatments are 'real'. . . you have to hit the body with

> > powerful toxic drugs or perform surgery to be practicing 'real' medicine?

> >

> >

> > On Nov 10, 2009, at 5:07 PM, Twyla wrote:

> >

> >>

> >>

> >>

> >>

> >> Experts: Placebo power behind many natural curesif(!){var =

> >> {};}

> >>

> >> .BuzzWidgetTries = 0;

> >>

> >>

> >

> >

> > Chair, Department of Herbal Medicine

> > Pacific College of Oriental Medicine

> > San Diego, Ca. 92122

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

I love that! That was brilliant!

 

On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 5:49 PM, Philip Nino Tan-Gatue <

philiptangatue wrote:

 

> one of my friends taught me to answer like this: " my placebo works better

> than MD's placebos "

>

> On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Mercurius Trismegistus <

> magisterium_magnum wrote:

>

> >

> >

> > Placebos are generally only effective for 2-3 months.

> >

> >

> > -

> > " " <zrosenbe <zrosenbe%40san.rr.com>>

> > <Chinese Medicine

> <Chinese Medicine%40>

> > >

> > Tuesday, November 10, 2009 7:23 PM

> > Re: Acupuncture is placebo says the 'experts'

> >

> > > Absolute nonsense.

> > >

> > > As if only drug treatments are 'real'. . . you have to hit the body

> with

> > > powerful toxic drugs or perform surgery to be practicing 'real'

> medicine?

> > >

> > >

> > > On Nov 10, 2009, at 5:07 PM, Twyla wrote:

> > >

> > >>

> > >>

> > >>

> > >>

> > >> Experts: Placebo power behind many natural curesif(!){var =

> > >> {};}

> > >>

> > >> .BuzzWidgetTries = 0;

> > >>

> > >>

> > >

> > >

> > > Chair, Department of Herbal Medicine

> > > Pacific College of Oriental Medicine

> > > San Diego, Ca. 92122

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

[Guest guest]

It's true! I am an MD myself but I like to say I turned to the light side.

I'd also like to share that in western medicine, you seldom see cases that

match textbook descriptions. The beauty of TCM is that if you really study

pattern differentiation you can almost always fit a patient into one.

 

On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 9:58 AM, Robert Chu <chusauli wrote:

 

>

>

> I love that! That was brilliant!

>

>

> On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 5:49 PM, Philip Nino Tan-Gatue <

> philiptangatue <philiptangatue%40gmail.com>> wrote:

>

> > one of my friends taught me to answer like this: " my placebo works better

> > than MD's placebos "

> >

> > On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Mercurius Trismegistus <

> > magisterium_magnum <magisterium_magnum%40comcast.net>>

> wrote:

> >

> > >

> > >

> > > Placebos are generally only effective for 2-3 months.

> > >

> > >

> > > -

> > > " " <zrosenbe

<zrosenbe%40san.rr.com><zrosenbe%

> 40san.rr.com>>

> > > To:

<Chinese Medicine <Chinese Medicine%40yah\

oogroups.com>

> > <Chinese Medicine%40>

> > > >

> > > Tuesday, November 10, 2009 7:23 PM

> > > Re: Acupuncture is placebo says the 'experts'

> > >

> > > > Absolute nonsense.

> > > >

> > > > As if only drug treatments are 'real'. . . you have to hit the body

> > with

> > > > powerful toxic drugs or perform surgery to be practicing 'real'

> > medicine?

> > > >

> > > >

> > > > On Nov 10, 2009, at 5:07 PM, Twyla wrote:

> > > >

> > > >>

> > > >>

> > > >>

> > > >>

> > > >> Experts: Placebo power behind many natural curesif(!){var

> =

> > > >> {};}

> > > >>

> > > >> .BuzzWidgetTries = 0;

> > > >>

> > > >>

> > > >

> > > >

> > > > Chair, Department of Herbal Medicine

> > > > Pacific College of Oriental Medicine

> > > > San Diego, Ca. 92122

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

[Guest guest]

this is an AP " filler piece " that appears in some form at least once per year.

we all know it's B.S.

 

 

 

Chinese Medicine , Twyla <twylahoodah

wrote:

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> Experts: Placebo power behind many natural curesif(!){var

= {};}

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AP †"  FILE - This Oct. 24, 2008 photo shows nurse Donna Audia

performing Reiki on a patient at the University …

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione, Ap

Medical Writer

>

> †"

> Tue Nov 10, 3:16 pm ET

>

>

>

>

> EDITOR'S NOTE: Ten years and $2.5 billion in research have

found no cures from alternative medicine.

> Yet these mostly unproven treatments are now mainstream and used by

> more than a third of all Americans. This is one in an occasional

> Associated Press series on their use and potential risks.

> ___

>

[Guest guest]

I especially found the " Editor's Note " at the top of the article, as quite

unnecessary subterfuge, in which the editor announces the " official " sounding

verdict, that, indeed, natural medicine is all placebo based.

 

This is also a commentary on the state of the media. As opposed to investigative

journalism, all we are given is dictation. I digress.

 

I my " buzz " response to the version of the article, I added that while

this article denounces the efficacy of " natural medicines " , the fact is that a

great number of prescription drugs, and OTC drugs, are either natural, or

derivatives of natural substances themselves. Somehow though, these escape the

attention of the " researchers " ; this reveals the hypocritical nature of the

" research " , and the clear bias of the editor.

 

I'm sure that everybody in this list can think of dozen or more natural

substances, that have gained acceptability in modern medicine, and are not

regraded as " placebo " by the pharmaceutical industry. And, to boot, many of

these substances originated within some traditional form of medicine. For

example:

 

Bismuth Liquid, from elemental Bismuth (Bi). Which has some anti-biotic

activity in addition to its common indications.

 

Iodine tincture antiseptic. From Iodine element.

 

Vanadium to lower glucose.

 

Aspirin, originally from White Willow (Salicylic acid).

 

Eposom/Glauber's Salt/ Mang Xiao

 

All Opiate pain killers, from opium poppy. The history of this one alone fills

volumes, and we could probably credit Paracelus' wine tincture of opium as the

beginning of the popular use of opiates in the Western world to target pain.

 

Alcohol, a huge breakthrough in antiseptic technique, was likely first distilled

by the Muslim alchemists/natural physicians (the very word is Arabic,

al-Kahl)...a natural product.

 

Huge segments of the world begin their day, everyday, with a cup of coffee, or

tea, both for pleasure, and a " jolt " . Fluid extracts of plants.

 

At one time (I haven't checked in awhile), the active ingredient in Primatine

asthma tablets, was ephedra.

 

Beer and Wine. Not usually regarded as " medicine " , but certainly all

natural products, with profound and pronounced effects. If the

effects of these natural products was merely " placebo " , I doubt that

every U.S. grocery store would have one or more sections devoted to these

products.

 

So many aspects of basic hygiene originate from " natural " medicine.

The tooth brush, a staple of oral disease prevention, has many potential

origins. One commonly agreed upon, is the Islamic " tashwook " sticks, used for

oral care.

 

How about soap? It did not originate in some contemporary high tech lab.

Rather, it was most likely the result of the observation that after burnt

sacrifices or cremated human remains were deposited into

rivers, the water down stream became frothy when in contact with living beings,

or clothing. Moreover, this " froth " was noted to get things cleaner. Thus, a

basic fact of chemistry was discovered on the banks of the Vedic Ganges: an

alkali in the presence of a fat makes soap, and it cleans. Soon thereafter,

soap, a natural product, began to be produced through the " magic " of the ancient

scholar-physicians.

 

But, of course, all these sorts of things are ignored by the modern research,

which is only concerned with validating its a priori conclusion that " nothing

natural works " .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chinese Medicine , Robert Chu <chusauli

wrote:

>

> I love that! That was brilliant!

>

> On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 5:49 PM, Philip Nino Tan-Gatue <

> philiptangatue wrote:

>

> > one of my friends taught me to answer like this: " my placebo works better

> > than MD's placebos "

> >

> > On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Mercurius Trismegistus <

> > magisterium_magnum wrote:

> >

> > >

> > >

> > > Placebos are generally only effective for 2-3 months.

> > >

> > >

> > > -

> > > " " <zrosenbe <zrosenbe%40san.rr.com>>

> > > <Chinese Medicine

> > <Chinese Medicine%40>

> > > >

> > > Tuesday, November 10, 2009 7:23 PM

> > > Re: Acupuncture is placebo says the 'experts'

> > >

> > > > Absolute nonsense.

> > > >

> > > > As if only drug treatments are 'real'. . . you have to hit the body

> > with

> > > > powerful toxic drugs or perform surgery to be practicing 'real'

> > medicine?

> > > >

> > > >

> > > > On Nov 10, 2009, at 5:07 PM, Twyla wrote:

> > > >

> > > >>

> > > >>

> > > >>

> > > >>

> > > >> Experts: Placebo power behind many natural curesif(!){var =

> > > >> {};}

> > > >>

> > > >> .BuzzWidgetTries = 0;

> > > >>

> > > >>

> > > >

> > > >

> > > > Chair, Department of Herbal Medicine

> > > > Pacific College of Oriental Medicine

> > > > San Diego, Ca. 92122

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

[Guest guest]

Listen, I just don't want to get into a my placebo is bigger than your placebo

thing...

 

---

 

Robert Chu wrote:

I love that! That was brilliant!

On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 5:49 PM, Philip Nino Tan-Gatue <

philiptangatue@ gmail.com> wrote:

> one of my friends taught me to answer like this: " my placebo works better

> than MD's placebos "

> On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Mercurius Trismegistus <

> magisterium_ magnum (AT) comcast (DOT) net> wrote:

> > Placebos are generally only effective for 2-3 months.

> > -

> > " " <zrosenbe (AT) san (DOT) rr.com <zrosenbe%40san. rr.com>>

> > > Absolute nonsense.

> > >

> > > As if only drug treatments are 'real'. . . you have to hit the body

> with

> > > powerful toxic drugs or perform surgery to be practicing 'real'

> medicine?

 

 

Hugo Ramiro

http://middlemedicine.wordpress.com

http://www.middlemedicine.org