Here's why *real* medicine is different than woo:

[pnwmom]

64. Right. The doctors at Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, and across the country

who practice acupuncture and the international research team who compiled 29 studies of acupuncture involving 18,000 patients are all insane, full of shit, or profoundly naive.

And the osteopaths who attend medical school and work with MD's in practices all over the country, they're idiots, too.

I took my teenage son to the pediatrician with sudden, excruciating chest pain, and the only doc available at that moment was an osteopath. He talked to my son, made a couple "adjustments" and my son's pain was gone. Instantly. It turned out to be referred back pain, due to a spine that had gotten out of alignment because his spine was growing faster than his muscles and tendons. He gave my son instructions about exercises to do and it never recurred.

Many years earlier, when I was pregnant and had a fever and a cough, my OB told me that wasn't his province, and told me to go to my Family Practice doctor for that. My Family Practice Doctor had no openings for three days. I finally got a referral from the OB to an osteopath who had just opened her own practice and did have time to see me. The OB explained to me that an osteopath was a fully qualified doctor with the same basic medical training that an MD has. When I went to the osteopath, she diagnosed me with pneumonia and prescribed antibiotics. She said if I had waited three more days I would have ended up in the hospital. As it was, my baby and I were fine.

But you think all osteopaths and the people who use them , and the Federal government and private practices that hire them, are all full of shit.

It must be special to be you.


http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/acupuncture-is-worth-a-try-for-chronic-pain-201304016042

Over the years there has been substantial debate about whether acupuncture really works for chronic pain. Research from an international team of experts adds to the evidence that it does provide real relief from common forms of pain. The team pooled the results of 29 studies involving nearly 18,000 participants. Some had acupuncture, some had “sham” acupuncture, and some didn’t have acupuncture at all. Overall, acupuncture relieved pain by about 50%. The results were published in Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study isn’t the last word on the issue, but it is one of the best quality studies to date and has made an impression.

“I think the benefit of acupuncture is clear, and the complications and potential adverse effects of acupuncture are low compared with medication,” says Dr. Lucy Chen, a board-certified anesthesiologist, specialist in pain medicine, and practicing acupuncturist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.