ARTICLE: The Point Is, Does Acupuncture Work?
JOE SCHWARCZ - Freelance

May 2, 2004

The rat didn't squirm much as the needles were carefully inserted. There was no pain. With stopwatch in hand, the
researcher then focused a heat gun on the animal's rear and carefully noted the time required for the tail to "flick"
by reflex action. Other rats, some needled and some not, were subjected to the same procedure. The conclusion was that
acupuncture significantly delayed the onset of pain!

Proponents of acupuncture often quote this study as proof that the 2,000- year-old Chinese technique of jabbing needles
into the body to treat medical conditions has a scientific basis. After all, they claim, the effect cannot be in the
rats' mind, as they have none. But a rat is not a miniature person. So what's the story about acupuncture for humans?
Let's take a stab at that question. But first, a bit of history.

The western world was alerted to the practice of acupuncture in 1972 when then-U.S. president Richard Nixon visited
China. A New York Times reporter accompanying the president had to undergo an emergency appendectomy and received
acupuncture therapy for post-operative pain. He was so impressed by the unusual nature of this treatment that he
related his experience in the Times.

The story then took on a life of its own and rumours mounted upon rumours.

"Did you hear about the guy who had his appendix removed in China without any anesthetic?" buzzed the incredulous.
"Those clever Chinese just stuck a few needles into him and he felt nothing!" But the truth was that the surgery had
been carried out with regular anesthesia, and acupuncture had only been used in an attempt to dull the reporter's pain
after the operation.

Nevertheless, the public's appetite was whetted by the notion of such an apparently simple solution to pain. An
Acupuncture Study Group, including many notable physicians and researchers, was assembled by the government to study
the Chinese experience with the technique. In 1974, off they went to the mysterious east to learn how to rid U.S. pain
sufferers of reliance on pain- killing medications.

What they found in China did not exactly live up to the advance billing. Acupuncture, as it turned out, was not widely
used as an anesthetic procedure. Even when it was used, it was almost always in combination with barbiturate-type
sedatives and the pain killer demerol. The glorification of acupuncture, it seems, was based less on science and more
on Maoist propaganda designed to fuel the Cultural Revolution and justify a reduced reliance on western medicine.

The U.S. doctors investigating the Chinese claims discovered that the claimed benefits for acupuncture were highly
suspect. Parkinson's disease patients who were being rehabilitated with acupuncture showed no objective improvement.
Neither did patients being treated for deafness or head injuries. But just the fact that U.S. physicians were seriously
examining acupuncture caused a flurry of interest back home and soon half-baked acupuncturists were cropping up
everywhere, treating every conceivable disease. The zanier ones were "curing" conditions ranging from multiple chemical
sensitivity in humans to listlessness in goldfish and neuroses in birds. The most amusing spin-off was "Earth
acupuncture," which involves hammering wooden stakes into the ground to make the soil more fertile by "altering the
Earth's natural flow of energy." I think the only fertile thing here is the imagination of the proponents of "Earth
acupuncture." Which brings up an interesting question. What role does the imagination play in the use of acupuncture to
treat disease?

According to the traditional Chinese view, the mind is not involved. Health is based upon yin and yang, opposite forces
in the body that must be in balance to maintain health. When yin-yang disharmony occurs, balance can be restored by
stimulating channels in the body called "meridians," which supposedly serve as energy conduits to various organs.
Acupuncture points are said to lie along these meridians. This explanation, however, cannot be supported by anatomy.
There are no identifiable meridians in the human body. Still, the fact that the explanation may be incorrect does not
negate the possibility that acupuncture can deliver the goods. The only way to determine if it really works is through
controlled studies.

"Placebo control" is the gold standard for modern clinical trials. We know that people respond to sugar pills and even
to fake surgery roughly 40 per cent of the time, an effect that must be taken into account if a study is to be
reliable. Designing a placebo-controlled trial of acupuncture, though, presents some obvious problems. What do you use
for a placebo? Researchers at Heidelberg University in Germany have come up with a very clever idea. They designed a
device that could be used in a "sham acupuncture" procedure. Essentially, the idea is modeled on the classic
"collapsing knife" effect used on the stage.

The blade is gimmicked to retract into the handle as the victim is stabbed, creating the illusion that the knife has
plunged into the flesh to the hilt. Similarly, the sham acupuncture device is equipped with a needle that contacts the
skin and then moves up into the handle as the device continues its forward motion. It seems as if the needle has been
inserted into the skin.

Testing on volunteers revealed they did not suspect that there had been no penetration. Now the researchers were ready
to test whether acupuncture was more than a placebo effect. They waited for the results with bated breath. Just like
you will have to do until next week. I trust the wait will not be too painful.

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Joe Schwarcz is director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society http://www.OSS.McGill.ca  He can be
heard every Sunday from 3-4 p.m. on CJAD. [log in to unmask]

SOURCE: Montreal Gazette, Canada
http://tinyurl.com/2vb9w

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