Addressing the common flaws often found in arguments against acupuncture: What you really need to know

( Natural News ) You might have heard a lot of acupuncture success stories, but if you’ve ever seriously considered this treatment for yourself, you were likely greeted with a lot of skepticism. Here’s a look at some of the common arguments people make against acupuncture and why they’re way off base. The first and possibly most common way detractors will shoot down your acupuncture aspirations is by saying that it isn’t effective. Their reasoning is usually that it must not work because doctors don’t recommend it. You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to see the huge flaw in this argument: Doctors will by and large recommend the treatments that make them money, and acupuncture isn’t one of them. In fact, this argument is even more baseless when you realize that the solutions they do recommend – namely opiates – aren’t nearly as effective as they claim, and they bring with them a slew of very serious side effects like stroke, liver failure, and gastrointestinal bleeding, not to mention risk of addiction. In a study carried out by Minneapolis VA researchers that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association , opioids were shown to work no better than non-opioids and over-the-counter drugs at addressing pain. The researchers in that study said that the best options for chronic pain are actually exercise and physical therapy. It’s not a study about acupuncture, but it does show just how little the experts think of drugs when it comes to dealing with pain. Research is often misrepresented Then there’s the problem of research being misrepresented. The biggest example of this is those who claim that studies have shown it to be no more effective than a placebo. The 2005 study people usually cite when making this argument doesn’t […]

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