placebo

Game changing research into acupuncture supported IVF & ICSI

Game changing research into acupuncture supported IVF & ICSI – a review of the evidence base by Lianne Aquilina and Mark Bovey, British Acupuncture Council, 2019 (with minor editing by myself) If you don’t want to read the full article here is my take home message: The latest research finds more evidence for acupuncture improving…

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Personalised acupuncture has long term benefits for fibromyalgia

Spanish researchers have found that personalised acupuncture has long term benefits for fibromyalgia, providing pain relief and improved quality of life. What is Fibromyalgia? According to NHS Choices: Fibromyalgia, also called fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), is a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body. As well as widespread pain, people with fibromyalgia may also…

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Acupuncture is significantly superior to all controls for chronic pain

Acupuncture is significantly superior to all controls. Controls and Trials Researchers studying the effects of acupuncture want to assess the benefit of acupuncture against that of a control.  This is done to mitigate the effects of placebo – the tendency for people to get better when they are given any sort of treatment. A secondary…

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Acupuncture increases ovulation frequency in PCOS.

Acupuncture has been demonstrated to improve menstrual frequency and to decrease circulating testosterone in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).  Now new research shows that acupuncture increases ovulation frequency in PCOS. Researchers from the university of Goteborg, Gothenburg, Sweden chose to investigate whether acupuncture affects ovulation frequency and to understand the underlying mechanisms of any…

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Acupuncture improves pregnancy rates after IVF failure

Acupuncture improves pregnancy rates after IVF failure. Brazilian researchers have found that acupuncture improves pregnancy rates after IVF failure.  They claim that this is the first study of the use of acupuncture specifically when embryo implantation has failed. The research. Brazilian researchers carried out a prospective randomised controlled trial with 84 patients who had experienced…

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Does evolution explain the placebo effect?

Placebo The placebo effect is the observation in scientific clinical studies that in any given trial a proportion of subjects will show health improvements when they are given a dummy drug – such as a sugar pill. Does evolution explain the placebo effect? Up until now, the placebo effect has seemed to make no sense…if…

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Acupuncture helps knees.

Acupuncture helps knees – research shows acupuncture is a cost-effective treatment for osteo-arthritis of the knee. Two new studies suggest acupuncture may be an effective aid to osteo-arthritis of the knee and  a credible alternative to knee replacement. Acupuncture has benefits for knee osteoarthritis. A three-armed randomised controlled trial carried out by Greek investigators has…

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Acupuncture effective for chronic pain.

Major new study concludes acupuncture effective for chronic pain. The first systematic review of acupuncture to use individual patient data to conduct a meta-analysis has found acupuncture effective for chronic pain.  The Acupuncture Trialists’ Collaboration analysed raw individual patient data, which was available for 17,922 participants enrolled in 29 high-quality, randomised trials of acupuncture for…

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Acupuncture trials changes treatment.

Taking part in acupuncture trials changes the treatment. In an earlier post I wrote about how the placebo effect of acupuncture can be improved by the behaviour of the acupuncturist(s).  I have now come across a study which shows that taking part in an acupuncture trial changes the expectations and behaviour of participants and influences…

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Acupuncture Placebo

Acupuncture placebo – does acupuncture work?     As an acupuncturist I dread talking about it socially, at least with the uninitiated.  I get asked Does it hurt and, does it work. The answers to both are more complex than they might appear but my pat answer is that most people find it surprisingly comfortable…

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