Expert Naturopath Says Acupuncture Based On Science, Not a Placebo Effect

WINTER PARK, Fla. - Nov. 16, 2015 - PRLog -- Seasoned acupuncturists and naturopathic healthcare providers Advanced Healthcare Solutions defends acupuncture against charges of being “just a placebo effect,” investigating the scientific effectiveness of the practice as well as untangling what exactly a placebo effect is.

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA -- More and more scientific studies are confirming what we already know to be true: acupuncture works. And yet some people still claim that the very real benefits are just a placebo effect. It’s time to unpack what that really means and explain why the benefits of acupuncture come not just from the placebo effect, but also from the actual practice of acupuncture.

The word placebo comes to us from the Latin word for pleasure, and yet we often hear it used to diminish the effectiveness of a treatment. In Western medicine, the placebo plays an important role in determining what makes a treatment effective. While identifying what’s working is great for reproducing results, it usually comes as a product of radically reducing the complexity of the situation at hand. As a holistic practice, acupuncture is concerned with the whole body system and the variety of reasons why we have health problems.

Part of why Western medicine has taken so long to verify acupuncture’s effectiveness is the immense complexity of the holistic system it encompasses. In order to identify a placebo, Western doctors have to pick apart the whole system to see how it works. But practitioners and patients have known for centuries—the system works because of the deep and personalized treatment the acupuncturist develops for you.

From a holistic perspective, a placebo is just one more positive effect that hasn’t been isolated and accounted for by Western medicine. But that only tells part of the story. Often a placebo effect is the result of the confidence and trust you place in your health advisor. While of course we aim to establish that kind of trust, we also want our patients to know that acupuncture is by no means just a placebo effect—it works regardless of whether or not you believe it to be effective.

Recent studies confirm that there are major differences between real and “sham” acupuncture—the latter includes either placing needles at non-traditional sites or using retractable needles that don’t puncture the skin. True acupuncture is always based on a thorough understanding of the flow of qi through median points. Interestingly, often even “sham” acupuncture is more effective than Western forms of treatment that only target a single health concern.

Of course, traditional acupuncture is still the most effective available treatment for a variety of conditions.

So now there’s evidence for the skeptics! Next time someone tells you something is just a placebo, remember not to put the cart before the horse. If your body is healing from stress, disease, or other conditions based on the placebo effect, so much the better—it’s your health that counts, and not how you regain it. Remember, you don’t need to “believe” in acupuncture for it to work. Acupuncture is a real medical practice that produces real results—it’s a fact that we don’t just believe, but we know.