"Acupuncture works"

You know that pins and needles feeling that you get when you sat on your leg for too long? I had it just about all day, every day, for 3 months. Lab tests, MRI's, nerve conduction studies, they were all coming up without any explanation why my left side kept numbing. After seeing doctors both here and in Thailand's Bumrungrad Hospital, a neurologist here in Oman told me "maybe you should try acupuncture." I was shocked. Here was the country's top neurologist telling me to try an alternative therapy. He told me straight up, when it comes neurology they just don't know why or how, but "acupuncture works".

I never got around to find an acupuncturist. At first I was occupied with my mother's health. And then the numbing started to subside and I got busy with other things. It hasn't gone away, but it's much less of a bother than before.

The reason I brought this up is because there's a news story in the BBC today about a study conducted in a German university on acupuncture that found out that when it comes to back pain, even fake acupuncture works.

More than 1,100 patients took part in the study. They were given either conventional therapy, acupuncture or a sham version.

Although needles were used in the sham therapy, they were not inserted as deeply as in standard acupuncture. Neither were they inserted at points thought key to producing a therapeutic effect, or manipulated and rotated once in position.

After six months 47% of patients in the acupuncture group reported a significant improvement in pain symptoms, compared to 44% in the sham group, and just 27% in the group who received conventional therapy.

Dr James Young, of Chicago's Rush University, said: "We don't understand the mechanisms of these so-called alternative treatments, but that doesn't mean they don't work." [link]

I'm definitely going to look for an acupuncturist here and give it a try.