"Fake acupuncture works nearly as well as the real thing for low back pain, and either kind performs much better than usual care, German researchers have found.“ (Carla K. Johnson, "Even fake acupuncture beats usual care for back pain, study finds, “ The Denver Post, 25 Sep 07) Even the thought of acupuncture makes many a Westerner suspicious. Fake acupuncture? Even more dubious! That these procedures are more efficient in pain relief that standard Western medicine? In your dreams! many a cynical Westerner would say, In your dreams, buddy! However, it seems that this Eastern hocus-pocus produces concrete effects even in the hard-and-fast, waking, Western, 21st century world.
The article describes an experiment that was conducted by the researchers. "More than 1,100 patients were randomly assigned to receive either acupuncture, sham acupunctrue or conventional therapy. For the sham acupuncture, needles were inserted, but not as deeply as for the real thing. The sham acupuncture also did not insert needles in traditional acupuncture points on the body, and the needles were not moved and rotated.“
The results proved to be surprising. "After six months, patients answered questions about pain and functional ability and their scores determined how well each of the therapies worked. In the real acupuncture group, 47 percent of the patients improved. In the sham acupuncture group, 44 percent did. In the usual-care group, 27 percent got relief.“
The article concludes that "even fake acupuncture worked better than conventional care, leading researchers to wonder whether pain relief came from the body’s reactions to any thin needle pricks or, possibly, the placebo effect.“ For many a Westerner the results of this study seem as implausible as a sleep dream. However, this particular dream has been grounded in waking life, as should all of the dreams that visit us. The unexpected-to-many message that it brings to Western dreamers does not evanesce upon waking, but stands firmly upon the sturdy legs of research, inviting us to expand our understanding of the "real" world.