Originally Posted by tore

Acupuncture - healing people by pricking them with needles - dates back to pre-christian times and was once popular in the ancient east, but eventually lost status as a form of healing. But under the regime of Mao Zhedong, acupuncture was revived as a response to the lack of medical practitioners in China. Since then, acupuncture has spread its way westwards and is, today, generally seen as the most credible form of alternative medicine. At least that would be true in Norway where the claimed efficiency of the practice seems commonly accepted.

But is acupuncture an effective treatment? The mechanisms by which it claim to work are mystical or even mythical (non-existant?) and numerous scientific studies seem to conclude that there is no effect, or that the effect is too small for clinical recommendation. Yet, many people claim that acupuncture helps them.

What do you think?