What alternative health

practitioners might not tell you

 

ebm-first.com

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"These researchers learned something, but not what they think they learned. They learned that doubling the PPI [Proton Pump Inhibitor] dose is pretty much useless, and that providing a placebo intervention is much more effective. To my mind, the next logical step would be to find the simplest, most effective method to help the patient in the same way that they were helped by acupuncture placebo, but without any make-believe about imaginary meridians and qi. If the authors' speculations about light touch are correct, it's quite possible that some form of light massage would be equally effective. And perhaps personal attention, relaxation, and reassurance would do even more good. We may be able to learn a great deal from alternative medicine practices, but not necessarily what they would like to teach us. All the acupuncture research to date is compatible with the hypothesis that it's nothing more than an elaborate placebo with maybe a touch of counter-irritant thrown in. No one has seen a meridian or measured the qi. Isn't it time to stop doing junk science and Tooth Fairy research, to discard needles and meridians and mystical nonsense, and to try reality-based approaches to improving patient comfort and satisfaction?" Harriet Hall, MD, Science Based Medicine (12th February 2008)