quote:

Originally posted by StorminNormin:
My mom and wife have raved about relief they have gotten from acupuncture. I have been having back pain in my upper back for almost a year and do not yet know what is causing it. I tried acupuncture with a well known Chinese doctor every week for several months and it did not help at all. Next I am going to try a chiropractor and if that doesn't help then I will get X-ray and MRI to try and figure out what is going on.

Just because acupuncture didn't work for me doesn't make me feel it doesn't work for people. It has been around for a long time and I think it just depends on the person and what is causing their problem.

quote:

Originally posted by JeffR:
There are quite a few studies that show acupuncture's effectiveness across a fairly wide array of health issues. If you're interested in anything more recent, check out PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/).

When it comes to pain/pain management, more folks are starting to get interested in acupuncture, particularly given the recent negative press around opiates. The American College of Physicians is now recommending acupuncture along with chiropractic, massage, behavioral therapy and a handful of other treatments as first line for both acute and chronic back pain.

Sham acupuncture can be difficult to define and hard for the average person to detect. Most states license acupuncturists and we do have national board certification through NCCAOM. From a patient/consumer perspective you should look for both credentials (usually L.Ac. from the state and either Dipl OM or Dipl AC from NCCAOM). Even with that, as a profession we tend to run the gamut from 'dirty hippy' to 'silk pajamas'. If you're lucky enough to have an oriental medicine school nearby, I'd suggest you start with their student clinic. You'll get a chance to try out several different practitioners, at fairly low cost, and might be able to stay with them once they graduate.