More Needles

There are so many fake medical remedies out there, I'm quite wary about what I would use.

Chiropractic medicine may have benefits but some of the claims about what it can do seem over the top to me.  Reiki and homeopathy are right out in my book, as are iridology and reflexology. Herbal medicine needs to be looked at carefully because of the unregulated doses of the active ingredients and lack of rigorous testing in many cases.

Of the alternative medicines I think I'd be most inclined to accept benefits of acupuncture, but I'm not sure why.  Here is a link to an ABC story about some acupuncture research that says in regard to back pain

After eight weeks, 60% of the patients who received acupuncture of some form reported significant improvement in their ability to function compared 37% of those who got standard medical care alone.

That sounds promising. It also says that in this study there was no significant difference between needles and toothpicks being used.  As far as I can tell science does not yet have a good explanation for acupuncture.

While we're on the ABC, here's a story from them about Frozen Shoulder.

Today I feel I'm making no progress with this condition. I'm about to purchase the electronic version of the book from FrozenShoulder.com. Here's a link to an article by the man behind this, Simeon Niel-Asher.