I personally haven't had acupuncture, but I have heard a lot of good about it, and give it a three just because I would be willing to try it.

Let me get this clear.

To alleviate pain, one has needles inserted into ones flesh, a practice given credence for its ancient asian origins.


Hmmmm.....

I prefer the ancient Hibernian medical practice for relieving pain, in which the sufferer ingests sufficent quantities of the Cratur.

As the song has it....

"Let your quacks and newspapers be cutting their capers
About curing the vapors the scratch and the gout
With their medical potions, their serums and their lotions
Upholding their notions, they're mighty put out.
Who can tell the true physic to all that's pathetic
And pitch to the divil, cramp, colic and spleen
You'll know it I think if you take a big drink
With your mouth to the brink of a jug of poteen
So stick to the cratur' the best thing in nature
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys
Oh what botheration, no dose in the nation
Can give consolation like poteen me boys.
No liquid cosmetic to lovers athletic
Or bodies pathetic can give such a bloom
As the sweet by the powers in the garden of flowers
Ever gave their own bowers such a darling perfume
And this liquid so rare if you willingly share
To be taking your hair when it's frizzled and dead
Oh the sod has the merit to yield the true spirit
So strong it will shake all the hairs from your head
Then stick to the cratur' the best thing in nature
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys"

This is unbelievable medieval quackery that is gaining an increasing foothold in American life. Its theory and practice are based on primitive and fanciful concepts of health and disease that bear no relationship to present scientific knowledge. All the research militates against it.

Most perceived benefits come from good old regressive fallacy or raised expectations when treatment begins. If you believe that pain and illnesses build up in your body due to the accumulation of qi, then this is for you. Perhaps the acupuncturist should stick some of the needles into the gray matter.

I hope my insurance rates don't have to cover payments for this bunk.

I've heard mixed results from this. . .

It's almost a rite of passage of those with some money, education, and too-cool-for-western-medicine attitude one finds in rare circles. . .

And it is easy for the west to dismiss many things of Asian (specifically Chinese) culture- which has been around for far longer than most care to realize.

But I'm having a hard time looking past some limited knowledge of medicine- it seems like ancient goofy nonsense to me. I'll give it a temporary two and perhaps one day do more research.

This one seems to have enough results behind it to earn it a certain amount of serious consideration. I think it's way more mainstream and accepted than many of the others on this list.

I used to have a severe allergic reaction to cats. I'm talking emergency room allergic. A few years ago I had one (1) acupuncture treatment done to help with it, and now I live with three cats. I highly recommend this to anyone. I didn't believe it would work, but it did. You just never know till you try, I guess.

This has been around a very long time and has helped many people.Eastern medicine has a lot to offer to those who have been failed by western medicine.Better yet,they should work together and learn from one another.

This method of treatment seems to work for some more than others, but that might be attributed to how willing you are to this procedure. When I see how it's done, it looks rather interesting...frankly, though, I don't see anything appealing about sticking a bunch of needles in my body. To each his own, I guess...

There *might* be something to this one; I haven't tried it myself, but others I know have. If it does work, I haven't a clue how; but then there are a lot of topics in medicine that are a bit mysterious.