Whether it was the placebo effect or not, I had some good results with acupuncture. Once again, it was my friend, the chiropractor. I asked him to do something and write down what he was trying to do, but not tell me. I was congested and he drained my sinuses, exactly as he wrote. He also blocked pain, temporarily. Now, if a chiropractor told me he/she could cure something like lupus, or an STD with strategically placed needles, I'd laugh, but I don't think acupuncture is totally meritless...

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 know that some people swear by this, but why haven't the devotees of this "discipline" subjected it to scientific testing and peer review?

Anytime a process is validated solely or substantially by eyewitness and testimonials, be on your guard.  After all, lots of eyewitnesses have seen Elvis and swear he is alive.  I see that in the tabloids at the checkstand all the time.

Ancient practice that was developed because nobody back them had any friggin' idea how the human body worked. If you do this, maybe you should get the "bad blood" drained from your body by your local barber while you are at it.

I'm up in the air on this one. Maybe its odd that I question its validity, when my direct ancestors practiced this, but I haven't seen enough evidence to prove nor disprove it. Knowing two acupuncture specialists myself (a friend of mine does acupuncture, and we have a veterinary acupuncturist/Chinese medicine specialist on staff), as well as a small but solid handful of people who swear by its effectiveness, I'll say that it at least works/appears to work on the faithful. Overall, I'd say if all else fails, it wouldn't hurt to try, I suppose, but I'll skip it.

Up until about a year ago I would have put this firmly into the quackery category. But we rescued a profoundly brain damaged greyhound (he waws run into the wall during a race) two years ago and about a year ago experimented with acupuncture at a local university. I won't go into all the empirical observations but after each session his level of alertness and general ability to manage his life increases significantly. Most easily observed are his motor skills which, from spastic before each treatment, are almost smooth and coordinated. It may not be the acupuncture. Maybe it's the drive to the clinic or the ambiance of the treatment room. But whatever it is, it works in this case.