# Acupuncture

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acupuncture/165415>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 31, 2003, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acupuncture/165415 "2003-03-31T11:14:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Flying\_Monk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Flying\_Monk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flying_Monk)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acupuncture/165415/1 "2003-03-31T11:14:34Z")

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I know you can go to an acupuncturist of your complaint is pain, but what if your complaint is that you have thousands of tiny needle holes all over your body?

J/K, and paying homage to G.C.

The real question is, does it work, or is it complete bunk? What about acupressure? Accutickling? Accu-Chinese water torture?

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**Author:** ![phraser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a88e4f/32.png) [@phraser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phraser)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acupuncture/165415/2 "2003-03-31T11:30:02Z")

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Physiotherapists (Physical Therapists to North Americans 🙂 have been using trigger point therapy to great effect for a while, and it seems to work on similar physiological principles to acupuncture.

I can’t point you to many double blinded clinical trials of acupuncture, but I can cite some stuff in animals (which should at least minimise the placebo effect).

Personally I’ve used accupuncture/accupressure/laser acupuncture (or seen it used) to effect in horses, dogs, cats and dairy cattle. It’s been useful for urinary incontinence in speyed elderly bitches, osteoarthritis in many species, analgesia/anaesthesia, “downer cow syndrome”, atopy (an allergy condition).

[http://www.ivas.org/about.cfm?nav=2](http://www.ivas.org/about.cfm?nav=2) for general veterinary acupuncture information (the rest of the site has some links worth visiting)

The cite for acupuncture in “downer cows” is Poulton PJ, Steinfort JJ Australian Association Of Cattle Veterinarians Procedings 2001, 49-53 “Techniques to improve the treatment of downer cows”

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**Author:** ![Flying\_Monk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Flying\_Monk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flying_Monk)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acupuncture/165415/3 "2003-03-31T18:24:03Z")

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“I have long been alarmed at the use of acupuncture, “therapeutic touch,” and homeopathy to treat pets and farm animals” - James Randi  
[http://www.randi.org/jr/01-05-2001.html](http://www.randi.org/jr/01-05-2001.html)

I’ve been hunting around for clinical trials, haven’t found one yet. So far, it looks like BS…

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**Author:** ![Flying\_Monk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Flying\_Monk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flying_Monk)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acupuncture/165415/4 "2003-03-31T22:15:50Z")

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The Master speaks:

[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000324.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000324.html)

Also, this from the Skeptic’s Dictionary:

[http://skepdic.com/acupunc.html](http://skepdic.com/acupunc.html)

If anyone cares…