Science Of Acupuncture Essay
Prospective Patients: Analysis of The Science of Acupuncture and Economics of Acupuncture by Brandon Backus, Jaeyoung Choi, Zhijun Qi
Introduction
The scientific mechanisms of acupuncture have puzzled the Western biomedical community for years and Kathy Sykes, a physicist from the University of Bristol, is by no means an exception. In the BBC Documentary The Science of Acupuncture, Sykes attempts to explain acupuncture from a skeptical scientist’s point of view and concludes that acupuncture is effective for treating certain kinds of pain. However, her research provides neither reliable nor concrete evidence on the efficacy of acupuncture for the audience. The general audience may find the documentary interesting as it relies on various techniques …show more content…
In the scientific community, it is very uncommon to close a case after only having one positive trial. Studies should be performed multiple times in different ways to gain the greatest results. Kathy presents the positives sides in studies to the public many of whom may have little knowledge regarding TCM, trying to promote acupuncture. Some outside studies have been known to disagree with what Sykes is presenting to the audience. Most studies performed out of the documentary are tested against a control, in this case like sham acupoints. Different trials have been run for various diseases and only some of them show that acupuncture has dominance over sham acupuncture. In some cases, what are not described in the documentary, acupuncture actually shows the same clinical effect as sham acupuncture. These studies show that acupuncture displays no statistical significance over sham acupuncture and should not be displayed as an effective treatment. Sykes fails to display this knowledge to her audience causes them to have little to no skepticism for this alternative
Introduction
The scientific mechanisms of acupuncture have puzzled the Western biomedical community for years and Kathy Sykes, a physicist from the University of Bristol, is by no means an exception. In the BBC Documentary The Science of Acupuncture, Sykes attempts to explain acupuncture from a skeptical scientist’s point of view and concludes that acupuncture is effective for treating certain kinds of pain. However, her research provides neither reliable nor concrete evidence on the efficacy of acupuncture for the audience. The general audience may find the documentary interesting as it relies on various techniques …show more content…
In the scientific community, it is very uncommon to close a case after only having one positive trial. Studies should be performed multiple times in different ways to gain the greatest results. Kathy presents the positives sides in studies to the public many of whom may have little knowledge regarding TCM, trying to promote acupuncture. Some outside studies have been known to disagree with what Sykes is presenting to the audience. Most studies performed out of the documentary are tested against a control, in this case like sham acupoints. Different trials have been run for various diseases and only some of them show that acupuncture has dominance over sham acupuncture. In some cases, what are not described in the documentary, acupuncture actually shows the same clinical effect as sham acupuncture. These studies show that acupuncture displays no statistical significance over sham acupuncture and should not be displayed as an effective treatment. Sykes fails to display this knowledge to her audience causes them to have little to no skepticism for this alternative