A CALL TO ACTION!!!

[EagleEye]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,154472,00.html

Please review the above article.

I think we, the members of the JREF forum, all need to act!

We need to contact the author of this article, and her editor...

We need to contact the accupuncturist, IVF doctors, and others mentioned in this article...

.. and we need to DIRECTLY challenge them!

We need to LOUDLY and coherantly proclaim just how abhorantly UNBALANCED this article is towards accupuncture.

We need to LOUDLY and coherantly challenge these people to back up their claims... to PROVE these things they "know to be true"...

We need to hold the author accountable for publishing such a silly piece...

If possible, we need to get Mr. Randi involved as well.

I see this article as having at least 2 or 3 "medical doctors" who are convinced that accupuncture works. Then there's 2 or 3 who are "on the fence", saying "the jury is still out" etc... and others who are saying they don't encourage it, but don't discourage it.

I wonder just how many doctors told this "journalist" that accupuncture is rubbish! The tone of the piece is obviously pro-accupuncture... with a token effort to "balance". Sorry, but a "balanced" article such as this is point and contrary point... not point and "someone else doesn't have an opinion either way"...

I see it as a see-saw with people sitting at the far "I firmly believe" end... a few standing on the center (the pivot point), and the other seat sitting empty and up in the air.

That's not balance. +10 is balanced by -10, not by 0...

Anyway... Let's get rolling on this one!

 

[Goshawk]

Uh-uh. Waste of time. Confucius say, "Pick battles you can win."

You want us to try to tell a member of the entertainment industry that their entertainment is not factual? I see. Well, you go right ahead, and good luck. And next you can try telling MGM that The Wizard of Oz could never really have happened...

They're totally covered: they've got all the standard disclaimers and phraseology, "Seems to indicate", etc. There's nothing you can hang them on.

And Catherine Donaldson-Evans has no pretensions to being anything other than what she is: a hack writer for the entertainment industry. She only writes what her bosses think will sell, not the "Truth". "Hold her accountable"? For what? For doing her job, which is writing puff pieces for the entertainment industry? Maybe she should've gone into more laudable "serious" journalism, 'cause she'll never win a Pulitzer like this, but hey, maybe she's comfortable with that. "Hold her accountable" for earning a paycheck and doing what she's told? Not me. You go ahead, though. '

And "hold her editors accountable" for doing what they're told, which is make money for Fox? Articles debunking woo don't sell; articles promoting woo, do. That's the bottom line.

Seriously. Take a deep breath, and just let it go. All of us, and especially Mr. Randi, have too much to do without tilting at this particular windmill, one which will never, ever go away, not as long as 21st century civilization still has TV sets and prefers to believe in ghosts and goblins and acupuncture.

 

[EagleEye]

So give up because it won't make a difference?

You don't get it... NEXT!

 

[Goshawk]

So give up because it won't make a difference?

You don't get it... NEXT!

No--give up this particular battle because this particular battle cannot be won.

You are young and impetuous, Grasshopper, but you must realize that your elders have been fighting these identical battles for many years now. "Pick battles you can win" means that you don't go haring off after any old target: you look for one that's do-able. And this one just isn't do-able. You don't think we've tried? I mean, seriously, do you think you're the first one here to spot an egregiously woo news article or magazine story and issue a sort of "call to arms" to the JREF forums to gather 'round and "do something"? Go read some old threads. Look at the battle scars. Read the commentaries, and see how many times even Mr. Randi has been able to get some woowoo to back down.

I'm saying that our energies are better spent, in local causes. The guy whose work supervisor puts woo out on the corporate e-mail, now he is in a position to make a difference, whereas if he took on all of Fox News in its entirety he'd be lucky even to get an e-mail back.

We need to contact the accupuncturist, IVF doctors, and others mentioned in this article...

Generally speaking, these people have already heard it all before; their minds are already made up. "Contacting" or confronting them won't do a bit of good, and might get you in trouble, legally, for harassment, if you get to the point where, after the first non-response, you still just can't leave it alone. You don't have any grounds to "challenge" them to prove a darn thing. They don't have to respond to you, and they won't. We already know this.

If you absolutely feel you must confront one or all of them, my advice would be that you content yourself with one (1) e-mail OR snail-mail letter, but don't expect any results, let alone a prompt reply admitting guilt followed by a public repudiation of acupuncture. Because that is never, ever gonna happen.

 

[Goshawk]

And the reason why acupuncture battles are impossible to win is that even the NIH says that acupuncture works.

Sort of.

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/#work

Does acupuncture work?

According to the NIH Consensus Statement on Acupuncture, there have been many studies on acupuncture's potential usefulness, but results have been mixed because of complexities with study design and size, as well as difficulties with choosing and using placebos or sham acupuncture. However, promising results have emerged, showing efficacy of acupuncture, for example, in adult postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and in postoperative dental pain. There are other situations--such as addiction, stroke rehabilitation, headache, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, osteoarthritis, low-back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma--in which acupuncture may be useful as an adjunct treatment or an acceptable alternative or be included in a comprehensive management program. An NCCAM-funded study recently showed that acupuncture provides pain relief, improves function for people with osteoarthritis of the knee, and serves as an effective complement to standard care.7 Further research is likely to uncover additional areas where acupuncture interventions will be useful.8

NIH has funded a variety of research projects on acupuncture. These grants have been funded by NCCAM, its predecessor the Office of Alternative Medicine, and other NIH institutes and centers.

* Visit the NCCAM Web site, or call the NCCAM Clearinghouse for more information on scientific findings about acupuncture.

* Read the NIH Consensus Statement on Acupuncture, to learn what scientific experts have said about the use and effectiveness of acupuncture for a variety of conditions.

Here's the "bottom line" of that NIH Consensus Statement on Acupuncture:

http://consensus.nih.gov/cons/107/107_statement.htm#7_Conclus

Acupuncture as a therapeutic intervention is widely practiced in the United States. There have been many studies of its potential usefulness. However, many of these studies provide equivocal results because of design, sample size, and other factors. The issue is further complicated by inherent difficulties in the use of appropriate controls, such as placebo and sham acupuncture groups.

However, promising results have emerged, for example, efficacy of acupuncture in adult post-operative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and in postoperative dental pain. There are other situations such as addiction, stroke rehabilitation, headache, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, osteoarthritis, low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma for which acupuncture may be useful as an adjunct treatment or an acceptable alternative or be included in a comprehensive management program. Further research is likely to uncover additional areas where acupuncture interventions will be useful.

Findings from basic research have begun to elucidate the mechanisms of action of acupuncture, including the release of opioids and other peptides in the central nervous system and the periphery and changes in neuroendocrine function. Although much needs to be accomplished, the emergence of plausible mechanisms for the therapeutic effects of acupuncture is encouraging.

The introduction of acupuncture into the choice of treatment modalities readily available to the public is in its early stages. Issues of training, licensure, and reimbursement remain to be clarified. There is sufficient evidence, however, of its potential value to conventional medicine to encourage further studies.

There is sufficient evidence of acupuncture's value to expand its use into conventional medicine and to encourage further studies of its physiology and clinical value.

Now, you go up against an acupuncturist demanding, "Prove that acupuncture works!" and all he'll do is raise one eyebrow quizzically and point you to this NIH link, and ask you patronizingly if you know what the Internet is.

Pick battles you can win.