Needles for Flashes: Friend or Faux?
A study from the Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina has me wondering. A group of 56 women were selected for age (44-56), menstrual status (no period for at least 3 months), and menopausal symptoms (at least four hot flashes a day). The women were divided into three sub-groups, those who got:
- Regular menopause care,
- Traditional acupuncture, or
- Sham acupuncture
All the women experienced a reduction in their hot flash symptoms. The women receiving the usual medical care averaged a 10% reduction; those receiving traditional acupuncture had 40% fewer flashes; and those receiving sham acupuncture (shallow needles in non-therapeutic areas) also experienced 40% fewer flashes. Say what? It didn’t matter whether the acupuncture was the real deal or its imposter neighbor, women cooled down.
Was the success with faux acupuncture from the needles or was it placebo effect? And , more importantly, do we care? Instead of disdaining “placebo effect” as a therapeutic ugly step-sister, what if we embraced it as the best dang therapy since penicillin? It’s obvious that what we think has tremendous effect on how we feel. If our expectations can make us better or more comfortable, why not celebrate that and study it, as we would if it were a new drug or supplement?
Placebo effect is the Rodney Dangerfield of medical science. We give it no respect, and in fact point to it to justify that people are just silly little gooses for letting their brains do the work of the real heroes: medications.
What I don't get is why aren’t we studying the power of our expectations along with all the chemical boosters and concoctions? Let’s start by refering to it by a grownup name: “Expectation Physiology.” (That sounds pretty scientific, yes?) If I may borrow a phrase: A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Photo: China Photos/Stringer, Courtesy Getty Images
Comments
Really interesting stuff. Just goes to show the power of the mind — and a woman’s emotional state playing a major role in how she goes through menopause. I had acupuncture done when I was pregnant (to turn a breech baby) and I can say that at no point in my life had I felt so relaxed. There is just something about the practice of acupuncture that immediately makes you feel cared for!
I have had accupuncture and it did’t do a thing for my condition but my husbabd swears by it for his back. It would be good to see clinical studies with measurable results and not just the patient’s voice.