Acupuncture May Help Ease Symptoms of COPD

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I am all for thinking critically, but we cannot forget about logica & common sense.
Dr. Norman Edelman states: "[Acupuncture] certainly would not replace current therapies."
Well current conventional care/therapy is not getting the job done for COPD.
"There is no cure for COPD."
"Current treatment is directed toward slowing its progression and reducing flare-ups that require hospitalization."
How well are we slowing COPD? Not so well it seems. Why else is there a projection: "By 2020, the disease is likely to be the third leading cause of death worldwide..."
Dr. George Lewith states on COPD is "...a condition that seems largely unresponsive to more conventional treatments."
Bottomline, trying to be too "critically smart" may cost you in the end. The current standard treatments for COPD are inadequate then you should be proactive and try other alternatives.

Stephen H. Li of MA 12:33PM May 17, 2012

I would like to add after reading the comments preceeding mine. Accupuncture is non-invasive. It will not cause the terrible side effects of most COPD drugs. I accept that it has a 50/50 chance that it could work for some individuals. The same odds I have been given in clinical trials that I have participated in. All COPD patients are unique in the status of their disease. No two will display exact same symptoms and not all meds help all patients.
If you have severe shortness of breath, there is no false symptomatic iimprovement. The mind is powerful but a failing lung holds the most of the power. Believe me!!!!
The greater mystery is why COPD is the 4th leading cause of death in the US and very few meds, actually only 2 or 3 have been developed for it. Mosts are ones developed for Asthma. We have Steroids that totally destroy the immune system, cause osteoporosis, and can change your body to someone you no longer recognize.
Conventional western medicine has long discredited the use of accupuncture as being of any benefit so I say unless you are in my shoes, walk beside me and not in front to block my way.
This may be a case of skepticism

A. Boyer of TX 6:47PM May 16, 2012

Accupuncture has stopped whiplash pain for me when conventional medicine could not.
I have severe emphysema and I will try this. I will do this in addition to my prescribed meds for my disease.

A.Boyer of TX 6:30PM May 16, 2012

This study looks better than most acupuncture trials. However, it has still important flaws:the sample size is small, the therapists were not blinded, most outcome measures were subjective, there was no follow-up, the effect size is of debatable clinical relevance etc,etc. Most importantly, this trial needs independent replications before we should accept its results.

Edzard Ernst 12:16AM May 15, 2012

A lot of qualifiers here: "may help" and "seemed to" etc.
The simple fact is that these kinds of results will show up occasionally by sheer statistical effect, 5% of all studies of something will show "an effect" at the p<=.05 significance level. Meanwhile there is a HUGE background of studies completed that show acupuncture doesn't work and that when it does "work" it doesn't matter where the needles are stuck in or even whether acupuncture, acupressure, or "laser acupuncture" (shining one of those pointer lights on the skin) work "better."
Add to that that this study was not completely blinded and the measurement of interest was subjective and what you have is monumentally unimpressive for an intervention that has no biologically plausible mechanism. I bet a study to see if jumping up and down and shouting "olly olly oxenfree" made medications work better were carried out a number of times that some of them would show an effect!
Very sad that money is being wasted on such "research." But it is clear that the purpose is not science but to sell stuff like acupuncture.

Tim Gorski MD of TX 11:25PM May 14, 2012

Magic, nonsense. Horsefeathers. I am struck by the free use of the (weasel) words "may," and "suggests." This "study" is without physiological basis or meaningful replication. People with shortness of breath may, of course, feel symptomatic improvement if they believe they should, but how acupuncture, which can allegedly cure everything from asthma to alcoholism to, perhaps, worms, does its COPD thing is open to serious skepticism. How this stuff ended up being seriously considered in a prestigious American medical journal is a greater mystery still.

Lee A. Bricker of MI 9:10PM May 14, 2012