Acupuncture is based on the ideal of dissapating the pain, or spread the misery over a wider area untill your brain can remove all the watered down pains. It does not cure the cause of the pain. You didn't state the actual reason for the treatment, is it something a GP/MD can't deal with?  I grew up around people with medical degrees, I personaly would always see the family doctor first.  Your pain may simply be mother natures way of saying,  "Sit down and rest!!"

RSI/Carpal's--from typing, mostly. I've tried resting it, massage, ice, heat, not typing, change diet, been to phy. therapists, on & on.

Ultrasound trmt. directed at my arm did seem to help, but heard controversial stuff about that as well; so, willing to try anything. Don't really wanna do the meds thing...I mean, yeah, mask the pain? no thx.

Seems like the studies are a bit of a mixed bag. There was one that confirmed that acupuncture helps headaches and backpain but take that with a grain of salt, since it is pretty much impossible to do a double blind study of a procedure.

IANAD, but it seems like it might do something along the lines of trigger endorphins and alter bloodflow. Meh. Either way, don't underestimate the power of the placebo effect.

-Triften

(And the new POS text edit box gives me its own POS right-click menu... sigh)

Thanks for the input.

The reason I'm trying this is b/c a friend said it helped them w/ similar issues...

Oh oh i got it now!... get off the damn forums and dont use the computer!

should be fine in a few years >.> hehe

Ditto to the "avoiding medicine" part of your post (yeah, that stuff will kill ye olde liver)!

Thanx for the input, Renee!!!!

I suffer from seasonal allergies. It is really bad here in Atlanta,  I did try accupunture treatment for it.  Dont know if it was a placibo effect or not, this year was good to me.  I did have a little nasal congestion, but that was all.  It feels great to be able to witness spring.  The rainy weather has been a major player in reducing the pollen, so I cant say if it was purely the accupunture treatment that helped.  But I was in a bad way, and was ready to try any thing.  Hope this helps.

Minkz

I came across this video the other day. I think the part at the end with the electric healing is probably the closest thing to being effective, plus the relaxation, and the placebo effect from the wise, chinese alternative medicine idea.

One of the really interesting things about the placebo effect is that sometimes you don't even have to believe in the treatment for it to work.  Scientists don't exactly know why this is, but it's a repeatable (and previously repeated) observation.  The point, as it relates to acupunture is that if it is just a placebo effect, it's possible that you could disbelieve in it and still benefit.  (It is unlikely, but possible.)

After two years of traveling with a band, loading and unloading all our equipment, and driving constantly, my neck and back were fucked up in really exciting ways.  I eventually found relief from a mix of chiropractic care and deep tissue massage.  In general, I believe that a lot of chiropractic therapy is quack medicine, but I do think that it is beneficial for some conditions, and I do think there are chiropractors who have a very good knowledge of the musculoskeletal system, and do "put things back in place."

Having said that, I'm open to the possibility that it's all quack medicine.  If it is, it's possible that I would still try it again if I was in pain.  It's thirty bucks, and even if it is a placebo effect, relief is relief.

It's controversial, anyway.  I know people who swear it's just glorified back cracking that anyone can learn in twenty minutes.  The guy I went to, however, was able to do very specific things.  For instance, I would tell him that my back hurt in such and such a place, near my shoulder blade, and he would work on my hip.  Then, he'd have me rotate my shoulder in such and such a way, and the pain would go away.  When I came in the first time, he told me that I'd carried a big wallet for many years in my left back pocket.  That was particularly impressive because it was true, and I didn't have a big wallet at the time.  I had a money clip in my front pocket.  My pants did not have any imprints on the pockets.

Speaking of controversial practices, I got quite a bit of acupressure while I was getting therapeutic massage.  I found it to be very effective, but then, the claim was that by exerting pressure on specific points on the muscles, the very same muscles would feel better.  Not much of a leap of logic.  Certainly, the guy didn't claim that he could cure allergies by poking me with a needle.  Having said that, he could cure headaches very effectively.  He taught me how to do it, and I've had very good success with it as well, both on myself and other people.

Well I'd say its more of a glorified massage  it has been shown to be as helpful for low back pain as any other "conventional" (i cringe at that word there is evidence based medicine and non-evidence based once some gains evidence it becomes part of the toolbox for doctors / physical therapists or whoever in the medical profession to use sorry for the rant) therapy  such as physical therapy. 

Here is a academic neurologist discussing it

http://www.theness.com/articles.asp?id=4

http://www.theness.com/articles.asp?id=5

for acupuncture 

A Neuroscientist Investigates Acupuncture by Robert Drysdale