Acupuncture: A Critical Analysis

Running head: Critical thinking and Communications 0
Critical Thinking and Communications
Acupuncture
8/4/2018

Critical thinking and Communications 1
Introduction
Acupuncture is the medical practice that includes the needle’s insertion into the specific
points of the human body to eliminate pain. This practice is derived from the traditional medicine
of China, which describes that the human body is dependent on the qi life force and the yin and
yang are the extremes on which balance of life depends. In this essay, the discussion will be
carried on that the efficiency of acupuncture is not the means of treatment, as many trials found
that Acupuncture is not an effective treatment of human body, and many method-related flaws
and bias in test subjects have been discovered. The trials in which there are no method-related
flaws are influenced by placebo effect. Further, the research has proved that there is no evidence
of the qi life force. Thus, the humans should not believe on the Acupuncture theory.
The effectiveness and the efficiency of the Acupuncture is tested by conducting 3000
trials, and it has been found that the trials favoring the acupuncture as an effective treatment are
affected by test subject bias. The randomized organized trial is the study that randomly allocates
humans to the experimental or control group that reduces the bias effect on the outcomes of
experiment. In Acupuncture, this trial would ensure that the individual who believe or not are
assigned randomly to different group in equal number.
As trials checking the Acupuncture effectiveness are large in number, the researcher does
not establish a randomized control group and it is probable that the people who prefer
Acupuncture should volunteer for these trials, as this experience is beneficial for them. In
contrast, the individual who were against the Acupuncture will not volunteer, as the Acupuncture
is the waste of time for them and they would prefer invasive treatment. If there is no
physiological improvement from the invasive treatments, the individuals want improvements
from the Acupuncture therapy; the results will fit the views of individuals.
It is difficult for the researcher to identify the individual’s responses, as the relief from
the pain is subjective and it will affect study results accuracy, especially if the anecdotal
evidence is taken into consideration. Clinical study derived from the Journal of Medicine, New
Zealand has explained that the humans who are using Acupuncture will claim that their condition
is improved even if there is no actual improvement in their conditions, it is because of the bias
that is created from the uncontrolled sample size.
Furthermore, various numbers of researches have shown that the application of the
Acupuncture theory will results in the improvement within the test subjects. These researches
and the placebo effect are showing the same effect. Hence, the improvements in the experimental
groups is because of the Acupuncture therapy not because of the Placebo effect. Control group is
created to ensure that the real acupuncture tests are compared against the fake acupuncture tests.
If the results of the real or fake acupuncture tests are same, it is due to the placebo response