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Originally posted by Jack Squat
If you want REAL (ie scientific") research on TCM, go to JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) and do a search on acupuncture. You will find studies proving that acupuncture is efficacious for more than just pain.
They only have abstracts (I'm not forking over $9/article for full text), but some of the information is interesting.
The first two abstracts show acupuncture to be no more effective than a placebo for treatment of cocaine addiction or HIV-related neuropathy (not really sure what that is).
The next one appears to show some efficacy for reducing puking after chemo in women.
Most interesting to me was the one showing moxibustion reducing the probability of breech birth. I'd like to read that one. While I believe they've reported their results correctly, I didn't get a good answer for "compared to what." Judging from the abstract, moxa on the toenail point helps stimulate movement in utero and reduces the probability of breech birth. However, I'm curious why they didn't have a third group that ate, say, jalapeno peppers daily.
In other words, I wonder if it's simple irritation/stimulation that makes the baby move more often and the individual point or methodology doesn't matter.
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Also, I would like to state that TCM includes acupuncture, tui na (massage), herbology, cupping, moxa, qigong, etc. Some aspects of TCM work better for certain conditions. I will be the first to admit that there are some quacks out there, but for the sake of our discussion, lets assume we are discussing legitimate TCM.
I wasn't talking about quacks. I'm talking more about identifying the portions of TCM that are effective beyond the placebo effect. I think it's unreasonable to believe that what's widely considered "legitimate TCM" all works.
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As far as the Jing thing, I agree that too much loss of Jing will have a negative consequence on health. The "Confusian doctrine of the mean" is the underlying concept in TCM, meaning too much of anything is bad (as is not enough). (For those die hard TCM people out there, I'm not saying that TCM is founded upon Confusianism- I know it's based on taoism).
If you're saying moderation is better for your health than over-indulgence, obsession, or addiction, I'd say yeah. . .though that has little to do with TCM per se.
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Back to the whole TCM works/doesn't work, is/isn't valid thing. Maybe I can quote from the movie Contact (no, I'm not some UFO watching weirdo). "Did you love your father? Then PROVE it".
IIRC, that was the priest trying to argue the existence of god.
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I quote this only to highlight that some things are difficult to prove (I have no idea how to prove the existance of the meridian pathways- I'll leave that to someone else). I don't mean to imply that TCM works by faith either (or simply by placebo).
Proving the existence of god is dramatically different from "proving" (used in a loose manner) a particular set of treatments are (in)effective. One will always be in the realm of belief while the other isn't.
Furthermore, you've over-simplified and exaggerated my position. I don't think all TCM works solely because of placebo. I think some parts of it are effective. However, I think much of it doesn't work beyond the placebo or "irritation effect" and I believe it's important to understand what goes where.