Deception in High Places
Peter Clemerson (November 15, 2021)
In a recent Nature article, some researchers of Chinese origin describe their research into the effects of stimulation at various acupuncture points on the induction of inflammation by bacterial endotoxins (toxic proteins released by some bacteria when they disintegrate). They found that this stimulation has beneficial effects at some acupuncture sites and not others. Despite the use of the word “electroacupuncture” in the title, their abstract in the Nature paper ends with “Our studies provide a neuroanatomical basis for the selectivity and specificity of acupoints in driving specific autonomic pathways.” a normal reading of which strongly suggests that the authors believe that acupuncture is a real phenomenon and is based upon specific neurological pathways which they are claiming to have identified.
The paper has recently been publicised in the Science and Technology Daily web site, in which one reads that the team “has elucidated the underlying neuroanatomy of acupuncture that activates a specific signaling pathway.” a normal reading of which strongly suggests that the Scitechdaily journalist also believes that acupuncture is a real phenomenon.
Given the above, you could be forgiven for thinking that an anatomical and physiological explanation for and proof of acupuncture, after years of searching, have finally been found. In the near future, you might also see articles making exactly this claim and even citing the paper, although less precise references to it are more likely. In fact, despite the tendentiousness of the last sentence of the abstract, the paper explicitly states that the stimulation was electrical rather than the mechanical stimulation of conventional acupuncture, the experimental subjects were mice rather than humans and all observed results were necessarily physiological rather than psychological. We mustn't be fooled then. A definitive demonstration of the claimed effects of the mechanical stimulation of everyday acupuncture has still to be provided, despite what must be described, at best, as the credulity of the accepting editor of Nature and the Scitechdaily journalist.