[Fwd: RE:Letter to the Editor [#6130692]]

[Guest guest]

Here is the response I received from WebMD about the article on

acupuncture not lowering blood pressure:

 

-------- Forwarded Message --------

onlineservice

mmilotay

RE:Letter to the Editor [#6130692]

Mon, 20 Dec 2004 16:53:50 -0600

 

Dear mmilotay,

 

I agree that Dr. Lloyd-Jones quote is inaccurate ... in other words, while we

have correctly reported what he said, what he said may be his opinion, but does

not accurately reflect the body of medical research on acupuncture in the US,

min the West, or in the world.

 

I have forwarded your comments to our Editors and asked that they make the

appropriate modifications to our article.

 

Thanks you for taking the time to bring this to our attention.

 

Sincerely,

 

Barry W. Wolcott, MD, FACP

SVP Clinical Issues

WebMD Health

webmd.com

 

 

 

--Original Message--

mmilotay

12/18/04

onlineservice

Letter to the Editor[#6130692]

 

 

 

In the article about acupuncture not lowering blood pressure, Donald M.

Lloyd-Jones is quoted saying:

 

Moreover, he noted that the study by Kaplan is one of the first -- if not the

first -- studies to test acupuncture in a scientific manner.

 

This is not true, there is extensize scientific research going on around the

world into acupuncture as a treatmtent technique for many ailments. By

publishing this statement you are creating the perception that there is little

tangible and empirically tested evidence to the effectiveness of acupuncture. A

search Medline will turn up a large number of studies done on acupuncture, and

doesnt include the extensize scientific research done in China, Japan and Korea.

 

Sincerely,

 

Mark Milotay

 

 

 

webmd.com/content/article/87/99574.htm

 

 

 

 

--

Mark Milotay <mmilotay

[Guest guest]

, Mark Milotay <mmilotay@t...> wrote:

>

> Here is the response I received from WebMD about the article on

> acupuncture not lowering blood pressure:>

>

> In the article about acupuncture not lowering blood pressure, Donald M.

Lloyd-Jones is

quoted saying:

>

> Moreover, he noted that the study by Kaplan is one of the first -- if not the

first --

studies to test acupuncture in a scientific manner.

>

A search Medline will turn up a large number of studies done on acupuncture,

and doesnt

include the extensize scientific research done in China, Japan and Korea.

 

 

 

The Dr. from webMD was quite conciliatory in his response to you, but I am not

sure why.

While there has been extensive research done worldwide on acupuncture, all but a

handful

of studies are considered flawed and therefore inconclusive by the NIH. The NIH

consensus report staetd that Acupuncture had been shown to be effective in

nausea from

chemotherapy and pregnancy and that's pretty much it (see

http://consensus.nih.gov/

cons/107/107_statement.htm#3_2._What ). While leaving open some potential

usefulness

in pain complaints, in fact, the NIH report suggested there is more evidence

proving the

ineffectiveness of acupuncture in many complaints rather than vice-versa. So

Jones is not

completely unfair in his statement above as most studies on acupuncture have

been

dismissed as unscientific by peer review. The fact that an abstract or even

thousands

appear on medline is meaningless. Studies are often flawed, if not fraudulent,

which can

only be determnined from the complete article (NIH reviewed actual studies, not

misrepresentative abstracts). China has no real peer review, so Chinese journal

articles

are merely fodder for further discussion and research. They PROVE nothing. It

does not

serve our purposes to direct webmd towards this fact. This is such a clearcut

case of the

emperor wearing no clothes and yet wandering through the streets showing off his

raiments. We need to actually do the research first before claiming it is being

done (or has

been done). In reality, the amount of money being spent on alt med is miniscule

and we

can expect it to decrease in years to come as the feds get out of the research

game.