Acupuncture!

Well, I left a message earlier this week for one of Charlotte's acupuncturist, the one recommended to me by Cath.  He called back yesterday saying that he normally has a 9 to 12 month wait for new patients.  However, he is moving me to the top of the list because he wants to start specializing in fertility issues.  Granted, I hope that in a few weeks I can tell him that we don't need him.  But I'd rather be on the list than not. 

I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed in the research I found on searching about Acupuncture and Fertility.  There has been only one scientific study that I could find.  This study looked at how obtaining acupuncture after in-virto fertilization affected pregnancy rates.  The study reports that only 26 percent of the control patients got preggers whereas 42 percent of the women using acupuncture got pregnant.  That's a big difference!

The problem is in the methods.  The test group received acupuncture in the "right" places and then rested for 25 minutes.  The control group just rested for 25 minutes.  Because the test group received some sort of treatment and the control group did not, it is very likely that the results are a placebo effect.  For this to have more validity, the control group needed to be stuck in places that should not have any link to increasing blood flow to the uterus, etc. (For example, they should receive needles in places just to reduce sress or aid digestion or some other neutral, non-pregnancy thing) And neither of the groups of women should know whether they were in the test or control group.  In the previous study, the group receiving acupuncture knew they were the test group, which has been shown to have large effects on the outcome of the study.  An even better study would involve acupuncturist who did not know the purpose of the study.  That is, they'd go in to the women and treat one to increase blood flow to the uterus and the other to increase blood flow to the heart (clearly, I'm making this up for an easy example), but the important thing is that the acupuncturist wouldn't know that this was a study on fertility.  Thus, we'd have a double blind study (neither the patients or the acupuncturists would know who was the real test group) and any results would be more likely to be objective results of acupuncture.

How important is the double blind part?  Rats were randomly assigned to be "smart rats" or regular rats.  When grad students were told that they had a smart rat, the rat actually completed a maze faster than if the grad students were told the rats were regular rats.  There was no difference in the rats.  The only difference is in what the grad students who were timing the rats were told. 

So, am I still going to acupuncture?  You betcha!  I've already said that I don't know if robitussin or evening primrose oil are placebos or have a real effect, but I'm noticing a difference.  The "scientific" evidence is still out on acupuncture, but the anecdotal is in.  If it's just a placebo effect, it's still  fine by me. 

And, by the way, if I can come up with a study like this off the top of my head, why is there not funded research being conducted at this exact moment on this topic?  Whether the results showed pregnancy or not, they would still be newsworthy.

OK.  I just had a brainstorm.  I'm working with a woman in my department who studies alternative medicine and she is looking for new lines of research.  She and I could do this study with my new doctor, no? 

7:56:42 AM