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The Science of Acupuncture

BBC Documentary on Traditional Chinese Medicine. For thousands of years, what we now think of as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) was the only medicine; now, traditional cures are being treated with a fresh respect. For BBC TWO, scientist Professor Kathy Sykes from Bristol University Kathy Sykes investigates why science is starting to respond to these centuries-old remedies….

Alternative Medicine: The Evidence on Acupuncture Kathy begins her journey in China where she sees some incredible demonstrations of acupuncture. The most astonishing is a scene in a Chinese hospital in which doctors perform open heart surgery on a young woman – using a combination of acupuncture and conventional pain relief instead of a general anaesthetic. In China, she discovers, acupuncture is used alongside western medicine and, at times, as a replacement.

So, what does western science make of these claims? Kathy meets the key scientists, both in the UK and in the US, who have put them to the test. She discovers that – although for most conditions and illnesses acupuncture cannot be shown to work – scientists have, intriguingly, uncovered a number of conditions relating to chronic pain in which they can be fairly certain acupuncture is having a powerful effect.

Kathy recruits a team of top scientists and alternative practitioners to find out if acupuncture might be having an effect. Over several months they devise an experiment which they hope will find the answer and finally uncover the secrets of acupuncture. Kathy and her team scan the brains of volunteers undergoing acupuncture. The conclusions challenge current understandings of the workings of the brain and throws new light on this ancient practice.

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  1. Relax! – A NEW ERA IS DAWNING ON HUMANITY! – NO DISEASES, NO DRUGS, NO VACCINES, NO VACCINE INDUSTRY, NO PHARMA INDUSTRY, NO DOCTORS, NO HOSPITALS, NO “THERAPIES” LIKE SLICING, POISONING AND BURNING, ETC. BS – WE HUMANS WILL STAY ABSOLUTELY HEALTHY ALL THE TIME, LIVING OUR ENDLESS LIVES – Any infections, allergies, cancers, diabetes, polio, TB, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, genetic and any other diseases, known on Earth, will be erased from the face of the planet in just a few days, if everybody (kids and adults) start doing my discovery (just an exercise for a minute a day – the greatest discovery of all time on Earth and maybe in the Universe) – My WVCD – The Weapon of Virus and Cancer Destruction – By far more powerful than the human immune system, keeping it intact all the time, for any pathogens are killed the moment they touch us – We humans will possess the Infinite Health and we will become Immortal – Just like the Extraterrestrials, like our Creators from the planet of Nibiru – The Anunnaki, if I am paid 5 billion bucks to disclose my discovery – Just 25 million bucks per country in the world – As a proof of the power of my discovery, for more than 5 years now, I never got sick even of the common cold, my blood sugar level is 300 mg/dl, but I am not sick of diabetes, for I cannot get sick of it, or of any other diseases – I am the healthiest person on the planet, I am absolutely free to eat any food I like, no restrictions whatsoever, doing my discovery for just a minute a day – The only way on Earth for everybody to stay absolutely healthy all the time and of course being Immortal, for Infinite Health = Immortality.

  2. What a load of placebo nonsense.

    • Of course the person having open heart surgery had painkillers. Notice how they purposefully avoid saying that she has no pain killers.

  3. I have used acupuncture for fibromylagia several times and I am very intrigued by alternative treatments for chronic pain. This documentary was well done, with compelling personal and scientific and medical support.