Acupuncture is much safer than most western medical treatments.To support that statement, I will cite such phenomenally credible sources as:
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) The Journal of
American Medical Association (JAMA) - several places The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) The British Medical Journal (BMJ) The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists 7 peer-reviewed medical journals found on National Library of Medicine's MedLine Studies of data from malpractice claims Retrospective studies (from America and U.K.) of more than 100,000 acupuncture treatments
First I will discuss issues of acupuncture safety.
Then, I will bring out some issues in western medicine safety... just to give you a sense of comparison between two.
The National Institutes of Health Consensus Statement on Acupuncture In 1997, National Institutes of Health issued a consensus statement on acupuncture which said, among other things:
"One of advantages of acupuncture is that incidence of adverse effects is substantially lower than that of many drugs or other accepted medical procedures used for same conditions. As an example, musculoskeletal conditions, such as fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, and tennis elbow, or epicondylitis, are conditions for which acupuncture may be beneficial.
"These painful conditions are often treated with, among other things, anti-inflammatory medications (aspirin, ibuprofen, etc.) or with steroid injections. Both medical interventions have a potential for deleterious side effects but are still widely used and are considered acceptable treatments. The evidence supporting these therapies is no better than that for acupuncture." - National Institutes of Health Consensus Statement on Acupuncture, 1997
Did you get that? They said that aspirin, anti-inflammatories, and steroids have not been supported by scientific evidence any better than acupuncture.
The Safety of Acupuncture in terms of Malpractice Insurance Claims "In an analysis of data from malpractice insurers from 1990 through 1996, Studdert and colleagues18 found that claims against chiropractors, massage therapists, and acupuncturists generally occurred less frequently and usually involved less severe injury than claims against medical doctors." - Phil B. Fontanarosa, MD; George D. Lundberg, MD - JAMA 1998
Retrospective Studies of Acupuncture Treatment Safety: The Frequency and Types of Adverse Events in 55,291 Acupuncture Treatments
99.8% of acupuncture is performed with no significant minor adverse events; "During these 5 years, a total of 76 acupuncturists (13 preceptors and 63 interns) participated in study, and total number of acupuncture treatments was 55291. A total of 64 adverse events were reported and included 11 types of events... The most frequent adverse event was failure to remove needles after treatment; no sequelae (problems) occurred after removal of needles. The second most common adverse event was dizziness, discomfort, or perspiration probably due to transient hypotension (low blood pressure) associated with acupuncture treatment.... We may, therefore, reasonably conclude that serious adverse events in acupuncture treatment are uncommon in practice of adequately trained acupuncturists... ." - Hitoshi Yamashita, Bac, Hiroshi Tsukayama, BA, Yasuo Tanno, MD, PhD, Kazushi Nishijo, PhD, JAMA
Two September 2001 Studies of Acupuncture Safety in British Medical Journal discuss details of just 43 minor adverse events in 34,407 acupuncture treatments; and only 91 minor events in another 31,822 acupuncture treatments. If combined with other study above, that equals a total of 121,520 treatments with 198 minor adverse events (only 0.16% incidence), and no pnemuothoraxes (collapsing of lung- this was concluded to be extremely rare). - The British Medical Journal (BMJ) 2001
What's worst that can happen from acupuncture - and did it?
The most serious adverse events possible with acupuncture are pneumothorax (collapsing lung due to puncture) and septicemia (systemic infection of blood by bacteria); "Instruction is given by both lectures and practical training and includes information about anatomically risky depth of insertion and use of aseptic procedure for puncturing... Most important, no serious events such as pneumothorax, spinal lesion, or infection were reported." - JAMA November 1998
...Zero out of 55,291! But even just one would have meant only a 0.002% chance of these occurring.
The Safety of Acupuncture compared with that of Biomedicine:
Antibiotic overuse leads to resistant super-bacteria. "The prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in Taiwan is due to heavy use of antimicrobial agents in both animal husbandry and clinical practice over past decades" - Int J Antimicrob Agents 2001 Sep) as well as intestinal flora imbalance (diarrhea, vaginal candidiasis).
