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Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

This thread, however, seems to be interpreting the article as concluding that there is little evidence to suggest that acupuncture has efficacy in treating anything. I'm mainly speaking for muscle stiffness.

Your original criticism though wasn't about what the thread was interpreting, your original criticism was about lack of clarity and that's what I was responding to.

If some people have taken the conclusions of the paper further than they should, well that's not unusual and it's understandable given the non-scientific nature of the history of acupuncture. Not right, but understandable.

If you're talking about muscle stiffness then of course it's not surprising for something in a paper about pain in a journal about pain to address it.

Do you have positive evidence that acupuncture is effective for the treatment of muscle stiffness?

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

While I don't know much at all about acupuncture, I do know that physiotherapy is a field that uses treatments based on science, and I would hope that the field would not promote use of unproven treatments. Acupuncture in physiotherapy is not about "energy fields" or whatnot, it's about "waking up" tense muscles by stimulation, blood flow, etc.

I would hope that the field would not promote unproven treatments, but these things do happen. That something is being used doesn't mean it's effective.

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

There have been a few claims in this thread that physiotherapy acupuncture has helped with injuries, rehab, etc, and people have dismissed the claims citing the article. I would hope the scientists of CP would do better to refute such claims instead of just citing said, vague articles.

I would have expected you to understand why you can't draw a conclusion on anecdotal evidence.