A 76-week trial

Inspired by Soares-Jr et al 2020.[1] Photo by Dellon Thomas on Pexels.com FSH – follicle stimulating hormoneKMI – Kupperman-Blatt Menopausal IndexVMS – vasomotor symptoms key to acronyms This trial (n=123) stood out for me when I watched the video abstract and saw the graph of results. It would have been easy to pass over the … Continue reading A 76-week trial →

Epigenetics PD and medical costs

Inspired by Hong et al 2020,[1] Deuel et al 2020,[2] and Tsai et al 2020.[3] PD – Parkinson's Disease Photo by Bess Hamiti on Pexels.com Before I launch into this blog, I want to clarify that the three subjects in the title are almost completely unrelated, apart from the fact that acupuncture figures in all … Continue reading Epigenetics PD and medical costs →

CHD risk in OA 2000-12

Inspired by Ton et al 2020.[1] Photo by Hernan Pauccara on Pexels.com CHD – Coronary Heart DiseaseOA – Osteoarthritis This week another large retrospective cohort study from Taiwan. In this paper the target group was patients with osteoarthritis (OA) identified from the LHID 2000 – the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000. The LHID 2000 is … Continue reading CHD risk in OA 2000-12 →

Reviewing, Race & Sex

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com I was spoilt for choice this week! Various papers had the potential to make the cut, but there was no easy way to draw them together, apart from the fact that many were systematic reviews.[1–5] The race and sex from the title refers to a couple of recent experimental papers … Continue reading Reviewing, Race & Sex →

Acupuncture for antenatal depression

Stimulated by Ormsby et al 2020.[1] Photo by NEOSiAM 2020 on Pexels.com This is a pragmatic 3-arm comparative trial. It has feasibility in the title, so it may be that the authors are planning a much bigger version. I’ll ask! (No reply as yet...) Pregnant women of 24 weeks gestation who scored 13 or more … Continue reading Acupuncture for antenatal depression →

The Power of Placebo and MUI

Stimulated by Power et al 2020,[1] and Kang et al 2020.[2] Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Placebo figured heavily in last week’s blog, so I could not overlook this paper when it appeared on PubMed at the end of the same week. The first author has a remarkably suitable name on a paper that tests … Continue reading The Power of Placebo and MUI →

Adrenaline Athletes and Acupuncture

Stimulated by Arriaga-Pizano et al 2020.[1] Image by Cesar Marquez on Unsplash. This paper was published online on 20th May, and it took me a while before I had a closer look and discovered that it is really quite unique. It was a subsequent paper published a week later, a systematic review of acupuncture in low back pain … Continue reading Adrenaline Athletes and Acupuncture →