Acupuncture - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

http://facebook.com/ScienceReason ... Benedikt Matenaer with his talk "Acupuncture: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", World Skeptics Congress 2012 in Berlin. Introduction by Willem Betz.

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Benedikt Matenaer, MD, anaesthesiologist, pain therapist, specialist in palliative care medicine; works in a palliative care unit of a hospital and in own practice; member of the examination board of the medical council Westfalen-Lippe for "palliative care", B-diploma in acupuncture.

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Alluding to the famous Clint Eastwood western, this presentation deals with the various facets of this popular therapy: the current state of research, the success, and the excesses of the acupuncture as an economic enterprise in the German health system. The important question, however, is whether anyone needs a special training for that, in particular in China, or is the success of acupuncture due to unspecific effects?

After all, if it doesn't matter where one puts the needles: is it OK then that acupuncture treatments are refundable by the public health insurances? Is it compatible with the medical associations' rules for continuing education to offer and acknowledge a pseudo-education as a special qualification? Why are physicians required to apply evidence-based medicine on the one hand, whereas acupuncture -- a procedure with unknown mechanisms -- is granted entry into the public health system on the other hand?

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World Skeptics Congress: Promoting Science and Critical Thinking in a World of Uncertainty.

Why do people turn to pseudoscience for help? What makes alternative medicine so attractive - and how can we find out what really works? Why is it so difficult for us to deal with risk and uncertainty in a rational way? Can we teach children to think critically and scientifically? And how can academic disciplines like biology or psychology protect themselves from pseudoscientific contamination?

The 6th World Skeptics Congress in Berlin was an intellectually stimulating three-day event dealing with paranormal and supernatural claims, fringe science issues, and scams. Major topics at this event were science and pseudoscience in education, in particular anti-evolution claims and origin myths, and the problems of risk and benefit assessment, especially in alternative medicine.

Gerd Antes, Wim Betz, Johan Braeckman, Edzard Ernst, Chris French, Luigi Garlaschelli, Harriet Hall, Ray Hyman, Chris Mooney, Simon Perry, Massimo Polidoro, James Randi, Gita Sahgal, Eugenie Scott, Simon Singh, Samantha Stein, Kylie Sturgess, Rebecca Watson and Tomasz Witkowski are just some of the world-renowned presenters who took part, taking apart the claims and conspiracies of the modern world.

• http://www.worldskeptics.org/
• http://www.facebook.com/worldskepticscongress2012
• http://www.gwup.org/
• http://www.facebook.com/gwup.org

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Tags: acupuncture complementary alternative placebo medicine homeopathy therapy treatments health system palliative care cure science pseudoscience education skeptical rational critical thinking skepticism world skeptics congress 2012 berlin
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Видео Acupuncture - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly канала RationalHumanism