{"id":84,"date":"2013-12-27T13:24:24","date_gmt":"2013-12-27T20:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entangledcontinua.com\/blog\/?p=84"},"modified":"2013-12-27T13:24:24","modified_gmt":"2013-12-27T20:24:24","slug":"reading-between-the-lines-of-science-articles-at-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/entangledcontinua.com\/blog\/2013\/12\/27\/reading-between-the-lines-of-science-articles-at-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Between the Lines of Science Articles at the New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An article about one of my favorite scientific subjects, pain sensation, has come up at the New York Times again. In this case, it is <a href=\"http:\/\/well.blogs.nytimes.com\/2013\/12\/26\/acupuncture-real-or-not-eases-side-effects-of-cancer-drugs\/?hpw&amp;rref=health\">a study on acupuncture easing the effects of cancer drugs.<\/a> I have written about <a href=\"http:\/\/entangledcontinua.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/02\/performing-the-oldest-tricks-in-the-newest-ways\/\">sensation blocking pain<\/a> before.<\/p>\n<p>Because this study is <a href=\"http:\/\/projectreporter.nih.gov\/reporter_searchresults.cfm?tab3=3\">funded by the NIH<\/a>, I was hoping to find a free article online, but it seems they are giving <a href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/cncr.28352\/abstract\">Wiley<\/a> exclusivity for a period of time. What I was able to find was a <a href=\"http:\/\/clinicaltrials.gov\/show\/NCT01881932?displayxml=true\">document<\/a> that led me to the sham acupuncture treatment, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.acuprime.com\/en\/products\/placebo-park-sham-research-needle--device\/park-sham-device-research-tools\/park-sham-placebo-acupuncture-device\">Park Sham Placebo Acupuncture Device.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The sham was found to be equally effective as real acupuncture. This was not a surprise to me, neither was the fact that both the sham and real acupuncture were effective at reducing measured symptoms. Neuron stimulation relieves pain. Unfortunately, the story is <a href=\"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/acupuncture-real-or-sham-eases-hot-flashes-due-to-breast-cancer-chemo\/\">being passed on<\/a> as both treatments being effective for these cancer patients. Unfortunately, we don&#8217;t know that to be the case because of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Placebo\">placebo effect<\/a>. What I would have liked to see was another placebo that doesn&#8217;t provide a nerve stimulus. Something that would test physical therapy like acupuncture against medication for example. Then we would have a better idea what was going on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An article about one of my favorite scientific subjects, pain sensation, has come up at the New York Times again. In this case, it is a study on acupuncture easing the effects of cancer drugs. I have written about sensation blocking pain before. Because this study is funded by the NIH, I was hoping to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/entangledcontinua.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/entangledcontinua.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/entangledcontinua.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entangledcontinua.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entangledcontinua.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/entangledcontinua.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85,"href":"http:\/\/entangledcontinua.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/85"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/entangledcontinua.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entangledcontinua.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entangledcontinua.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}