A Needle by any other name

While reading various news stories, I read this one about the upside-down cheerleader.
Lot of work, she's doing well, good for her.

However, there was one line that caught my interest: "I wore a brace around my hips and had to have dry needling every week where a physio inserts a long needle into tense areas to release muscles."

...what? Dry needling? What's that then? Never heard of it before, but suddenly I'm suspicious...

I found this article on Dry Needling, the writing of which was helped by the people on the South African Skeptics forum.

Basically... Dry Needling = Acupuncture! Aaahhh.... oh.... um....

There are lots of people who claim acupuncture works, but there are many people who claim all sorts of things work. The evidence for acupunture is... inconclusive. There is some effect from acupuncture, but there is the same effect from sham acupuncture, putting it largely in the placebo effect. Whatever is going on, it has nothing to do with meridian lines, chi, pressure points, etc., etc. More study might uncover some effect, but there is a large amount of woo.

If Dry Needling has anything real, it's that it's about jabbing the muscle knot directly, not poking into "ancient pressure points". But there is entanglement with woo that needs to be sorted out.

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