DR RICHARD RAWLINS MBBS, of Beacon Road, Kingswear, writes:

The news that Acupuncture Awareness Week is upon us means many readers might be attracted to that healthcare modality – but ‘awareness’ means having an understanding of risks as well as benefits.

All patients must give fully informed consent to any ­treatment and must treat claims about this alternative form of treatment with caution.

Although the British Acupuncture Council claims that ‘traditional acupuncture is an evidence-based therapy and can help to identify the root cause of a problem’, there is no plausible evidence to support such a contention.

It continued: ‘Traditional acupuncture is based on the meridian system and the movement of energy around the body.’

In actual fact, there is no plausible evidence that ­meridians exist, nor that ­‘energy’ can be moved by needling the skin.

We are told that acupuncturists believe ‘pain or illness can occur if the flow of energy gets blocked or disrupted’. Those who share that belief will ­probably benefit from the ­intervention of an empathic practitioner in a therapeutic relationship, but the nature of the ‘energy’ remains mysterious and undefined by scientists.

Acupuncture works – by TLC, not needles. Some say that ‘acupuncture is simply a ­theatrical placebo’.

Exeter’s emeritus professor of complementary medicine Edzard Ernst notes: ‘Acupuncture was even banned in China. Mao reintroduced it not because he thought it was effective, but because he ­needed to offer some sort of healthcare to the masses.

‘The concept of vital energy is a pre-scientific myth that has no basis in reality.’

Before patients commit any time or money to acupuncture, they ought to be fully aware.