Shirley says: Hi, I’ve read about the increasing popularity of cosmetic acupuncture. Can you please tell me about its possible side effects and whether it works to improve skin’s condition?
Left Brain Laments
This logical, less emotional Beauty Brain is usually unaffected by most of the nonsense propagated by the beauty industry. Fluff claims are relatively harmless and add fun to the cosmetic experience.
But certain subjects like dubious beauty supplements, unsupported chemical scares, the inherent superiority of expensive brands, and questionable cosmetic treatments really unhinge my undies. Cosmetic acupuncture is one such subject. I’ll try to maintain control but I can’t promise anything.
What is cosmetic acupuncture?
According to this New York Times article, cosmetic acupuncture is an anti-aging treatment which involves practitioners sticking needles in your face to reduce wrinkles and other signs of aging. It’s supposed to be an alternative to a face lift. But more likely it’s placebo poppycock.
Cosmetic acupuncture benefits
The site Chimedicineworks lists the following benefits of cosmetic acupuncture.
Promotes blood and lymph circulation; increased circulation dilates peripheral blood vessels for better distribution of oxygen and nutrients as well as cellular regeneration.
Rehydrates the skin’s external layers through stimulation of the secretion of the sweat and sebacious glands which encourages the regeneration of healthy skin cells.
Helps exfolliation, aids the proliferation of new skin cells, increases nutrition to the skin’s surface, improves the quality of the skin and promotes a healthy glow.
Allows healthy “breathing” of the skin, increasing the skin’s protective ability to ward off infections and clogged pores.
Increases oxygen consumption of the skin’s external layer speeding up the release of carbon dioxide and nitrogen at the cellular level, helping to keep skin deeply clean; contributes to reducing the accumulation of excess grease on the skin’s surface.
Stimulates the production of elastin and 4 collagen proteins in the skin to reduce and soften wrinkles.
Reduces and relaxes the tension in the nerves and muscles improving the integrity of the skin resulting in improved overall facial appearance.
All that from one kind of treatment? Wow. Now you might be wondering, is this stuff true? Let’s look at the claims and the science behind it.
Deconstruction of Cosmetic Acupuncture Claims
1. Promotes circulation – The wording of this claim is important. They merely say circulation is promoted not that it is increased. There is no proof that sticking needles in your skin increases circulation.
2. Rehydrates the skin’s external layers – While needles might stimulate the sweat and sebacious glands, there certainly aren’t enough inserted to have much effect on skin moisture levels. This is unproven nonsense.
3. Helps exfoliation – Big deal. You can say almost anything you do to skin will “help” exfoliation. The claims of increasing skin nutrition is complete bogus.
4. Allows healthy “breathing” of the skin – Another fluff claim that doesn’t mean anything. Washing your face allows skin to “breath”. What is the new benefit offered here?
5. Increases oxygen consumption of the skin’s external layer – The skin’s external layer is made up of dead cells that don’t use oxygen. It’s baffling to me how acupuncture would increase the consumption of oxygen by dead cells. Plus, there is no proof that this even happens. More nonsense.
6. Stimulates the production of elastin and 4 collagen proteins – This just isn’t true. Poking yourself with needles has not been demonstrated to increase elastin and collagen levels in skin.
7. Reduces and relaxes the tension in the nerves and muscles – Of all the claims this one is the most plausible. Acupuncture is a relaxing procedure that could have some effect on muscle tension and thus slightly change your appearance. But that hardly seems worth $150 per treatment.
Acupuncture is bunk
For years people have been trying to prove that acupuncture has some scientific validity. And study after study demonstrates there is no benefit beyond a placebo effect. According to Quackwatch.com, the National Council Against Health Fraud concluded:
- Acupuncture is unproven
- Its theory and practice are based on primitive and fanciful concepts of health and disease that bear no relationship to present scientific knowledge
- Research during the past 20 years has not demonstrated that acupuncture is effective against any disease.
- Perceived effects of acupuncture are probably due to a combination of expectation, suggestion, counter-irritation, conditioning, and other psychologic mechanisms.
Beauty Brains Bottom Line
If you’re going to get a cosmetic procedure done, don’t waste money on acupuncture. Save up for a full blown face lift. At least that will be done by a reputable doctor and has been proven to work. And if surgery isn’t something you want to do, stick to the high quality facial products you can buy at your local drug store. They’re just as good as the department store products.
What do YOU think? Do you believe in cosmetic acupuncture? Leave a comment for the rest of the Beauty Brains community.
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This article is written by somebody with no scientific background. Anyone referencing quackwatch needs a brain transplant.
@Paul – your ad hominem demonstrates an inability to make a logical argument. What is your expert, scientific source and what does it say about cosmetic acupuncture?
The highly respected May 2009 British Journal of Anaesthesia editorial endorsing acupuncture as an effective treatment for nausea and vomiting, equally effective as anti-sickness medications, will come as a sorry blow to the “quackwatchers” claims that there is no scientific basis to acupuncture.
@Audrey – See, that’s the difference between a scientific thinker and a dogmatic thinker. If there was evidence that our position is wrong, we would be happy to change our opinion. When you follow a scientific approach, EVIDENCE is what matters, not what your opinion was in the past.
Your news is not a “sorry blow”. It’s just another piece of evidence. Whether it is compelling or not is a different story. An editorial is not science.
Recently, the highly respected British Medical Journal published a paper that concluded the following…
“A small analgesic effect of acupuncture was found, which seems to lack clinical relevance and cannot be clearly distinguished from bias. Whether needling at acupuncture points, or at any site, reduces pain independently of the psychological impact of the treatment ritual is unclear.”
Basically, they haven’t found any proof that it works.
But if someone ever does demonstrate that acupuncture works it would be great news for this “quackwatcher”. Until that proof arrives, acupuncture remains quackery in our opinion.
It is unfortunate to read incorrect information. I have had cosmetic acupuncture and my friends ask me what am I doing to look so wonderful. If you google acupuncture and Harvard, there are studies happening at Harvard University with Kiiko Matsumoto and Japanese style acupuncture as well. I wonder what your state of health, not only physical, but your mental and spiritual well-being is like since you are limited in belief and knowledge. Not everyone wants to under a knife and health comes from ones choices not by giving our power over to a doctor.
To be more accurate in your critic maybe you should have an acupuncture facial session…This will give you more understanding on how people feel after this procedure. I really felt and saw the difference in my face, neck and belly.
Could you tell me why acupuncture works in animals? Do they have any idea that they are going to be treated? Because if they have this understanding, you must admit that they are aware of what is happening to them in a deeper sense and…yes, that they have a more sophisticated intelligence than they are meant to have – at least according to the human’s knowledge on them.
Assuming that they are just animals, how does the “placebo effect” work?
Hum—That’s a hard one to answer…
Give it a try.
Having the procedure wouldn’t prove anything. It would merely provide inconclusive anecdotal evidence. Only double blind studies can really answer the question whether it is just a placebo effect or not.
What is your proof that it works in animals? What does it cure? Do you have published studies to refer me to?
Placebo effect doesn’t work in animals but that doesn’t mean there isn’t an explanation. For example, animals do respond to human touch and kind treatment. This could explain strange effects. But I’d need to see some study before accepting your hypothesis that it works in animals.
No Left Brain you are totally right….over 5,000 years, an entire country, and millions upon millions of Chinese/Japanese people are all going by placebo….You are right on….
I don’t need a research study that is usually paid for by a pharmaceutical company to tell me if something works for me or not. I think I’ll go by the 5,000 yrs of a country and its people using acupuncture for a variety of things.
Why is it when people go to a bad physician they don’t deem that profession full of nonsense, or if they take a pharma drug that gives them terrible side effects, they don’t deem the entire line of pharmaceutical drugs full of nonsense.
Yet many do so with CAM professions.
Just doesn’t make common sense. And for those who think it is completely nonsense, it is okay to have that opinion, but unless you’ve true experience with it, your opinion is unvalidated.
Yes I am an acupuncturist and have been for years…I’ve seen it do amazing things, and I’ve seen it not help certain people…that doesn’t make it nonsense. Stop being ignorant.
@Margaret – What do you say to the fact that needles aren’t even required to make acupuncture work? This study shows toothpicks that don’t penetrate the skin work just as well. http://tinyurl.com/pds9yk Yes, millions upon millions of people can all experience the “placebo effect.”
Cool!
Hi everyone, i came across this site trying to find out more about cosmetic acupuncture, as a medical professional and a practitioner of acupuncture, i try to gather all the information abailable.
For those who need evidence that acupuncture has an effect on the body, try to this search on pubmed: acupuncture and gene expression
i found several articles that demonstrate that acupuncture works at the level of gene regulation, i think that all the clinical trials indeed lack of statistical value, but my own experience tells me that it works for a lot of conditions, including acne, and im still wondering why is that.
To anyone who says acupuncture doesn’t work i say get off your tomatoe box and go do some homework. It is an absolutely fantastic therapy for many conditions, and can often help where western medicine can’t.
Funny that the “placebo effect” of acupuncture works on people who don’t believe in it then.
I guess you haven’t read anything about acupuncture on our country’s most renowned medical research center the National Institute of Health. Many studies conducted at institutes such as Harvard and Duke concluded that acupuncture is effective. Even the WHO (world health organization) recognizes acupuncture an effective treatment for many various conditions. Maybe you should take a little more time to read up on these readily available sites.
And you call yourself the beauty ‘brains’?? HA!!
You’re all a bunch of uninformed, judgemental QUACKS that I would never come to for a credible opinion.
BeautyBrainDead:
“Come on girls! Let’s all go and get full-blown face-lift! Woohoooo!”
NO PROOF IS EVER ENOUGH FOR THE SHELTERED SKEPTIC.
Sure there is proof we would accept. Simple, double-blind, placebo controlled studies would work. Do you have anything like that?
Is there any evidence that would convince you that acupuncture doesn’t work? I suspect No Proof would ever be enough for a true believer.
Cleveland Clinic Pain Management uses Acupunture as part of their methodology. That should tell a person something right there. I have experienced the benefits of acupuncture, though the benefits are too temporary for me to shell out that kind of money. Yoga is working better and is far cheaper.
As for the facial acupuncture, I’ve had a few sessions and did not see much of a difference (though I felt it temporarily.) However, I am working on acupressure massage points and bought a book on those specific facial points. I’m going to get the right facial needles on my own and do my own deciding on the matter in a much cheaper way. Experiment.
The ancient Chinese did it, after all.
But I have read a lot of reviews online that a lot of women feel they wasted their money. About half that I read about.
Acupuncture has a placebo effect just like giving someone a sugar pill and telling them it will make them feel better. That doesn’t mean it actually works in the way that people say it works. Acupuncture just helps your mind cure itself.
Hello Beauty Brains,
How disappointing that you would not choose to try a facial acupuncture before making your statements above. I have loss credibility in your objective analysis. It is clear you have not even tried one yourself to make your own assessment before making claims it does not work.
I am afraid it is these kinds of comments that make me more open to journalistic view points that seek to give as much information on opposing sides to give readers a chance to make up their own minds.
It is too bad you have showed your narrow minded approach on this subject.
I hope you develop more wisdom as you get older and learn to give acurate feedback instead of just your own inexperienced rant.
Hate to burst your bubble. You’re just trying to promote your book the beauty brains. I actually met someone who had cosmetic acpuncture and the transformation was unbelievable. No amount of placebo effect/mind over matter would create such a transformation. If that was the case everyone would just imagine themselves to look like 20 year olds. A bunch of baloney. I actually witnessed week after week the amazing improvement and transformation.
i believe that acupuncture is effective in curing most deseases and works great in dealing with pain. Great article, provided information that people should know about acupuncture.
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I had a course (12 treatments) cosmetic accupuncture recently, carried out by someone very reputable. It was very expensive ($1900) and no visable results despite being reassured by him that it ‘works’. It was nice getting a face massage beforehand and lying there with nice music, however I went there to get visible results. I wouldn’t recommend it.
Following up on my last comment… I have had accupuncture for a back accident and it was excellent – fixed what the chiro couldn’t. However, no good for wrinkles
I know it’s been a while since this blog was active, but I just stumbled across it and found some very interesting dialogue coming from both sides about acupuncture.
I do have some issues with Beauty Brain’s repeated argument that acupuncture is nothing more than placebo due to there not being any high quality randomized double blind studies that prove it’s efficacy. I would like to ask – where are such studies that prove the efficacy of things like psychotherapy, physical therapy, or even surgery for that matter? Can we also apply Beauty Brain’s argument to say that these procedures are unproven, therefore untrue, and therefore “poppycock”, as you stated? The fact is, certain types of therapy are either impossible or extremely difficult to “prove” with these types of “high quality” studies that you call for. If you knew anything about acupuncture, you would know that a) it is nearly impossible for both the practictioner and the patient to be ignorant of whether they are giving/receiving true or sham acupuncture b) acupuncture is not given in a standardized format as it is a highly individualized form a treatment (i.e. Jim, who has lower back pain, will not necessarily be given the same treatment as John, who also has lower back pain). Just like with psychotherapy, physical therapy, and surgery, acupuncture is not like a drug where you can simply give someone a real pill or sugar pill and observe the response. You cannot give someone sham psychotherapy, physical therapy, or surgery and reasonably expect that the practioner and/or patient would not know it. You cannot give the exact same psychotherapy or physical therapy sessions to both John and Jim simply because they are both depressed or both have lower back pain. Just because something hasn’t been “proven” within the paradigm of Western science does not mean it does not work. That’s like saying someone is guilty until proven innocent in a court of law even though you have 100 eye witnesses saying he didn’t commit the crime.
That being said, even if we were to accept your argument that acupuncture is nothing more than placebo, should we tell all the millions of people that feel that they have benefited greatly from acupuncture that their relief is just delusional and should therefore be dismissed? Many people resort to acupuncture and get relief after trying medication and surgery without success. Why didn’t the meds and/or surgery produce a similar placebo effect? Surely, with the money, invasiveness, and expertise put into something such as surgery, a patient should be totally convinced that he/she would get better, wouldn’t he/she? Shouldn’t the placebo effect of surgery be even stronger than that of acupuncture? What about the placebo effect for other less accepted therapies like leeching and voodoo? Why is it that they do not persist through thousands of years of medicine and gain international useage and scrutiny the way acupuncture has? Shouldn’t the placebo effect work in their favor too? Why is it that the placebo effect is so tremendous for acupuncture and not for most anything else?
That is just my two cents. I know that Beauty Brains is a skeptic and is not likely to budge on this issue, but these are some questions that always come to mind when I read articles like this or visit sites like quackwatch. I use both Eastern and Western medicine, believe both have their merits, but will always take a more natural approach that produces less side effects when given a choice.
Thanks for your comments Ang.
There is lots in medicine that isn’t necessarily proven but is still done. Therapeutic touch, certain surgeries, types of physical therapy and even psychotherapy. Just because they exist doesn’t mean that they work.
If someone makes a claim that a therapy works, you can verify whether it is true or not. If someone further makes a claim that a therapy works because of some reason (e.g. energy or special pressure points) you should be able to test these. How else can a person claim to “know” why it works? If you can’t disprove something then it isn’t science.
Forget pain, anti-nausea, or any other thing that acupuncture is said to work for. There is NO PROOF that acupuncture has any effect on wrinkles. People who do it are just wasting their money.
I come from a background in both western medical research as well as Chinese medicine and acupuncture. I use both perspectives in my practice.
From my experience, acupuncture certainly is not a placebo–I’ve witnessed some pretty amazing things from acupuncture; things that could not possibly derive from a placebo effect.
Trials using ‘sham’ acupuncture do not consider the perspectives of Chinese medicine, but instead attempt to fit Chinese medicine research into a western medical research model. Chinese medicine does not fit this double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized model as it views and treats the individual as an individual rather than categorizing a person on the basis of their various parts, systems and diseases. Chinese medicine focuses on the individual and the factors that cause their symptoms and illnesses (i.e. the terrain), not just the condition(s) themselves (i.e: the germ).
When giving an acupuncture treatment, there are several factors that can affect the outcome of the treatment and in many cases the combination of acupuncture points chosen is far more powerful and important than choosing individual points based on individual function. Many of the studies I’ve reviewed do the latter and sometimes the point combinations chosen for sham acupuncture are actually more powerful than the individual points chosen for the actual study. In addition, subjects are typically not diagnosed according to the methods traditionally used in Chinese medicine. Instead they are diagnosed with migraine headache or PCOS etc… The factors each individual possesses that contributed to the manifestation of the symptom/disease are not often considered, thus the treatments may or may not address the true problem.
When it comes to facial rejuvenation acupuncture, the perspectives are the same as in all of Chinese medicine–the face is a part of the whole body and thus reflects the constitutional and acquired imbalances of the whole body. These imbalances are reflected in the flow of Qi and the balance between yin and yang. To say that facial rejuvenation acupuncture is equivalent to a facelift is an outright misrepresentation of what it truly is. To say that it increases collagen and elastin production remains to be seen. What it does do is improve the overall firmness, appearance and colour of the skin as well as balance tension in the musculature of the face. It is not just traditional acupuncture points that are needled–motor points are also needled. Thus some facial rejuvenation techniques combine ancient techniques and perspectives with those that come from the west. Balancing muscle tone can and does have an effect on lines and wrinkles, albeit with acupuncture it is a gradual process and the effect will not be as immediate and dramatic as a traditional facelift–the traditional facelift addresses many of the same superficial issues (lines and wrinkles and sagging) as does facial acupuncture (though it does not address the underlying causes as Chinese medicine perceives them). Traditional facelifts address these issues from a different and more radial perspective which produces a more immediate and drastic effect. Botox does the same thing–it paralyzes (relaxes) the muscles to eliminate the line or wrinkle.
Whether science can ‘prove’ how facial acupuncture accomplishes what it does remains to be seen–it has been rather slow in generating a scientific explanation of how acupuncture as a healing modality works (endorphins, adenosine and other biochemicals have been shown to increase either locally or systemically after an acupuncture treatment; traditional acupuncture points have been shown to exhibit electric conductance that is different than that measured at non-acupuncture points…). Just because we haven’t developed the technology yet to measure Qi or acupuncture’s true effects on the body does not mean the effects aren’t real or that they are merely placebo–it simply means that we can’t explain the findings because we have not yet developed the technology to quantify these effects. This story is rampant throughout science history–it took more than 100 years after Gregor Mendell completed his research on character inheritance in peas for scientists to discover DNA.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion and if one chooses to follow the findings of science then so be it. But we all need to realize that science does not have the ability to measure and quantify everything in existence; that maybe, just maybe science itself may be limited by the perspectives of those that research and fund the research. For me, science is no longer on the pedestal I once placed it–the knowledge gained through science is important and valuable, but it is merely part of a much bigger picture.
Brava everyone for your comments. The sheer volume of comments defending acupuncture highlights the ignorance of this writer. No need to visit this website again. It’s hilarious that she’s dumb enough to write that 20 years of research hasn’t found a 5000 practice to be effective! It’s either arrogance or stupidity, but absolutely hilarious she thinks nothing of putting that shallow opinion out there!
As a student of Acupuncture I disagree that “Acupuncture is bunk.” I have witnessed many cases where acupuncture has healed people and has helped reduce signs of aging. Chinese medicine is 4000 years old, and it is still around because it works. Just because there have not been a lot of studies done in support of Acupuncture does not mean it is bunk. Studies cost a lot of money, so not a lot of funding is available for acupuncture studies. Acupuncture may be seen as a threat to western medicine and money is sometimes thrown in to studies in efforts to make acupuncture look bad. I recommend that you try acupuncture yourself and form your own opinion. Chinese medicine is very different then western medicine. So when you look at acupuncture with a western perspective it won’t make sense to you. I appreciate science and the need to “prove medicine”, but even science can have blind spots. I recommend checking out the movie 9000 needles which is a great example of how acupuncture can really help people.
@Ema – I appreciate your position and can understand how you come to it. I would be perfectly willing to accept that acupuncture works, just show some scientific proof. It’s simple to show proof and it doesn’t matter if the technology is 9 years old or 9000 years old.
Now, the question remains, what evidence would you need to see to convince you that acupuncture does not work? Is there anything? Or do you just believe without evidence? If so, how is that different than any other idea that someone has that they just claim is true?
The 6th claim interests me.
Is it possible that acupuncture could promote collagen production similar to the way microdermabrasion does? I’m just going out on a limb here, though. I know there’s no data to suggest this, but is it theoretically possible?
I don’t plan on getting cosmetic acupuncture any time soon. Just curious.
I read this article and was rather disappointed by the choice of words used to disregard something that has been practiced for thousands of years. I think you could have been more diplomatic in sharing your views. Anywho, I have not experienced acupuncture myself, but I can’t help but feel if it’s something fake, why has it been around for so long and why are there reviews on here that are positive. I conclude by saying, like western medicine, a certain drug or course of treatment may be ideal for one person but have adverse effects on another. Everyone is different. Also, all practitioners are different, even those practicing western medicine may be a bit negligent…so for the lady whose daughter got an infection from the needles, I wonder if she just went to the first acupuncturist she heard of, or is she took her time to research and ask questions during her initial consultation. Before I delve into the unkown, I take advantage of the vast info available on the interenet (from reliable sources of course), and act totally oblivious when questioning anyone who is supposed to be knowledgeable in the field, just to kind of gauge their know how.
@Carol – The fact that something has been around for a long time is no indication about whether it is true or not. For thousands of years people believed the Sun traveled around the Earth. Then when telescopes were invented, it was obvious that that 1000+ year old practice was wrong.
Similarly, people believed in blood letting as a way to get rid of disease and they believed it for a long time. No one believes it now because it was never proven to be valuable.
The biggest issue with proving the efficacy of acupuncture with a double blinded placebo controlled clinical trial is that the research design does not support or fit the paradigm that acupuncture is practiced under, majority of current research designs are ‘attempting’ to prove acupuncture works but not providing treatments as the would be administered in a clinical practice.
Double blinded procedures are almost impossible to implement during acupuncture clinical trials, more often than not research designs use qualified acupuncturists to provide active and sham treatments. A qualified Acupuncturist is going to know the indications and actions of points that they are needling and whether or not they are providing an active or a sham treatment, thus using an acupuncturist as a practitioner they cannot be blinded. Sometimes nurses are trained to insert the needles at sham and active acupuncture sites, this raises issues in point location accuracy and the obtaining of ‘De Qi’ (meaning the point has been appropriately stimulated, De Qi sensation is vital for effective treatment). Acupuncturists in Australia spend four years in clinic studying and learning to locate points accurately yet nurses will be trained up in a matter of weeks. Thus non qualified administers of acupuncture may be considered as blinded however they may or may not be administering acupuncture effectively.
The next big issue is ‘controlled’ research. Chinese medicine diagnosis each individual as a unique pattern of disharmony which pertains individually to that person, thus in western medicine someone will be diagnosed with acne, in TCM theory the “acne” can be diagnosed as “lung Qi deficiency” “damp heat” “stomach fire” “kidney and liver yin Xu” or any other number of patterns all depending on the other accompanying signs and symptoms thus each person will be treated completely differently to the next. Most clinical trial designs use a selection of 1 to 8 acupuncture points which are used on the participants. There are over 300 acupuncture points which can be used in clinical practice and yet ‘controlled’ trials can only use 1 to 8. Sometimes the design allows for individual treatment plans but it is usually still only using a select amount of points for all patients in the trial. Thus in clinical practice no ONE treatment will suit EVERY individual.
Placebo effect from ‘Sham’ acupuncture tends to be so high in acupuncture research because often the researchers will use ‘unrelated real/ active acupuncture points’ as a ‘Sham’ point, this active point is going to have an energetic effect on the system. In other designs non acupuncture sites are used as Sham points, however this doesn’t rule out that the site being stimulated is not an Ah Shi site (isn’t an acupuncture point but a tender site used to promote Qi).
The word Placebo is an umbrella word like phenomenon which purely means ‘it works but we can’t YET explain how it works SCIENTIFICALLY’. So yeah, acupuncture may scientifically be a placebo effect but any practicing Acupuncturist, patient of Acupuncture or adept skeptic can understand the complete system of traditional Chinese medicine philosophy, theory and wisdom and totally understand the system of how and why it is effective.
Most research is proven insignificant due to a lack of research designs which effectively test acupuncture in it’s actual methodology and beautiful art form which is proficiently applied in a qualified acupuncturists clinical practice.
Finally as for ‘cosmetic acupuncture’ the true essence behind traditional Chinese medicine is rebalancing the Yin and Yang of the body, mind and spirit which includes unblocking stagnation, releasing old negative thought patterns and behaviors and bringing in nourishment from food, air, self love and life experiences so that there is a holistic equilibrium which empowers each unique individual to follow their heart and live the life that they dream of, acupuncture is about encouraging individuals to be in touch with who they are on the inside and accepting and loving themselves just because they exist, irregardless of superficial insecurities. Acupuncture helps people fall in love with themselves and life which radiates through their spirit and is perceived within themselves as light and love but from others as pure enlightened beauty! Theres nothing more “beautiful” than a free spirit!! In the words of Lonnie Jarrett, acupuncture can “nourish your destiny”. =)
Maybe people are just confused because they think the placebo effect is bad and means people are delusional. It, er, doesn’t.
That said, using acupuncture for wrinkles sounds like US appropriation of practices from other cultures without understanding or respect, much like the way yoga is treated.
I honestly don’t think enough research has been done to show acupuncture is effective/non-effective as of right now, in terms of its intended usage (pain relief and relaxation). But cosmetic acupuncture doesn’t have any sort of basis – it doesn’t even make much sense why you’d use acupuncture for something like that (especially given the price!).