Review Review of the Research Progress and Future Prospects of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome 2025 Yang et al

Abstract

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is an unexplained, persistent, or recurring fatigue accompanied by physical and cognitive decline that cannot be relieved, lasting for a duration of more than 6 months. This article provides a systematic review of the background of CFS, the application of acupuncture in traditional Chinese medicine for fatigue symptoms, the early application and effectiveness assessment of acupuncture in CFS treatment, analysis of acupuncture’s relief effect on the main symptoms of CFS, assessment of acupuncture’s improvement effect on the quality of life of CFS patients, comparative studies between acupuncture and conventional treatment methods, mechanism research on acupuncture treatment for CFS, the position and role of acupuncture in multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment, as well as challenges and limitations in acupuncture treatment for CFS. The aim is to provide scientific evidence for the clinical treatment of acupuncture.

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They obviously do not know what they are talking about.

It’s helpful that they say the quiet part out loud.

 

The psychobehavioralists paved the way to this. So many trials and reviews either open or conclude explicitly, even out of small experimental pilot trials, that the aim, and recommendation, is to provide the evidence to put it into practice ASAP. Sometimes it's even in the funding proposition so no one can claim they don't understand the dynamic.

And the door opened to this practice by the likes of Wessely and his acolytes asserting the efficacy of their approach, which they no doubt used clinically themselves, before a single study or trial happened. They just said it, and it happened. There's another story about this. Can't remember which one...

They don't need to bother with evidence, this is evidence-based medicine after all. They just do it, and it's evidence that it's being used, and therefore must be used. It's so easy!

 

I took two separate treatment courses of Acupuncture by certified practitioners a little before becoming severe. One had trained in China and been doing it for decades. Did nothing for me except perhaps relax me a little and make me light headed.I still ended up becoming severe.

Actually, the relaxing bit may have been the thought of tea and scone afterwards at a nearby coffee shop as a self reward for doing it. Such a nice scone!

 

I also tried acupuncture for several months, did absolutely nothing. The only useful thing I got out of it was they told me it was unusual to have so many needle insertions be painful.

Some of the insertions created an audible cracking sound as if I had some styrofoam where there was only supposed to be smooth muscle.

It was the same thing across multiple practitioners who had been practicing for many years. My mother went with me to see the same people just to make sure it wasn’t an issue of poor technique.

So either the practitioners hated me specifically, or there was something weird going on with muscle tissue stiffness across my whole body. Either way, it didn’t seem to be anything the acupuncture was capable of addressing.

 

Interesting that we had a similar experience. I tried to look into a biological explanation awhile ago but couldn’t find much of substance. But if it’s a common experience, it might point to some muscle abnormality that could be a clue.