While I found this article giving a scientific explanation for the way that accupuncture causes pain relief interesting, I realized how happy I am that I didn’t complete the MD/PhD programs I nearly attended. The researchers gave lab mice sore paws by injecting an inflammatory chemical into their paws. They then proceeded to do acupuncture on the mice by inserting needles into an acupuncture point in the knee above the sore paw.
I did some research with rats in college and medical school (I was in school, not the rats) . Some of the things we did seemed pretty barbaric. The exact details of what we did are not even something I’d want to put into an anonymous blog. Nonetheless, I never did have to learn the technique of mouse acupuncture. I can’t imagine after going through all of my education and training, that I could have been sticking acupuncture needles into a mouse’s knee.