According to the Indian news agency PTI reports, the research team used brain imaging to show that treatment with genuine needles stimulates brain areas beyond the ones that light up when trick needles are applied.
"This is the first brain-imaging study that has shown an effect beyond placebo," PTI quoted George Lewith as saying. Lewith is an expert in the complimentary medicine at the University of Southampton who was in charge of the study.
Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese therapy for sickness, pain or even addiction.
The method of this medication still remains a mystery. The clinical trials into acupuncture have had mixed results.
"It has worked in some trials, it hasn't worked in others, it's very complicated," Ted Kaptchuck, an acupuncture researcher at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, told PTI
