Speed the 150-year-old tortoise dies at San Diego Zoo

[longship]

33. Time will not help Qi becoming real.

And the thousands of acupuncture trials show:

1. It does not matter where you stick the needles. Oopsie! What about the meridians and Qi?

2. It doesn't even matter if you stick in needles. This is consistent with placebo effect, which both blinded and unblinded trials clearly show.

First, it has no plausibility because Qi does not exist. Second, results consistently show that it is equivalent to placebo effect. So, as an invasive procedure with no significant positive results, one must presume the null hypothesis that acupuncture does not work. As it is an invasive procedure -- there are needles stuck into the body -- it is unethical to use it. It's that nasty first do no harm thingie that seems to so often plague so-called alternative medicine.

But the true believers will still support it, and quacks will take advantage of that fact. They will apparently even charge zoos to treat tortoises. Where is the medical book on Qi meridians in tortoises? That's right. It does not exist. And neither does efficacy in acupuncture.