Anti-Doping in Practice from Player's Perspective

[topazg]

I like Pie!

Oh and this has to rank up there as the worst thread ever .......although I'm sure someone will argue other wise.

Haha, really? I thought we'd handled a topic that normally goes really badly downhill in a pretty civil way considering

[Psychee]

Acupuncture is a sham.

Oh la la, how arrogant. =,=!!!

[HermanHiddema]

Actually, the only double-blind possible with acupuncture is sticking people with needles in places that don't correspond to meridians. It definitely complicates any studies.

For a study to be double blind, not only should the patients not know whether they are getting a placebo or not, but the treating doctors also shouldn't know (to prevent them from behaving differently towards different patients).

For a double blind on acupuncture, they use something know as "sham acupuncture" (sham is also a medical term), where they put the needles in places that are not acupoints (which is complicated by the fact that there is no universal agreement among acupuncturists on where the acupoints are).

All in all, quite a complicated thing to research

[tapir]

Actually, the only double-blind possible with acupuncture is sticking people with needles in places that don't correspond to meridians. It definitely complicates any studies.

For a study to be double blind, not only should the patients not know whether they are getting a placebo or not, but the treating doctors also shouldn't know (to prevent them from behaving differently towards different patients).

For a double blind on acupuncture, they use something know as "sham acupuncture" (sham is also a medical term), where they put the needles in places that are not acupoints (which is complicated by the fact that there is no universal agreement among acupuncturists on where the acupoints are).

All in all, quite a complicated thing to research

Well, the question remains what you are testing then. The whole meridian theory might turn out to be not necessary. If needling next to the acupoint has the same effect, that is not the same as proving that acupuncture does not work, it is just casting doubt on the usual explanation.

As this is an anti-doping thread. Let us ask the main question: If acupuncture were performance enhancing in Go (which is of course not proven or not even likely if you ask me), should it be allowed (as it does not harm) or should it be prohibited? If it should be prohibited, then only during the tournaments, a time span before the tournaments or even altogether?