Among patients older than 50 years with moderate to severe chronic knee pain acupuncture does not improve discomfort any more than 'sham' acupuncture says a new study. Sham acupuncture is any form of fake acupuncture used so that researchers can test whether benefits from the traditional acupuncture may be due to a placebo affect. For the study lead researcher Rana S. Hinman from the University of Melbourne and colleagues randomly assigned 282 patients (50 years or older) with chronic knee pain to needle acupuncture laser acupuncture and sham laser acupuncture. Treatments were delivered for 12 weeks. Participants and acupuncturists were
