I remember many years ago New Scientist magazine did a review study of many different alternative medicine techniques and found that the only benefits they provided were placebo effect.
Except acupuncture. That was the only one with an effect greater than placebo.
In a 2018 review, data from 12 studies (8,003 participants) showed acupuncture was more effective than no treatment for back or neck pain, and data from 10 studies (1,963 participants) showed acupuncture was more effective than sham acupuncture. The pain-relieving effect of acupuncture was comparable to that of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
You could let the control group be poked at random places instead of whatever the acupuncture manual says.
I think that it’s been tried and did yield similar effects. Unsurprisingly.
I remember many years ago New Scientist magazine did a review study of many different alternative medicine techniques and found that the only benefits they provided were placebo effect.
Except acupuncture. That was the only one with an effect greater than placebo.
https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/acupuncture-what-you-need-to-know
So you can spend 10 minutes to an hour getting poked with needles or you can just pop an ibuprofen.