You're a very thorough fellow, Wolfgang, as always.

My estimation of the risks involved in conventional acupuncture treatment were based on: my own direct experience as a patient on numerous occasions...and nothing more than that.

I'm sure that an incompetent practitioner could conceivably hurt someone through acupuncture...as readily as through any other known method of medical treatment.

Quite a few people have died from vaccinations, surgery, reactions to prescription drugs, radiation treatments, and anything else one might care to mention. So? Look up statistics on those if you have the time and use them to make any point you wish...I'm sure they are there, and will serve to support any point of view impressively if carefully sifted, organized, and quoted.

I was merely suggesting that normal acupuncture, carried out by someone who knows what he or she is doing is very unlikely to cause harm to the patient.

- LH