“Unfortunately, poorly done systematic reviews can create an strong but inaccurate impression that there is high-level, high-quality evidence in favor of a hypothesis when there really isn’t. Reviews of acupuncture research illustrate this quite well.”
“What they often fail to acknowledge, though, is that science does a pretty good job of accommodating such surprises if they can prove themselves through rigorous testing. The theory that Helicobacter could cause duodenal ulcers was considered implausible when proposed in 1982, and it won a Nobel prize for the proponents of the idea in 2005. That’s a pretty quick acceptance of an initially controversial idea, and it’s not consistent with the caricature of mainstream science as closed-minded and dogmatic.”
Science-Based Medicine » Chinese Systematic Reviews of Acupuncture.
