If you have low back pain, you'll be interested in this article on the latest acupuncture study, which comes out of Germany. The study concludes that acupuncture is better than conventional treatment for low back pain. The researchers also used "sham" acupuncture as a sort of control. In that group, they didn't put the needles into official acupuncture points. They also didn't put them in as far as other needles typically go, or manipulate them to activate the points. However, the "fake" acupuncture also worked better than the pharmaceuticals and other Western interventions. So, even crappy acupuncture works better!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/09/24/back.pain.acupuncture.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch