I would love to see some good scientific studies too. I'm willing to beleive it can be of help but anecdatoes will only take you so far.

That said, I will tell this one anecdote (not directly related to acupuncture and salivation) which is that my grandfather, a thoracic surgeon and researcher, spent a year practicing in China in the 1970s. Although that quackwatch site says that acupuncture is not used for anesthersia in China as often as it's proponents suggest, that may be a function of using more Western Medical practices in the last few decades.

In the 1970s, my grandfather (the ultimate skeptic about the value of acupuncture when he went there) said he saw several surgeries in which he was pretty sure the ONLY anesthetic was acupuncture and the patient appeared to experience no pain, even when the procedure being done should have been excruciating without anesthetic. Either that's a testimony to the power of placebo effects (and an indication we should look more at what placebo effects are), or he was fooled (and he was pretty had to fool about stuff like that), or there's really something to it.

Just thought I'd add that story.

Nelie

nelie