We're the ones who have to see these folks.

They've got all kinds of scientific studies, good peer-reviewed medicine, that shows how important particulate matter is to causing morbidity and mortality. I have even seen some scientific evidence that it causes asthma, not just exacerbation of it.

Imagine trying to breathe through a straw for hours on end. These patients are extremely scared.

We did good. That's pretty cool.

This was critical, because this had been a shortcoming of other previous studies with acupuncture - the simulated acupuncture treatments were not believable to the patients.

This doesn't surprise me, as we see this pattern in other chronic pain problems: you can relieve pain, but it's a lot harder to prompt activity changes. A chronically ill person needs more than symptom relief to resume a normal lifestyle. We're now beginning to work on that problem.