Acupuncture has a terribly long history of being utilised for several disease conditions. But does it work and is there any evidence to back that up?
I started my investigation into acupuncture at The Cochrane Collaboration, that is a conglomeration of the best proof accessible for the physician and patient to help make treatment decisions.
I confined my investigation into the following conditions: Low Back Pain, Neck Pain, Shoulder Pain, Joint arthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Acupuncture for Headaches and Fibromyalgia wasn't evaluated.
The Yankee Academy of Medical Acupuncture (2004) states: "Within the United States, acupuncture has its greatest success and acceptance within the treatment of musculoskeletal pain."They say that acupuncture could be thought of as a complementary therapy for the conditions within the list below, noting: "Most of those indications are supported by textbooks or a minimum of one journal article. But, definitive conclusions based on research findings are rare as a result of the state of acupuncture analysis is poor however improving."
Thus it's well known that the general state of acupuncture analysis is poor, but that musculoskeletal pain advantages the most from the treatment.
Here's the numerous conditions and what The Cochrane Collaboration states about each.
Low Back Pain: thirty five studies were reviewed. The studies were inconclusive concerning acute low back pain results from acupuncture. However, for chronic low back pain, acupuncture was a lot of effective than no treatment or sham treatment in the short term. Additionally, the data steered that acupuncture might be a helpful adjunct to different therapies for chronic low back pain. This can be almost like chiropractic treatment in efficacy, but the opposite. Chiropractic manipulation works well for acute low back pain, and its efficacy in chronic low back pain is questionable.
Neck Disorders: 10 studies were reviewed looking at acupuncture for chronic neck pain - in this case pain over half-dozen weeks duration.
People with chronic neck pain who received acupuncture reported, on average, better pain relief immediately after treatment and in the short-term than those who received sham treatments.
Individuals with chronic neck pain with symptoms radiating to the arms who received acupuncture reported, on average, better pain relief in the short-term than those who were on a waiting list. Bottom Line: There's moderate evidence to support acupuncture for chronic neck pain (over half dozen weeks.)
Peripheral Joint Osteoarthritis: 16 trials were reviewed looking at acupuncture for knee and/or hip arthritis. Results showed statistically vital benefits in pain relief for both hip and knee. But, the profit was somewhat because of placebo effect. Thus it worked in the studies, however how much was real vs. placebo was questionable.
Shoulder pain: nine studies were reviewed. The conclusion was that there may be short term benefit with respect to pain and function. But, the evidence wasn't first rate and Cochrane mentioned a certain want for more elegant clinical trials.
Rheumatoid Arthritis: Only 2 studies were reviewed. From the little proof offered, acupuncture failed to seem to improve the symptoms of RA.
It's apparent from the Cochrane review of acupuncture for these conditions that it does after all work a minimum of for short term improvement except for Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Author Resource:-
Dorish Hill has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Acupuncture, you can also check out his latest website about:
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