Originally distributed May 2005
ACUPUNCTURE PROVEN TO HELP OSTEOARTHRITIS
Finally it’s May! No more snow, and we feel inspired by the warm sunny weather to go out and enjoy ourselves. Yet for people with osteoarthritis, getting out may be extremely painful.
As if to coincide with the warmer temperatures, the Arthritis Foundation has designated May as National Arthritis Month. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting over 20 million Americans.
Fortunately, relief is available for sufferers of osteoarthritis – in the form of acupuncture.
A large-scale study funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, both arms of the National Institutes of Health, shows that acupuncture provides pain relief and improves function for people with osteoarthritis of the knee. The lead investigator, Brian M. Berman, M.D., of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, concludes that acupuncture is an effective complement to standard care.
The findings of the study were published in the December 21, 2004, issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study followed 570 participants for 6 months, making it the largest and longest acupuncture study to date in the U.S.
After 26 weeks, those who received acupuncture treatments experienced a 40% decrease in pain and a nearly 40% improvement in function compared to assessments made before any acupuncture.
After all the alarming headlines about the potentially life-threatening side effects of Cox-2 inhibitors such as Vioxx and Celebrex, the results of this study can provide many people with headache relief!
Acupuncture has been practiced for over 2000 years in China and continues to be used alongside biomedicine in the Chinese national health care system. Acupuncture was introduced to the U.S. when journalist James Reston, who was covering President Nixon’s historic trip to China in 1971, needed emergency surgery. To his surprise, instead of general anesthesia, acupuncture was used in the Chinese hospital, allowing him to be fully conscious during the procedure and recover more quickly. His articles paved the way for acupuncture being best known in this country for pain relief.
Acupuncture provides pain relief without the side effects of medications, and it also improves functioning, as this study shows. Additionally the World Health Organization lists over to 50 conditions that acupuncture can treat effectively, including Bell’s palsy, insomnia, tinnitus, and infertility.
If you have questions about what acupuncture can treat, feel free to contact me.
For more information about the study on osteoarthritis
of the knee, visit the
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.