Acupuncture helps aching back
2009-05-12 17:07
Chicago - Acupuncture brought more
relief to people with back pain than standard treatments,
whether it was done with a toothpick or a real needle, US
researchers said on Monday in a study that raises new questions
about how acupuncture works.
For many patients, that benefit lasted for a year, the team
reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Our study shows that you don't need to stick needles into
people to get the same effect," said Dr Daniel Cherkin of
Group Health Centre for Health Studies in Seattle, who led the
study.
"Historically, some types of acupuncture have used
non-penetrating needles. Such treatments may involve
physiological effects that make a clinical difference," Karen
Sherman of Group Health, who worked on the study, said in a
statement.
The team, wanted to study the effects of different types of
acupuncture in a large, carefully controlled study of 638
patients with chronic low back pain.
They divided patients into several groups. One got seven
weeks of standardised acupuncture treatment known to be
effective in back pain.
Another group got an individually
prescribed acupuncture treatment.
Acupuncture 'points'
A third group was treated using a toothpick in a needle
guide tube that did not pierce the skin as regular acupuncture
does, but targeting the correct acupuncture "points".
A fourth group just got standard medical treatment, which
included medication and physical therapy.
After eight weeks, 60% of the patients who got any
type of acupuncture reported significant improvement in their
ability to function compared with those who got standard
medical care alone.
But there was no significant difference in the pain relief
people got from the acupuncture using needles or from
toothpicks.
The researchers said there is some evidence that even
needles were used 2 000 years ago in acupuncture treatment, and
some imaging studies have shown that "superficial and deep
needling of an acupuncture point elicited similar blood oxygen
level-dependent responses," the team wrote.
'Relatively safe and painless'
Another study even found that lightly touching the skin can
induce some emotional and hormonal reactions, which could
explain the benefit, they wrote.
Or, it may simply be the experience of visiting an
acupuncturist for treatments that helps.
Regardless of how it worked, they said acupuncture appears
to be a relatively safe and painless way of easing an aching
back, especially when traditional medicine alone fails.