|
| 
|
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
142,740 registered members
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Acupuncture reduces arthritic pain
[Posted: Tue 21/12/2004 - www.irishhealth.com]
By Deborah Condon
Acupuncture can provide pain relief and improve movement in people with osteoarthritis of the knee, a major new study has found.
The study - one of the largest and longest trials on acupuncture ever conducted - indicates that the practice is an effective complement to standard care.
A team of researchers followed the progress of 570 patients, aged 50 or older, all of whom had osteoarthritis of the knee. The participants had never had acupuncture carried out on them before and all had significant pain in their knee in the month before joining the study. Furthermore none had had knee surgery in the previous six months or had used steroid or similar injections.
The participants were randomly split into three groups; one group received acupuncture, one group received sham acupuncture, while the remaining group followed a standard self-help course for managing the condition. (Sham acupuncture is a procedure designed to prevent patients from being able to detect if needles are actually inserted at treatment points.)
The participants' pain and knee function were assessed at four, eight, 14 and 26 weeks. By week eight, those receiving acupuncture were showing a significant increase in function, while by week 14, they were showing a significant decrease in pain, compared with the other two groups.
Overall those who received acupuncture had a 40% decrease in pain and a nearly 40% improvement in function.
"This trial establishes that acupuncture is an effective complement to conventional arthritis treatment and can be successfully employed as part of a multidisciplinary approach to treating the symptoms of osteoarthritis", said Dr Brian Berman, who led the study.
The findings of this study are published in the medical journal, Annals of Internal Medicine.
Also known as degenerative joint disease, osteoarthritis is the most common arthritic disease. It is one of the most frequent causes of physical disability among adults. Acupuncture meanwhile is the practice of inserting thin needles into specific points of the body, to improve health and wellbeing.
For more information on acupuncture, click on...
http://www.irishhealth.com/index.html?level=4&id=1914
|
Anonymous
Posted:
23/12/2004 15:23 |
| Perhaps those who, for reasons they've never chosen to explain, are so stridently anti- complementary therapy, will now sit up and cop on |
|
sylvie(CHE29599) Posted:
14/09/2005 16:25 |
| Can you help with a 50 years old man who broke his ankle in 2 places 2 years ago and suffers hell since from what has been diagnosed as arthritis? He is in so much pain.... |
| To join the discussion, register by clicking here |
|
QUICK LINKS: asthma | arthritis | psoriasis | crohn's | heart | epilepsy | eczema | osteoporosis | pregnancy | depression | alzheimer | cancer | sex | anxiety | overweight |
 |
About Irishhealth.com | Privacy Policy | Contact us | Why Register? | Make this your home page | Site Map |  |
| Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. We subscribe to the principles of the Health On the Net Foundation |
