Back pain is one of the most widespread reasons people seek health care. Millions of working days and [/spin] countless | immeasurable [/spin] hours of activity and fun are lost each year because of back pain.
Acupuncture’s merits are still being debated by the medical community, with many experts declaring that acupuncture’s pain relief benefits are purely the placebo effect. Two current studies on acupuncture for back pain and arthritis show that this alternative pain treatment has real effects that exceed the pain relief benefits of both medication and physical therapy.
Acupuncture For Back Pain improves chronic back pain better than standard care such as medications or physical therapy, according to a new study. All three acupuncture techniques tested including a “sham” method with toothpicks and no skin puncturing worked better than the usual care given for the problem.
Acupuncture-like treatments had a positive effect overall on people’s chronic back pain researcher Dan Cherkin, PhD, investigator for Group Health Center for Health Studies in Seattle. “It didn’t matter if you inserted the needle or superficially punched the skin.”
That finding, Cherkin says, leads to more conjecture about how the centuries-old technique actually works.
In a Swedish hospital study, in patients who experienced chronic low back pain, doctors concluded that acupuncture provided long term pain relief. They also saw improvement in activity levels, better sleep, and consumption of significantly fewer pain medications for the acupuncture group as compared with those receiving a placebo treatment.
Acupuncture Back Pain Treatment
One of the main causes of back pain are sprains from the overstretching one or more of the ligaments in the back and other strains. This can come about from an injury, poor posture, or improper lifting. Another cause of back pain comes from a herniated disc. A herniated disc is a disc that bulges out from its place between two vertebrae.
Sciatica is also a main form of back pain. Sciatica is a term used to explain pain that extends down into the buttocks and leg which comes from an irritation of a larger nerve in the lumbar spine called the sciatic nerve. Sciatica may accompany sprains, strains, herniated discs as well as back pain coming from other sources.
Acupuncture continues to gain popularity in this country because it is an effective useful treatment of acute and chronic backache. Acute pain can often be stopped in a few sessions. More treatments may be needed if there is an underlying deficiency, or reoccurring problem, or sciatica.