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Recent Study Shows Effect of Acupuncture
Lasts Three Years or More
By Victor Kumar
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Chinese medical practitioners claim that their medicine
treats the core of health problems and therefore delivers
superior results in the long term. Right now, these claims
are based on the experience of the practitioners and traditional
teachings but not on research. That may soon change.
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A recent study in the international journal, Pain, examining
the long term effects of acupuncture on neck and shoulder pain
found that people got pain relief three years after the completion
of a course of acupuncture with electrical stimulation. (1)
This groundbreaking result is a strong positive statement about
the effects of acupuncture as well as a call for more research
into the incredible potential of Chinese medical treatments. Three
years with less pain is really exciting news for patients looking
for long-term pain relief. It also lends support to the idea that
acupuncture treats the root of health problems rather than just
the symptoms.
In this study, not only did acupuncture create better pain relief
than sham acupuncture (needles inserted into sites that are nearby
but not on actual acupoints) but the difference between the two
groups at the three year follow up mark was one of the most significant
in the entire study. If acupuncture were a palliative treatment
(a treatment that provides only temporary relief like a pain killer),
you wouldn't expect to see the results of treatment over a long
period of time. Whatever result occurred in the short term, you
would expect to be constant through the study and disappear after
a period known as _washout_. In other words, if you have a constant
headache you wouldn't expect to get better results from aspirin
the second week you were taking it than the first week; but this
study indicates that with acupuncture you can expect more and
more pain relief as time goes on.
The study also reaffirmed the importance of needling classical
acupoints and the power of electrical stimulation. The use of
sham acupuncture as a placebo ensured that the results obtained
where more than a physiological change due to mere needle insertion.
Instead, needling acupoints according to the traditional point
location and applying electrical stimulation decreased pain in
the long term. Again, the greatest difference between using correct
needle location and sham location was seen in the long term, after
several treatments.
In conclusion, it is important to note that one study, especially
one of this size, doesn't definitively prove any of the claims
mentioned here. It does however strongly suggest that the experience
of acupuncturists (and their patients) is worth more study. Other
groups of researchers will certainly attempt to repeat this work
with larger groups of patients and for a variety of conditions.
Hopefully, they will get started right away because one thing
is for certain with a study of this type: We won't have the results
for at least three more years.
1. Dong He, Kaj Bo Veiersted, Arne T. Høstmark
and Jon Ingulf Medbø. Effect
of acupuncture treatment on chronic neck and shoulder pain in
sedentary female workers: a 6-month and 3-year follow-up study.
Pain, Volume 109, Issue 3, June 2004, Pages 299-307
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