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Research Confirms the Superiority of Acupuncture Over Standard Medical Care in the Treatment of Osteoarthritic Knee Pain
New studies confirm earlier studies revealing acupuncture’s superior ability to treat osteoarthritic knee pain compared to Western biomedicine treatment.
The website of the Healthcare Medicine Institute posted a study involving a meta-analysis of 14 random, separate clinical trials. It concluded that “Acupuncture provided a larger improvement in function and gave relief for osteoarthritis knee pain that was significantly better than waiting for further treatment or conventional care treatment.” This study involved 3835 participants all suffering from osteoarthritic knee pain.
The study also observed that osteoarthritic knee pain treatment led to “the restoration of function and a much better relief of the pain” compared to conventional biomedical treatment and sham acupuncture.
The HMI said that following the publication of research by the NIH (National Institutes of Health), interest in acupuncture treatment in Bellingham for knee pain sprang. This research, which started in 2006, involved also a meta-analysis of 13 separate studies, “that dealt with adults suffering from osteoarthritis of the knee or chronic knee pain who were randomly chosen for treatment with either placebo acupuncture (sham acupuncture), other sham therapies, active intervention, the usual care, or real acupuncture treatment.”
In the end, the analysis showed that “Acupuncture following the criteria for adequate therapy led to significant improvements in function and pain relief in patients with chronic knee pain compared to no additional intervention and sham acupuncture.”
For thousands of years, acupuncture has been the go to treatment for countless numbers of people suffering from knee pain.
Studies done throughout the years, have demonstrated acupuncture’s value in the treatment of osteoarthritic knee pain in terms of efficacy and cost; furthermore, acupuncture is deemed to be a much better alternative to knee surgery.
The Acupuncture in Medicine journal, in 2008 published a study noting that this ancient form of Chinese medicine was administered for two years on 90 individuals whose ages averaged 71 years old.
The Counsel & Heal reported that the patients, at first, were treated with acupuncture once each week for four weeks and later, the number of treatments was scaled down to once every one and a half months. After a year, 41 of these individuals were still getting treatments and after two more years, 31 were.
Physicians observed that even after the first month, the patients manifested marked improvements in their levels of pain.
Instructed to examine two factors were nurses who were specifically trained to provide acupuncture treatment care; these factors were whether acupuncture was a valid alternative to costly knee replacement surgeries or whether the treatment led to improvements whilst minimizing cost of care.
The study observed that while pundits see knee operations as worth the cost since they’re typically successful, they’re not for everyone, which made searching for alternative options imperative. The reason for this: At that time, it was reported that in one in seven patients were still in constant pain and they were unable to walk far.
These limitations seem to be transcended by acupuncture. While relieving pain, acupuncture led to a reduction in medical cost in the tens of millions in the U.S. each year.
How Does Acupuncture Work?
It may seem a bit strange at first, to those who have never tried acupuncture, but this very old healing technique has survived for thousands of years precisely due to its efficacy in treating certain illnesses.
Filiform or filamentous, sterile needles are stuck just below the surface of the skin in specific parts of the body, based on the condition the patient requires treatment from. (gastrointestinal problems, back pain, sore knees, allergies, etc.).
The acupuncture points or acupoints are where the needles are inserted are controlled by what energy channels called meridians. These channels are where the Chinese believe the vital energy of the body flowed. There are several specific spots along these meridians that regulate levels of health and various parts of the body. The human body has a dozen primary meridians and eight secondary meridians.
If you have stomach problems, this does not necessarily mean that’s where the needles go. A few of the acupoints that are commonly used include:
Stomach – The acupoint that’s situated on the leg’s front below the knee.
Lungs – The acupoint found on the inside of the arm above the wrist.
The Large Intestine – The acupoint found between the thumb and index finger on the back of the hand.
Research Confirms Acupuncture’s Ability to Ameliorate Pain
Research shows that acupuncture reduces pain following C-section surgery (and other surgeries) and the use of painkillers in a significant way.
Researchers in Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Medical University did a study that was published in the 2009 edition of the Chinese Medical Journal. In the study, 60 women who had C-section surgery were randomly assigned to either a group that would receive with electro-acupuncture or acupuncture treatment or to a control group for the relief of postsurgical pain. They found that the group treated with acupuncture or electro-acupuncture showed much lower pain scores within a full 24 hours following C-section, used an average 32.5% less morphine, requested morphine treatment an average of 10 minutes later and experienced lesser side-effects related to morphine compared to the control group.
Pain Relief Using Acupuncture Treatment in New York
A traditional Chinese medical practice, acupuncture consists of sticking filform needles into certain areas of the body where energy channels called meridians are located as dictated by the health condition being addressed. An increasing amount of scientific research now validates acupuncture’s ability in addressing a wide variety of health issues, especially pain. Private insurance companies are now providing coverage for this type of treatment.
There have been earlier studies done than the Cesarean study discussed above that have connected acupuncture to lesser usage of painkilling drugs following surgery. In 2008, a Duke University research team did a study which was discussed in a conference of the American Society for Anesthesiology also on 2008. The conference reviewed the results of the study which involved 15 independent clinical trials on pre- and post-surgery acupuncture treatment. They outcome of the study revealed that acupuncture helped reduce the levels of pain in a significant way as well as helped decrease the use of painkilling drugs in patients after surgery regardless if it (acupuncture) was administered before and after surgery.
Because painkillers were used much less, it led to fewer side effects. The subjects who weren’t given acupuncture treatment were 3 ½ times likely to experience urinary retention problems, 1 ½ times more likely to suffer from nausea, 1 3/5 times likelier to experience dizziness, and 3 ½ times more likely to resort to painkillers.
For addressing all types of pain, including, of course, the above-mentioned post-surgical pain, acupuncture seems to be extremely effective. In 2008, the Archives of Internal Medicine published a study in which 1,162 adults all suffering from longstanding lower back pain were randomly divided into either a group that received Western conventional therapy of exercise and medications, a group treated with sham acupuncture or to a group that was given real acupuncture treatment. Results showed that only 27% of the patients who received Western conventional treatment experienced a 33% reduction of pain and betterment in their functional capabilities compared with the 48% and 44% of the ones treated with real acupuncture and sham acupuncture respectively.
In 2012, the Archives of Internal Medicine published a meta-analysis review, about data collated from 29 past studies in which a total of 18,000 individuals participated. The subjects in these studies all suffered from chronic (longstanding) pain caused by shoulder pain, neck pain, back pain, or headaches. The participants were assigned either to conventional Western therapies (physical therapy and medications), sham acupuncture, or real acupuncture. On a pain scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is the lowest score for pain felt and 100 being the highest, the researchers measured an average pain score of 60 at the start of any given study. At the end of the study the real acupuncture group scored an average 30, the score of the sham acupuncture registered 32, while that of the Western conventional treatment group scored an average of 43.
From these outcomes, some researchers theorize that the placebo effect accounts for much of the success of acupuncture’s pain-relieving abilities and that it does truly work; knowing why it works seems irrelevant, states University of California-San Francisco researcher Andrew Avins. He suggested in an article published in in 2012, in the Archives of Internal Medicine, that there is scientific evidence that now justifies acupuncture’s use for patients suffering from acute or chronic pain.