Latest Shows & Articles

Subscriptions
  • Join our People's Pharmacy Page on Facebook
  • Follow JoeGraedon on Twitter
  • Follow Us
  • Free email newsletter

Print This Page

Acupuncture Eases Chronic Back Pain

  • Currently 0/5
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Not Helpful ..... Very Helpful
Was this information helpful? (0 votes)
What do you think? Click the stars to vote!
If you have more to say, post a comment below!

An ingenious study shows that acupuncture can help ease back pain. Surprisingly, even the control group getting sham acupuncture administered with a toothpick got relief from their pain and reported improved ability to function. The study included 638 chronic back pain patients who belong to the health maintenance organization Group Health. They were divided into four groups for eight weeks of treatment. One group got standardized acupuncture for the back; another got standard care, which included physical therapy and pain medicine; the third got individualized acupuncture treatments; and the fourth got sham acupuncture using a toothpick inside a needle guide tube.

 Any kind of acupuncture treatment alleviated back pain for about 60 percent of those receiving it, and the relief often lasted at least a year. Investigators are still puzzled as to why the toothpicks worked just as well as real acupuncture needles.


[Archives of Internal Medicine, May 11, 2009]
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/169/9/858

  • Currently 0/5
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Not Helpful ..... Very Helpful
Was this information helpful? (0 votes)
What do you think? Click the stars to vote!
If you have more to say, post a comment below!

1 Comment

| Leave a comment

I have had acupuncture for arm pain and had good success with it. Now, as I am doing EFT : Emotional Freedom Technique, I realize that simply tapping on the meridian ends is sufficient to make pain disappear....so it is the stimulation of the meridians, not the needle or the toothpick, that is effecting the change in the body energy field. You may want to do some research on EFT and include it on this site...since it is such a huge

step forward...no drugs!

Thanks,

Ruth/Wisconsin

Leave a comment

Share your comments or questions with the People's Pharmacy online community. Not all comments will be posted. Advice from other visitors to this web site should not be considered a substitute for appropriate medical attention. Concerns about medications should be discussed with a health professional. Do not stop any medication without first checking with your physician.

Check this box to be notified by email when follow-up comments are posted.