Acupuncture For Bad Backs

According to a recent news article posted on time.com, acupuncture does work! In this study, there were 638 participants with chronic low back pain that received one of three different acupuncture treatments.

One group received individual care in the classic acupuncture. Another group received acupuncture at standardized points for back pain. The third group were poked with toothpicks instead of the standard acupuncture needles but the toothpicks did not penetrate the skin as regular acupuncture needles would.

None of the patients knew which treatments they were getting. Each patient received 10 treatments over the 7 weeks. A control group of back pain patients were told to continue doing whatever it was that they normally did to control back pain.

After the 8 week follow up, twice the number of patients getting any of the three types of acupuncture treatments showed improvement in their daily functions such as walking or going up and down steps without pain, compared with those only getting traditional care. It was also noted that all three types of acupuncture type treatment even the one with the toothpicks had about the same reduction in pain. A year after treatments, acupuncture patients reported a 63% improvement in pain reduction.

While there can be all types of ways to analyze this, evaluate it and draw conclusions, acupuncture clearly does help. So the next time you have pains and before you say Doc, give me some meds to take away the pain, why not give acupuncture a try? Medications aren't always the best way to treat pain and in fact some times they get in the way of the situation that truly needs our attention.

I was scared to death of acupuncture until the first time I had an acupuncture needle put me in me. It was not as bad as I thought it would be and was not like getting pricked with a needle to draw blood because to me that is much worse and more painful. Believe me, I'm frightened of the thought of needles! So if I can do it, surely anyone can go to acupuncture! There is a lot of wisdom in the some of these ancient healing forms.

Information Source: Time.com