“Scientists find acupuncture can help relieve chronic back pain”
Friday, May 29th, 2009
According to an article published in the May 11, 2009, issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, 60 percent of patients receiving any type of acupuncture had “clinically meaningful improvement in their level of functioning” after eight weeks of treatment, compared with 39 percent of those receiving non-acupuncture care. The trials used 638 back pain sufferers; the patients were treated at intervals of eight weeks, six months, and a year. Two types of acupuncture were used: regular acupuncture and “fake” acupuncture, where toothpicks were placed in guide tubes and then pricked the skin. (The toothpicks did not actually penetrate the skin directly.) Interestingly, this simulated acupuncture involving needle pricks also got results. Read more about these interesting findings here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6269247.ece
—Inger