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Get relief for chronic pain

25 November 2016

Chronic pain in the muscles and joints can make life miserable. If you have tried the standard treatments like; ice and heat, anti-inflammatory medications, physical therapy, and they are only giving temporary relief, of no relief then it’s worth considering acupuncture, 

Research from an international team of experts adds to the evidence that acupuncture provides real relief from common forms of pain. The team pooled the results of 29 studies involving nearly 18,000 participants. Some had acupuncture, some had “sham” acupuncture, and some didn’t have acupuncture at all. Overall, acupuncture relieved pain by about 50%.

It is not well understood the exact mechanism of acupuncture it is well proven that acupuncture has physiological effects relevant to analgesia.  This means that acupuncture treatment stimulates the release of endorphins, the body's natural pain-killing chemicals.  It does this by affecting the part of the brain that governs serotonin, a brain chemical involved with mood

The take home message from the study is that in a number of studies of nearly 18 000 randomized patients in high-quality RCTs provide the most robust evidence to date that acupuncture is a reasonable referral option for patients with chronic pain.

You can read the full study here:

http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1357513