Acupuncture Cuts Lower Back Pain

New research demonstrates that acupuncture is effective for the treatment of chronic lower back pain. Researchers studied back pain patients in an inpatient rehabilitation clinic in Germany. Two groups of patients were compared. Group 1 received acupuncture plus conventional rehabilitation services. Group 2 received only rehabilitation services. The researchers discovered that patients willingly accepted acupuncture as a means of care and showed significant improvements in physical functioning, overall health and energy levels and improvements in emotional well-being over the conventional care only group. Notably, the acupuncture group also demonstrated significant improvements over the conventional care only group in the area of pain reduction.

Low Back Acupuncture
Acupuncture significantly reduced pain levels and reduced radiculopathy experienced as a prickling sensation in the hands and feet. The acupuncture patients had less pain upon sitting, standing and carrying loads of 10kg or greater. The researchers concluded, “Acupuncture was highly accepted and had positive effects in patients with chronic low back pain. These results show that acupuncture can be an effective, well-tolerated therapy with no major adverse events.” Read More

 

Acupuncture Lowers High Blood Pressure

New research finds acupuncture effective in reducing blood pressure. The study discovered that patients taking antihypertensive medications benefitted from further reductions in blood pressure by adding acupuncture to the treatment regime. As a result, the researchers concluded that “acupuncture should be in the hypertension treatment guidelines and widely used for blood pressure regulation.”

Acupuncture NeedlesSubjects chosen for the study had been taking antihypertensive medications for at least 24 months. Each subject was taking between one and three medications for the treatment of high blood pressure. The pharmaceutical classes of drugs were a combination of ACE inhibitors, diuretics and/or beta blockers. Common medication side-effects experienced by the subjects included exhaustion, dizziness, weakness, joint pain, headaches, sleeping disorders, edema, a feeling of coldness in the extremities and depression. To maintain a consistent method of evaluating changes in blood pressure from acupuncture treatments, no changes to dietary intake or physical activity were implemented. Read More – Health CMI