New study shows effectiveness of acupuncture for carpal tunnel wrist pain
Thursday, March 9, 2017
A new study that tracked brain and nerve changes refutes a
commonly repeated claim that acupuncture's effectiveness is the
result of a placebo effect.
The March 2 study published in
Brain, a neurology journal, used true acupuncture
along with sham acupuncture and fake needles as a placebo to treat
carpal tunnel syndrome. During the procedures, researchers tracked
brain and nervous system changes using a MRI. The study included
researchers from Harvard University.
National University's, assistant dean of acupuncture and
oriental medicine, Zhanxiang Wang, MD (China), PhD, LAc, praised
the new research. "This study is unique because it used fake
needles on the body in the placebo group, allowing the researchers
to show truly objective results," he said.
In the true acupuncture groups, thin, sterile needles were
inserted into strategic points on the body that lie along specific
energy meridian pathways. Acupuncture's goal is to promote healing
through rebalancing the patient's Qi (or chi) energy. The
weakness, excess, or imbalance of Qi affects key organ systems and
is the underlying cause of disease and disharmony.
While all groups experienced pain relief, only the true
acupuncture groups involved in the study showed measurable
physiological improvements in pain centers in the brain and nerves,
while sham acupuncture did not show the same changes. They also
found the changes lasted three months longer for true acupuncture
groups.
In a
New York Times article, Vitaly Napadow, a Harvard researcher
involved in the study, recommended acupuncture as a non-invasive
first-line approach for pain before more invasive procedures like
surgery.
Along with pain from carpal tunnel syndrome, acupuncture can
also be used to treat low back pain, as now recommended by the
American College of Physicians, along with chronic pain conditions.
"Acupuncture can be superior to many other types of pain relief
particularly prescription drugs," said Dr. Wang. "This type of
treatment has few side-effects and for those on other medications,
there's no concern over adverse drug reactions. "
National University interns have used acupuncture to provide
pain relief at Cook County's John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital since
2012. Initially, NUHS interns were scheduled to provide acupuncture
for approximately 50 patients once a week. Due to demand, that
number has almost doubled to about 100 patients per week.
The March study in Brain lends further evidence to
acupuncture's effectiveness in relieving pain. Other recent studies
have found similar results including a study published
in 2016 in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, which
found that acupuncture could actually be a more effective method of
pain relief than morphine.
To read more about the various benefits and uses of acupuncture
read National University's blog post:
Exposing the Hidden Values of Acupuncture and Oriental
Medicine.