Can Acupuncture Help Relieve Arthritis Pain?

What Is Acupuncture and How Does It Work?
Sixteenth century Chinese doctors believed that illness was due to an imbalance of energy in the body. In acupuncture, disposable, stainless steel needles are used to stimulate the body's 14 major meridians, or energy-carrying channels, to resist or overcome illnesses and conditions by correcting these imbalances.

Acupuncture is also thought to decrease pain by increasing the release of chemicals that block pain, called endorphins. Many acu-points are near nerves. When stimulated, these nerves cause a dull ache or feeling of fullness in the muscle. The stimulated muscle sends a message to the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), causing the release of endorphins (morphine-like chemicals produced in our own bodies during times of pain or stress). Endorphins, along with other neurotransmitters (body chemicals that modify nerve impulses), block the message of pain from being delivered up to the brain.

What Conditions Are Treated With Acupuncture?
Although acupuncture is not a "cure-all" treatment, it is very effective in treating several diseases and conditions. Acupuncture is most effective at treating chronic pain, such as headaches; menstrual cramps; and low back, neck, or muscle pain. It can also be used to treat arthritis, facial pain, pain from shingles, and spastic colon and colitis conditions. Acupuncture has also been successful in treating obesity and addictions such as nicotine or drugs. Acupuncture also can improve the functioning of the immune system (the body's defense system against diseases).

Importantly, don't rely on acupuncture for treatment of chronic or serious illness unless you see a doctor first. Acupuncture may not be the only way to improve your condition. Your health-care provider may recommend acupuncture treatment along with other treatment methods such as physical therapy or medication. For certain conditions, such as cancer, acupuncture should only be performed in combination with other treatments.

What Happens During Acupuncture Treatment?
The acupuncturist, the person who performs acupuncture, will swab each acu-point area with alcohol before tapping a hair-thin, metal needle into the site. The number of needles used during treatment can vary and are placed at various depths. They are placed under the skin in carefully determined points on the body.

After the needles have been inserted, they stay in place for several minutes to an hour. During the treatment, acupuncture needles are twirled, energized electrically, or warmed to intensify the effect of the treatment. When electricity is applied, a tingling sensation is common. However, if the sensation becomes too strong, you can ask your acupuncturist to reduce the electricity at any time.

In a treatment series, the acupuncturist will use different combinations of points, different needling techniques, or both. These combinations help stimulate new sources of healing as the person's response to treatment is observed.


Does Acupuncture Hurt?
You may feel a slight prick when the needle is inserted, but it is much less than the prick you feel during an injection, since the needles are much thinner. You may feel a heaviness, numbness, tingling, or mild soreness after the needles have been inserted.

Is Acupuncture Safe?
Yes. When acupuncture is performed with disposable needles under clean, sterile conditions, and by a qualified practitioner it is highly unusual to have any complications.

What Are the Advantages of Acupuncture?
One benefit to acupuncture is that it is a drug-free way to minimize pain. With drugs, people often develop a tolerance, or the need for an increased dosage to achieve the same required effect. However, this does not happen with acupuncture. In addition, acupuncture allows the doctor to immediately examine a person's response to the treatment and adjust it if necessary.

Does the Medical Establishment Approve of Acupuncture?
Yes. There are approximately 6,500 licensed acupuncturists in the U.S. and 3,000 doctors who perform acupuncture as part of their medical practice. In addition, the World Health Organization currently recognizes more than 40 medical problems, ranging from allergies to AIDS, which can be helped by acupuncture treatment. Lastly, the FDA regulates acupuncture needles as medical devices.

Will My Health Insurance Policy Cover Acupuncture Treatment?
Some insurance companies will pay for acupuncture treatment. Because each insurance provider has different restrictions, it is best to consult with your provider to determine if your treatment will be covered.

How Often Should I Be Treated With Acupuncture?
The number of treatments required depends on each person's condition and response to acupuncture. One acupuncture session does not usually result in lasting pain relief. Usually at least two sessions a week for four to five weeks is a normal course of treatment. It may take several treatments before you notice any benefit, so try at least five or 10 treatments before giving up.

Can I Resume My Daily Activities Following a Treatment?
It is best to bring someone with you on your first acupuncture treatment so that you will have transportation home. This is because acupuncture has a very calming effect. You may feel overly relaxed after the treatment and shouldn't drive. No matter how good you feel after the treatment, it is important not to overextend yourself. You should take it easy for a few days after the treatment. In addition, it is important to continue taking your prescribed medications.

Weight Loss With Acupuncture - Can Acupuncture Help You Lose Weight?

In recent years, more and more people are trying out acupuncture to lose weight. Just what is acupuncture? How can acupuncture treatment help you lose weight?

Acupuncture is a branch of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and has been around for about 5,000 years. It is the practice of inserting very thin needles to stimulate pathways or meridians in the body to treat many illnesses and diseases especially to relieve pain from chronic disorders.

Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners or TCM physicians claim that acupuncture can help you to lose body fat by making you feel full and so will eat less. This curbs excess caloric consumption in the patient treated with acupuncture and is a great help in the patient’s weight loss program.

Acupuncture treatment can also be used to raise your metabolic rate and help you to burn more calories to speed up weight loss. Some Chinese medicine practitioners say that acupuncture stimulates the production of a hormone called endorphins and this hormone helps to lower body fat, insulin and lipid levels in the bloodstream thus less insulin is converted into body fat.

Acupuncture is not a miracle cure for obesity. TCM physicians often stress that to achieve good weight loss results from your program and maintaining your weight, acupuncture treatment alone is not enough. To lose weight effectively and keep the fats off permanently, acupuncture treatment must be combined with healthy eating habits and regular exercises.

Before you begin your acupuncture treatment, your Chinese physician will conduct a medical examination on you by checking your pulse and examination of your tongue to ensure that you are suitable for acupuncture weight loss treatment. This is because TCM is a holistic branch of health care and do not just specifically target the ailment or medical complaint. So an investigation into other reasons why a patient is obese is necessary to solve the problem holistically.

If you want to lose weight naturally and without drugs, why not try TCM acupuncture for your weight loss program?

Complementary/Alternative Medicine: Traditional Chinese

Acupuncture and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Acupuncture, frequently in conjunction with the use of Chinese herbal and/or food medicine, is an alternative medicine that restores health by balancing and improving the flow of chi, the body's natural energy flow, thus restoring proper function of muscles, nerves, vessels, glands, and organs. How can acupuncture help IBS?
Acupuncture - How does it help IBS?
What is acupuncture?
Acupuncture clinical studies and IBS.
Acupuncture precautions.

How can acupuncture help IBS?
Both the National Institutes of Health Consensus Panel[3] and the World Health Organization,[4] using different criteria, have identified many different conditions as appropriate for acupuncture treatments, including several that directly pertain to IBS:


Abdominal pain
Muscle cramping
Constipation
Diarrhea


In addition, acupuncture has also been deemed effective as a means of stress reduction, and at addressing related problems that are often triggers for IBS symptoms, such as:


Anxiety
Insomnia
Nervousness
Menstrual cramps
Premenstrual syndrome


What is acupuncture?

Acupuncture, like Tai Chi, is one of the ancient forms of traditional Chinese healing arts. Unlike Tai Chi, however, acupuncture is not a self-directed therapy, whereby a person balances his or her own body's chi (energy or life force). Acupuncture is instead a treatment administered to a patient by a trained practitioner, who balances the body's chi by stimulating areas (acupuncture points) along the primary meridians, or channels, through which chi flows. These meridians run deep within the body and regulate all physical and mental processes, surfacing at the various acupoints. Acupuncture is the stimulation or sedation of these acupoints in order to balance the body's flow of chi.

The traditional Chinese perspective on acupuncture reflects the belief that the body is a complex and holistic physical/mental/emotional/spiritual system, balanced between health and sickness in a constantly changing flow of energy. According to this viewpoint, imbalances in this natural energy flow are thought to cause disease. Acupuncture, frequently in conjunction with the use of Chinese herbal and/or food medicine, restores health by balancing and improving the flow of chi, restoring proper function of muscles, nerves, vessels, glands, and organs.

An acupuncture treatment will strengthen the flow of chi or remove blockages in the meridians via the insertion of very thin, flexible acupuncture needles, from a depth of just beneath the skin to about an inch, at various acupoints along the meridians. (Please note that it's important to ask and verify that your acupuncturist works solely with single-use, sterile, disposable needles, as one of the only real (though rare) risks of acupuncture is infection or transmission of contagious diseases, such as Hepatitis B, at the puncture site.)

Thousands of these points exist in the body, and each one is associated with a specific internal organ or organ system. As the acupuncture needles are inserted into the acupoints the patient may feel nothing, or a sensation of tingling, aching, warmth, or heaviness. Most people report no pain from the needles, just an odd or unusual physical sensation that is different but not unpleasant. From one to twenty needles may be used in a single treatment session, and often the needles are stimulated after insertion by being twisted or heated with a moxibustion stick of smoldering herbs. This will heighten the sensation of chi. Most individual sessions lasts anywhere from about 5 to 60 minutes, depending on the condition being treated as well as the patient's response to the acupuncture. Typically the needles remain in place for twenty to forty minutes.

The number and frequency of treatments will vary with both the practitioner and the illness being addressed, but may range from a single session to several appointments a week, possibly over a period of several months. In general, for pain relief, six sessions should result in measurable results, [2] and if relief is not obtained after ten sessions the treatment should be deemed ineffective. A credible acupuncturist will recognize treatment failure and will not recommend a continuation of therapy. Treatments often become less frequent over time as the condition subsides, though maintenance sessions may be indicated at various intervals. If your condition is chronic and has been for a long period of time (not exactly unheard of for IBS), you may require regularly scheduled treatments over several months.

Acupuncture clinical studies and IBS

At least one study has directly investigated the use of acupuncture versus relaxation therapy in IBS patients.[5] This research found that patients' quality-of-life and gastrointestinal symptom scores were equally improved in both groups, with a statistically significant reduction in abdominal pain. However, when the patients were followed for a 4-week period post-trial period, only in the acupuncture group did pain reduction persist. Furthermore, a significant reduction in stress perception was also observed in the acupuncture group, but not in the relaxation group. The conclusion drawn was that acupuncture is an effective form of treatment for IBS, particularly the pain and stress symptoms, and that its benefits exceed those of standard relaxation treatment.

While it is unquestionable that acupuncture can provide significant pain relief and help minimize other symptoms of IBS as well, from a Western medical standpoint (though certainly not from the traditional Chinese medicine point of view) no one quite knows how or why this is true. From the Western viewpoint, it may be that acupuncture affects the nervous system by stimulating the release of endorphins, naturally produced chemicals in the body that block pain signals in the brain and spinal cord. Research has shown that acupuncture results in changes in the conduction of electromagnetic signals in the brain, an alteration of blood circulation within the brain that increases blood flow to the thalamus (the area associated with relaying pain and other sensory impulses), and measurable differences in the brain's output of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and of inflammation-causing substances such as prostaglandins.

Why these changes occur is still considered a mystery by doctors and scientists who do not hold with the Chinese concept of chi. However, if you're suffering from chronic pain and associated diarrhea or constipation as a result of IBS, odds are you don't care why acupuncture works – just that it does work. It's the end result that counts here, not the underlying reasons for success.

On a related note, you've probably noticed by now that many of the most effective treatments for IBS, from meditation to Tai Chi to acupuncture, have well-established and measurable success rates, but no explanation behind their impressive results. You may be intrigued, you may not care. Personally, I am more than willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the concept of chi and simply accept that, for whatever reasons, these practices are truly effective. I have also been quite unimpressed by the Western approach to IBS, which until very recently dismissed it outright as a psychosomatic problem, and has not yet even come close to thoroughly understanding the underlying dysfunction or developing an effective form of treatment for it – let alone finding a cure. What matters most to me, and probably to you too, is results. So if something helps prevent or alleviate an IBS attack, then it is by definition a valid form of health care for this disorder. While it's certainly preferable to be able to ask and understand the reasons behind a treatment's effectiveness, in these circumstances it fortunately isn't required in order to reap the benefits (though I remain curious).

Acupuncture precautions

Still trying to decide if acupuncture is for you? Precautions are only necessary with this treatment if:

* You have an uncontrolled bleeding disorder or are taking an anticoagulant medication such as Coumadin (warfarin). Acupuncture needles do have the potential to draw blood.

* You are pregnant. The stimulation of certain acupuncture points, particularly those on or near the abdomen, can trigger uterine contractions and could induce premature labor and possibly miscarriage. Tell your acupuncturist if you are pregnant or even just think you may be.

* You have diabetes. Acupuncture should be used on your limbs only with extreme caution, as even small skin punctures in a person with diabetic neuropathy can result in severe infections. If you have any concerns in this area consult your physician.

* You have breast or other implants. Do not have needles placed in the area of the implant.

[1] IBS receives less than 1% of digestive disease research funding through the National Institutes for Health, despite the fact that it is the single most common digestive disorder diagnosis in America (International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders).

[2] NIH Panel. [3] Acupuncture. National Institutes of Health. Consensus Statement 1997 Nov 3-5; 15(5):1-34.

[4] World Health Organization. Viewpoint on acupuncture. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, 1979.

[5] In a randomized, controlled trial of 27 patients with IBS diagnosed by their own criteria, the study treated the patients with acupuncture or relaxation sessions 3 times a week for a period of 2 weeks. A follow-up observation run was then performed for 4 weeks. (Lu B, Hu Y, Tenner S. A randomized controlled trial of acupuncture for irritable bowel syndrome. Program and abstracts of the 65th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology; October 16-18, 2000, New York, NY.)



Information excerpted from The First Year: IBS, Copyright Heather Van Vorous. May not be reproduced without permission.

The Value of Herbs in the Treatment of Cancer

Of all conditions which the herbalist/traditional Chinese medical doctor may treat, cancer represents a major test of the herbal tools we have at our disposal. A common and largely accurate perception of the damaging effects of malignancy is that "if the cancer doesn’t kill you, the biomedical treatments for it will." This statement, while accurate in some regards, doesn’t take into account the growing effectiveness of chemotherapy against many forms of cancer. Determining the effectiveness of biomedicine must be considered within a long-term perspective, however; survival rates are commonly measured in 5- and 10-year intervals, while a "cure" is considered when a cancer survivor has been cancer-free for seven years after cessation of treatment. The issues surrounding human health and the sequelae of malignancy are not as simple as these statistics suggest, however. While some rapidly growing forms of cancer may develop within ten days to two weeks of cancer cell implantation (malignant melanoma, for example), other slower-growing tumors (consider prostate cancer) may take up to ten years to make themselves detectable. To use the term "cured" for a patient who remains cancer-free after seven years is both unrealistic and arbitrary, given the unpredictability of cancer.
Aside from whether or not a cancer survivor is presently ‘cancer-free’, also of consideration is the general state of health of the individual, which oncology tends to disregard. Of primary concern to the oncologist is whether malignancies have redeveloped, not whether conditions exist which may portend the derangement of cellular processes which could ultimately lead to loss of differentiation. This is one of the most appropriate and effective roles the TCM doctor/herbalist can fulfill—to help reestablish an underlying balance in the individual, and to unravel the complex patterns inherent in the body which can, if left untreated, lead to the development of cancer.
Another appropriate role for TCM doctors and advanced herbalists is in the use of herbs as an adjunct to ongoing biomedical treatment for existing cancer. This can be addressed using any or all of three main approaches: 1) to offset the damaging side-effects of radiation and chemotherapy; 2) to benefit the patient’s immune system, which biomedicine overwhelms and supplants with its powerful agents; and 3) to aid in tumor reduction itself, potentially shortening the length of time the patient needs to receive radiation and/or chemotherapy.
Listed below are ten herbs from the Chinese and western herbal traditions which address this third treatment approach--tumor reduction itself, via their 'antineoplastic' action. Consider that different forms of malignancy are treated with different substances, and each individual case may require entirely separate treatment principles, suggesting that anti-neoplastic herb choices must be chosen from appropriate categories of action. Obviously, there are more than 10 herbs with antineoplastic action in the Chinese and western pharmacopeia, but these can be considered a 'jumping off' point for further study; this is my personal intent. Information provided on these herbs is based on both empirical and clinical evidence gathered third-hand; verification of clinical and/or empirical findings is difficult to provide without access to the studies themselves, and no guarantees are made for these herbs’ effectiveness. References for all information is provided below.
Chinese Herbs:
Common Name: Oldenlandia Chinese Name: Bai He She She Cao Latin: Herba Hedyotidis Diffusae/Oldenlandia Diffusae Family: Rubiaceae TCM Category: Clear Heat/Relieve Toxicity Antineoplastic Action(s): --Used in treatment of stomach, esophageal and colon cancer; --Activates reticuloendothelial system and increases phagocytosis by lymphocytes. Also, in high concentrations shows inhibitory affect in vitro on cells from acute lymphocytic and granulocytic leukemia.
Common Name: Selaginaella Chinese Name: Shi Shang Bai Latin: Herba Selaginellae Doederleinii Family: Selaginellaceae TCM Category: Clear Heat/Relieve Toxicity Antineoplastic Action(s): --Mice inoculated with granuloma-180 and injected with Shi Shang Bai showed 40-50% tumor inhibition of tumors; Mice with hepatic cancer lived significantly longer than control group not treated with Shi Shang Bai. --Helpful in treatment of lung and throat cancer, and malignant hydatidiform moles, with remission in 50% of patients. Commonly used in China in treatment of smaller body cancers in nose, throat, lung and liver. When used with chemotherapy and radiation shown to accelerate cancer remissions.
Common Name: Sophora Root Chinese Name: Shan Dou Gen Latin: Radix Sophorae Tonkinensis Family: Leguminaceae TCM Category: Clear Heat/Relieve Toxicity Antineoplastic Action(s): --In doses of 60g/kg had significant effect in treatment of cervical cancer in mice, and an inhibitory affect on sarcoma-180. Used in treatment of acute lymphocytic/granulocytic leukemia, inhibiting dehydrogenase activity and cellular respiration of malignant cells.
Common Name: Zedoania Chinese Name: E Zhu Latin: Rhizoma Curcumae Ezhu Family: Zingeberaceae TCM Category: Invigorate Blood Antineoplastic Action(s): --Inhibits granuloma-180, often combined with San Leng (Rhizoma Sparganii Stoloniferi). –-In China, 80 cases of cervical cancer patients were treated with a solution of Zedoania, which was injected directly into the tumor sites. 30 patients were completely cured, while 15 were found to have a 50% size reduction.
Common Name: Rhubarb Root and Rhizome Chinese Name: Da Huang Latin: Radix et Rhizoma Rhei Family: Polygonaceae TCM Category: Clear Heat/Relieve Toxicity Antineoplastic Action(s): --Injected subcutaneously had a killing effect on neoplastic granulomas in mice. Inhibited growth of melanoma, breast tumor cells and ascitic hepatic carcinoma in humans via the actions of emodin and rhein, major constituents of Da Huang.
Western Herbs:
Common Name: Red Clover Latin: Flos Trifolium pratense Family: Papilionaceae Antineoplastic Action(s): --Red Clover contains isoflavone compounds, such as genistein, which have weak estrogen properties. Various laboratory studies show that these isoflavones may help prevent and combat malignant tumors, especially of the breast and prostate.
Common Name: Pau D’Arco, Lapacho, Taheebo Latin: Tabebuia impestiginosa Family: Rubiaceae Antineoplastic Action(s): --Lapachol and beta-lapachone (known collectively as naphthaquinones) are two primary active compounds in Pau D’Arco. These compounds have anti-cancer/anti-tumor properties, although the effective dosage is considered toxic; Pau D’Arco is commonly used in the treatment of cancer in Central and South America with good results.
Common Name: Mistletoe Latin: Viscum alba Family: Loranthaceae Antineoplastic Action(s): --Contains anti-tumor proteins, and has been shown by current cancer research in Germany to have antineoplastic activity.
Common Name: Cleavers Latin: Galium aparine Family: Rubiaceae Antineoplastic Action(s): --Cleavers is considered the best lymphatic tonic in the western herbal pharmacopoeia, and is both alterative and diuretic. It has a long tradition of use for tumor reduction and lymphatic drainage, especially indicated when cancer has nodal involvement.
Common Name: Sweet Violet Latin: Flos Viola odorata Family: Violaceae Antineoplastic Action(s): --Sweet Violet has a long tradition and reputation as an anti-cancer herb, used especially as a poultice for cancers of the skin. Current scientific research has yet to bear out this reputation in the clinical setting.

By Lawrence Miller

Spring Allergies

For many people Spring and Summer are seasons for allergies. Allergies, or allergic rhinitis, are due to an over-reactivity of the immune system to certain allergens. During Spring and Summer, allergies are generally induced by wind-born tree, grass, or weed pollen, and can cause such symptoms as: sneezing; nasal congestion; runny nose; watery, itchy, or red eyes; headaches; fatigue; and sometimes coughing and wheezing. When allergens and antibodies react in individuals with allergic rhinitis, their nasal mucosa becomes swollen and may obstruct drainage from the sinuses causing sinusitis in many people. Thus, sinus infections are a frequent complication and consequence of allergic rhinitis.
While Spring and Summer are the seasons of the year that bring us outdoors, many people are unable to enjoy these warmer months due to uncomfortable symptoms. Chinese medicine can help bring relief of symptoms, correct imbalances of the immune system, prevent the occurrence of infection, and allow healing of tissues of the sinuses.
From a Chinese point of view, allergic rhinitis is due to a deficiency of the Lung and Kidney's Defensive-Qi systems, combined with retention of chronic "Wind" in the nose.
Allergic rhinitis often starts in early childhood, with a constitutional weakness, but it may also start later in life, with a progressive decline of Kidney-Qi. Lung and Kidney Qi Deficiency is the root of the problem, therefore, with herbal medicine and acupuncture we strengthen and nourish these organs. The manifestation of the disease is Wind invading the Lung channel in the nose. This accounts for the acute attacks. With herbs and acupuncture, we clear the Wind, reduce congestion, and open the nasal passages. It is necessary to treat both the root and the manifestation in order to produce lasting results.
The Western treatment of allergic rhinitis relies mostly on the use of antihistamine agents. Unfortunately, antihistamines only treat the manifestations of the disease and not the root. In addition, they cause side-effects such as dizziness, fatigue, insomnia, nervousness, dryness, and gastro-intestinal disturbance.
Chinese medicine offers allergy sufferers a way to strengthen their bodies and significantly reduce their symptoms, without unpleasant side effects. You do not have to spend another season living with allergies.

By Carrie Tanenbaum

Acupuncture May Ease Chronic Back Pain

May 11, 2009 --
Study Shows Acupuncture Trumps Standard Care for Back Pain Relief by Louise Chang, MD

The ancient technique of acupuncture helps relieve chronic back pain better
than standard care such as medications or physical therapy, according to a new study.
Even more surprising, all three acupuncture techniques tested -- including a "sham" technique with toothpicks and no skin puncturing -- worked better than the usual care given for the problem.
"Acupuncture-like treatments had a positive effect overall on people's chronic back pain," says study researcher Dan Cherkin, PhD, a senior investigator at Group Health Center for Health Studies in Seattle. "It didn't matter if you inserted the needle or superficially poked [the skin]."
That finding, Cherkin says, leads to more speculation about how the centuries-old technique actually works.
The study is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Cherkin and colleagues assigned 638 men and women with chronic low back pain who had never before had acupuncture to one of four groups:
• Individualized acupuncture group. Patients received acupuncture treatment based on a customized prescription for acupuncture points.
• Standardized acupuncture group. Patients received an acupuncture treatment considered effective by experts for chronic low back pain.
• Simulated acupuncture group. Patients received a treatment that mimics needle acupuncture but used a toothpick in a needle guide tube without penetrating the skin.
• Usual care group. Patients continued whatever they were doing, such as taking pain medicine or undergoing physical therapy.
Acupuncture treatments were given two times a week for three weeks, then once a week for four weeks. The researchers measured back pain-related problems and dysfunction at eight weeks, a half year, and one year after the treatments.
Participants in the trial, funded by the National Institutes of Health, were told only that the researchers were comparing three different methods of stimulating acupuncture points.
Acupuncture vs. 'Usual Care'

"The individualized acupuncture did not provide any benefit over the standardized acupuncture," Cherkin tells WebMD. "The simulated acupuncture, which did stimulate the standardized points, also had the same effect. All three did better than usual care."
Those who got any of the acupuncture treatments were more likely than those getting usual care to have a "meaningful" improvement in the dysfunction scale, which reflects the ability to engage in activities of daily living. Overall, 60% of the acupuncture-treated patients, but just 39% of the usual-care group patients, had meaningful improvements in dysfunction, the researchers found.
That translated to those in the acupuncture group being able to do more daily activities, such as going to social functions or performing household tasks, Cherkin tells WebMD.
After a year, those in the acupuncture groups were also more likely than the usual-care group to continue to have improvement in dysfunction, with up to 65% of the acupuncture-treated patients but just 50% of the usual-care patients still reporting improvements. But the improvement waned over time.

The finding that the simulated acupuncture was as good as needle acupuncture is puzzling, Cherkin admits. "What we can say is, it is not essential to achieve a benefit to insert the needle through the skin," he says.
Why this is so is not known, he says. "One possibility is there is a physiological chain of events that occurs when you insert a needle or just stimulate the skin superficially. They may or may not be the same."
Another possibility, he says, is "believing you are getting a treatment that will help your back pain" helps it.
And, he adds, not all participants benefited from the acupuncture, whatever the form. Still, he says, "acupuncture is a reasonable option" for those with low back pain. Americans spend at least $37 billion a year for medical care for back pain, Cherkin notes in his report.
'Acupuncture Can Help'
"Although this study has shed some light [on back pain treatment], it is also confusing, I think," says Arya Nick Shamie, MD, associate professor of spine surgery at the University of California David Geffen School of Medicine and a spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
"For the most part, acupuncture is very safe," says Shamie, who has recommended it to his patients with chronic back pain. However, he adds, "this paper has confused the issue even further as to how acupuncture works." Even so, he says, "what it does show is acupuncture can help patients."
The good results with the "toothpick" acupuncture may very well be a placebo effect, Shamie says. "Even going and talking to your doctor could have a strong, positive effect on your health," he says. "When people have chronic illness, they want to feel that someone cares for them, and that basically unloads the mind of the burden of disease."