Acupuncture: More Effective in Treating Lower Back Pain?

Filed in archive Treatment on September 27, 2007

We all may have to drop that pain relieving pill over six months of acupuncture as it appears to be more effective than conventional therapy in treating low back pain.




Both sham acupuncture and traditional Chinese verum acupuncture appear to be effective in treating low back pain, suggests a new German study reported in the Sept. 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine (one of the JAMA/Archives Journals).

Conventional therapy is often a combination of medication, physical therapy and exercise.

The study authors concluded:

"The superiority of both forms of acupuncture suggests a common underlying mechanism that may act on pain generation, transmission of pain signals or processing of pain signals by the central nervous system and that is stronger than the action mechanism of conventional therapy.

Acupuncture gives physicians a promising and effective treatment option for chronic low back pain, with few adverse effects or contraindications. The improvements in all primary and secondary outcome measures were significant and lasted long after completion of treatment."

As treatment for low back pain, acupuncture is still controversial even though the procedure is being increasingly used as an alternative therapy.

But then that is the wonder of any Asian procedure for treatment, I guess there is a factor of believing in it for it to work best. And there is where the controversy and debate starts, there are too much cynics in the world.

Find more details from JAMA and Archives Journals.