By: Theresa Russell for Back1Low back pain occurs at a lifetime rate of 70-85 percent and is the number 2 complaint of patients. People often try a variety of treatments with varying results. A recently completed German study shows that the age-old Chinese therapy of acupuncture offers significant relief for people with lower back pain. More than 1,000 patients were divided into three groups based on the treatments that they would receive: acupuncture, fake acupuncture, or traditional Western medical treatments.
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How to Choose an Acupuncturist:
Get recommendations from your physician or friends.
Consider the qualifications of your provider (Certification is required in 40 states.)
Ask about the type of acupuncture that will be performed. There are many different types of acupuncture.
Discuss expected outcomes with your provider. Discuss your treatment plan.
Confirm that the acupuncturist uses clean needle technique.
If one type of acupuncture doesn’t work for you, consider another style. | |
Patients had the option of participating in a study that examined the negative effects of acupuncture. Those patients expecting either positive results from acupuncture or negative results from traditional treatments were excluded from study. Patients with a history of previous treatment with acupuncture for low back pain or any other condition were also excluded along with patients with spinal disease and joint disorders.
Patient treatment involved 10 sessions of 30 minutes each in their respective group.The acupuncture group received treatment following the principles of traditional Chinese medicine. The sham acupuncture group received a treatment that involved needle placement in areas other than those prescribed by Chinese medicine with a shallow depth of needle insertion. The traditional group engaged in a variety of therapies including: drugs, physical therapy, exercise, heat therapy, electrotherapy, massage, and back pain management education. Ninety-five percent of the patients in this group received analgesic drugs.
After six months the patients reported on their pain levels: 47.6% of the Chinese acupuncture group, 44.2% of the fake acupuncture group and 27.4% of the traditional therapy felt improvement from their respective treatments. These results indicate that acupuncture may be a viable alternative to traditional therapies.
A surprising result of this study was the effectiveness of the fake acupuncture treatment. Possible explanations for the amount of pain relief from both traditional acupuncture and fake acupuncture are that it might affect pain signals or transmission of pain. The placement or depth of the needles may not need to be as accurate as previously expected. Researchers speculate that perhaps certain acupuncture points don’t necessarily coordinate with specific responses. They suspect that acupuncture might trigger an underlying mechanism that handles pain in different ways; either through the way pain is generated, transmitted, or processed.
Whatever the reason, acupuncture presents itself as a viable alternative to those suffering from low back pain. Considering that almost twice the number of people received relief from the acupuncture treatment as opposed to the traditional therapies, those patients frustrated by the lack of improvement in their lower back pain should consider acupuncture to complement or replace their traditional therapy. Studies have not yet been done to evaluate the effectiveness of a combination of traditional and acupuncture therapies in relation to back pain, nor have they been done on those with congenital spine abnormalities or other spinal conditions. For those with nagging lower back pain that results from daily activities or seems to have no known cause; it looks like acupuncture is a credible option to be explored.
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