Osteoarthritis remedies

Can acupuncture relieve arthritis pain? The quacks will tell you it can’t – but it’s easy to find a sufferer who says it does. So who do you believe?

There are two big problems with treating rheumatoid or osteoarthritis with acupuncture:

• Firstly (and conveniently for the quacks), clinical tests are thin on the ground.
• Secondly, if you do want to take the leap of faith, it’s not cheap.

But dig around a little and you’ll soon feel the ground swell of sufferers who all swear by acupuncture.

And what’s more – more and more tests are coming to light suggesting acupuncture may well relieve your rheumatoid or osteoarthritis pain.

The main problem with clinical tests has always been the size – the small numbers of participants always gave doubters room to manoeuvre. But…

One American study of 570 patients, aged 50 or older with osteoarthritis of the knee, showed a 40% decrease in pain – and 40% increase in movement with acupuncture.

Every patient in the test had suffered significant knee pain before the trial, but had never experienced acupuncture.

At random, the patients were given one of three treatments: genuine acupuncture, ’sham’ acupuncture, or a self-help course teaching patients how to manage their own condition.

Every participant in the 26 week trial continued receiving anti-inflammatory drugs and pain relievers.

Now here’s where it gets interesting.

By the eighth week, the genuine acupuncture patients were showing a significant increase in mobility compared with the sham acupuncture and self-help groups.

By week 14, the genuine acupuncture patients were also experiencing a significant decrease in pain.

Overall, pain was reduced by around 40% and mobility improved by around 40% for the patients receiving acupuncture.

Now, you’re probably reading this because your arthritis is becoming more and more painful. Just my opinion, but if your purse strings can take a few treatments, I’d give it a go.

If you don’t suffer from arthritis, you probably know somebody that does.

What’s more, there are just as many out there who just put their aches and pains down to getting old – they don’t even know they have arthritis.

So with an increasing number of us having to battle against it, it’s no surprise people explore every avenue they can.

Medically your options are limited: drugs or surgery.

So it’s no wonder people look to alternative therapies and diet – especially when you can feel the differences first hand and experience some real pain relief.

There’s plenty in the herbalist’s war chest that can fend off your pain, not to mention other treatments, like acupuncture.

In fact, although any scientific evidence is still thin on the ground, what there is suggests acupuncture as a treatment likely to give you pain relief and slow down your arthritis.

Off course, the medical profession dismisses this as ‘complete quackery’. But, with drugs and surgery their only answers, you’d be mad to not explore anything you feel has substance. The drugs have side effects, and surgery isn’t fun.

I never tried acupuncture for my right hip – a certain type of magnet patches and a diet big in avocados did the trick – but it was certainly going to be my next port of call.

Please do drop me a mail if try acupuncture – I’d love to hear from you.