Besides being stressful to manage, damaging to the health due to the drug side effects, and expensive in terms of surgical medical costs and loss of work, chronic low back pain can be so debilitating for both the affected person and the supportive family. The good news is that it can be relieved with acupuncture, a surprisingly inexpensive, low side- effect, relaxing, and simple treatment option.
Acupuncture Alleviates Body Pain and Soothes the Mind
In the field of pain management, acupuncture is gaining momentum and because of its effectiveness its mode of operation is being carefully studied by modern science. The National Institutes for Health and Clinical Excellence has actually recommended acupuncture as a first-line treatment for chronic low back pain, due to the fact that patients who have received treatments experienced much better outcomes compared to conventional therapies.
A specific clinical study observed the results of chronic low back pain patients given a total of 10 treatment sessions of acupuncture. At the end of the study, 97% of them claimed acupuncture helped them relax and were willing to undergo more treatments in the future. How can the insertion of needles bring about pain relief for chronic low back pain and how come this treatment produces much better results than the use of NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs)? When one examines the brain during acupuncture treatment, the MRI shows sensorimotor cortical network activation and at the same time a limbic-paralimbic neocortical network deactivation, which simply means that acupuncture turns on and shuts down the pathways of the brain altering the state of the brain which prevents the pain signals from reaching the brain.
Acupuncture Produces Much Better Results than Conventional Care
Acupuncture exhibited superior results over the conventional modalities of exercise, physical therapy, and drugs according to a study that recorded the results of acupuncture in chronic low back pain treatment in Overland Park. Treatment was done twice a week lasting for half a year. The group given acupuncture showed a 47% improvement in function and pain compared to the 27% improvement gained by the conventional group. One other study showed the betterment of their chronic low back pain after treated with acupuncture for eight weeks. The treatment results showed an improvement of 4.4 points compared to the results of the usual care group that tallied only 2.1 points. Another study observed two groups each receiving one type of treatment plan for 12 weeks. One group underwent a 12-week exercise program alone while the other group was given a 12-week session of auricular acupuncture coupled with exercise. After six months of treatment, the results of the Oswestry Disability Questionnaire of the acupuncture and exercise group showed a greater mean improvement of 10.7, which was superior to the 6.7% of the exercise group. The acupuncture and exercise group also gained the benefits of greater mean improvements in fear-avoidance beliefs, bothersomeness, severity of low back pain, and, in quality of life.
The results reinforce the thesis that acupuncture can help chronic low back pain sufferers. This treatment is a pleasant, effective, and safe way to experience peace of mind and may be the answer to your loved one’s chronically-aching low back.