Arthritis Treatment Guide

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The effectiveness of acupuncture as alternative treatment for Osteoarthritis, in lessening the pain of osteoarthritis is the most debated topic in these days. People who believe traditional methods are ready to accept it as an alternative remedy. But people, who look at the modern science before making their decisions, still can not found enough evidence to accept that.

Acupuncture is an ancient method of treatment in which thin needles are inserted into specific body points of patient to improve health. It is originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. Chinese believe that an energy called Qi flows along channels called meridians in our body. The basic idea behind this treatment is that we can cause or decrease illness by changing pattern of this flow. By use of needles acupuncture practitioners can block or stimulate these channels. Some experts also believe that the technique may influence the body’s electromagnetic fields.

This difference is caused by the unsophisticated clinical trails conducted in this area. The majority of the trials were of a poor quality with severe methodological flaws. These included lack of randomization, blinding and statistical testing, small group sizes, and diagnostic criteria for osteoarthritis and outcome measures were not well defined. However the latest studies conducted on much larger group of patients have some concrete results. According to them acupuncture is alternative treatment for osteoarthritis and appears to alleviate pain and thus improve mobility and function, do not cure or prevent osteoarthritis, but nevertheless they are a very useful adjunct to other therapies and probably much less damaging than non steroidal anti-inflammatory.

These findings suggest that acupuncture may be useful as a complementary therapy for people who are already on standard treatments, but may not give you a full relief. Experts in this area say that treating osteoarthritis with acupuncture should be seen as a long term process, especially if the condition has been present for many years. Often osteoarthritis is associated with considerable muscle weakness or problems with the tendons and ligaments. These are a result of inability to exercise caused by high levels of pain. Bones may also become weak when not stressed, leading to osteopenia or osteoporosis. Rehabilitation involves improving range of motion as well as strength, and this is a process which cannot be hurried.

In some situations acupuncture may improve the response to Western drugs at lower dosages, as well as reducing the side effects commonly seen with pharmaceutical drugs. As acupuncture offers to reduce the sufferings of arthritis as alternative treatment at a reasonable cost and with a minimum of risk and side effects, we hope that experts will find more concrete evidences of its effectiveness.

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