Having back pain is one of the most frequent reasons in the western world people seek health care. Millions of working days and countless hours of activity and fun are lost each year because of back pain.

Acupuncture Back Pain Treatment virtues are still being debated by the medical community, with many experts stating that acupuncture’s pain relief benefits are purely the placebo effect. Two current studies on acupuncture for back pain and arthritis show that this alternative pain treatment has real effects that exceed the pain relief benefits of both medication and physical therapy.

Back Pain Acupuncture improves chronic back pain better than standard care such as medications or physical therapy, according to a new study. All three acupuncture techniques tested including a “sham” method with toothpicks and no skin puncturing worked better than the usual care given for the problem.

Acupuncture-like treatments had a positive effect overall on people’s chronic back pain researcher Dan Cherkin, PhD, investigator for Group Health Center for Health Studies in Seattle. “It didn’t matter if you inserted the needle or superficially punched the skin.”

That finding, Cherkin says, leads to more conjecture about how the centuries-old technique actually works.

In a Swedish hospital study, in patients who encountered chronic low back pain, doctors concluded that acupuncture provided long term pain relief. They also saw improvement in activity levels, better sleep, and consumption of significantly fewer pain medications for the acupuncture group as compared with the group receiving a placebo treatment.

Treating Back Pain With Acupuncture

One of the principal causes of back pain are sprains from the overstretching one or more of the ligaments in the back and other strains. This can come about from an injury, poor posture, or improper lifting. Another source of back pain comes from a herniated disc. A herniated disc is a disc that bulges out from its place between two vertebrae.

Sciatica is also a principal form of back pain. Sciatica is a term used to describe pain that extends down into the buttocks and leg which comes from an irritation of a larger nerve in the lumbar spine called the sciatic nerve. Sciatica can accompany sprains, strains, herniated discs as well as back pain stemming from other sources.

Acupuncture For Back Pain continues to gain popularity in this country because it is an effective successful treatment of acute and chronic backache. Acute pain can often be cleared up in a few sessions. More treatments may be needed if there is an underlying deficiency, or reoccurring problem, or sciatica.

Tags: acupuncture for back pain, acupuncture's pain relief benefits, back pain treatment, treating back pain with acupuncture