Acupuncture For Knee Pain: Relieving Pain & Restoring Function
A meta-analysis research article in a recent Reumatology journal article concluded that acupuncture is effective in relieving pain and assisting function for chronic knee pain. The authors made some impressive statements for a mainstream journal:
“…acupuncture is superior to placebo for chronic knee pain…and can therefore be considered an evidence-based option for managing patients.”; “…the amount of high quality, long-term evidence for acupuncture is impressive when compared with the evidence for many other interventions for chronic knee pain. For example, recent reviews could find no long-term data to support the use of oral or topical NSAIDs.”…It seems increasingly unlikely that acupuncture can be dismissed as ‘just a placebo’.”
To summarize, the research study provided clear evidence that acupuncture for knee pain is clearly more effective than placebo. In addition, acupuncture is a safe method when used in the hands of trained practitioners, so ultimately should be taken into consideration as an evidence-based option for managing patients.
Acupuncture For Knee Pain: More Recent Research
There are a wide variety of more recent research studies into the effectiveness of acupuncture for knee pain that clearly show its benefits.
For one, a 2016 meta-analysis study shows how acupuncture for knee pain improves functioning and provides short-term relief of knee pain caused by osteoarthritis. In addition, a 2017 study concluded that Acupuncture for knee pain (in particular, 4 types of knee pain) was superior to sham as well as no acupuncture control for each pain condition analyzed in the study.
In Health,
George Mandler
Licensed Acupuncturist & Nutritionist Dietitian
Acupuncture, Chinese Medicine, & Nutrition
Boston, Jamaica Plain, Brookline, Massachusetts