Acupuncture May Reduce Pain in Sciatica Patients
Acupuncture has been used to treat pain for thousands of years. But online you'll find a lot of people asking the same question: Does it work?
Some people will tell you that, yes, it really does. But experts say more research is needed to find out about the effects of acupuncture.
In China, researchers have been looking at the impact of acupuncture on sciatica, which affects the legs.
They did their research using 216 patients who had chronic sciatica caused by a herniated disk in their backs.
The research team compared the effects of real acupuncture and "sham" acupuncture.
That meant half of the participants were treated with genuine acupuncture. The other half were treated with acupuncture needles, but in parts of the body where they're not thought to have an effect.
Participants were treated 10 times over four weeks. The people who took part were not told which group they were in.
The study found that people who had the genuine acupuncture felt less leg pain after four weeks and after one year, compared to people who had the sham acupuncture.
The genuine acupuncture group also reported improved function, meaning they were able to move more easily.
Those who had sham acupuncture did also report lower levels of pain and improved function, however — but not nearly as much as the real acupuncture group.
Some experts have long believed that acupuncture works as a placebo, and that it's not clear how it improves pain.
However, people all around the world say it works for them, and other studies have found it may be able to improve back pain and headaches, among many other things.
And the researchers in China said their results suggest that acupuncture could be used to treat people with chronic sciatica.
