by Dr. Alan Magner
Acupuncture offers relief for Fibromyalgia
Acupuncture is known to be a useful and often effective approach to help relieve many of the symptoms of fibromyalgia. And it enables pain relief without the potential side effects of the various medicines often recommended.
What is Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder characterized by painful tender points scattered around the body, often associated with muscle stiffness, poor sleep, headaches, chronic fatigue, neck and shoulder pain, irritible bowel, anxiety, depression, and mental “fogginess”. It is more common in women, increases with age, can be very debilitating, and may last for years. Fibromyalgia is treated with various western medicines aimed at specific symptoms, but they often don’t work very well.
The painful points around the body are “trigger points”, which we all have now and then to a mild degree. “Trigger points” are small local areas of muscle pain which may become more active or sore following any trauma. People with fibromyalgia seem to have an excessive number of trigger points, and these points are much more sensitive or “active” than usual. One point may set off others. These folks also seem to have a much lower pain tolerance than average, probably due to altered neuro-chemical sensitivity and reactivity in the central nervous system (spine and brain). Emotional issues, such as anxiety and depression, may result from these chemical changes and may perpetuate all the other symptoms.
Proven Help for Symptom Relief
A number of clinical studies have evaluated acupuncture’s role in treating fibromyalgia. In 1998 the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a consensus statement concluding that acupuncture may be a helpful addition in pain relief when treating fibromyalgia.
A very well-done study recently performed and published at the Mayo Clinic (Mayo Clinic Proceedings, June 2006, Vol. 81, Number 6, pp. 749-757), evaluated 50 patients with confirmed fibromyalgia. Half of these were treated with acupuncture (6 sessions over 2-3 weeks), and half were treated with “sham” acupuncture (i.e. no real needle insertion, but couldn’t tell the difference). At the end of the trial all patients completed several standardized pain surveys, and then again at 1 and 6 months after the trial. The treated acupuncture group had significant improvement in almost all symptoms (pain, fatigue, anxiety, sleep, stiffness, depression, and overall well-being) compared to the sham (control) group. More pain relief, better pain tolerance, fewer pain triggers resulted in improved life for patients with fibromyalgia.
Acupuncture works
Acupuncture is a proven alternative way of healing for many medical problems that have not responded well to standard western medical therapy, and it has a 5,000 year history of success.
