ACUPRESSURE contro ACUPUNCTURE : chi vince? Un articolo interessante, in inglese (Reuters)
REUTERS/Yuriko
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CHICAGO
(Reuters) - Acupuncture brought more relief to people with back pain
than standard treatments, whether it was done with a toothpick or a
real needle, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a study that raises
new questions about how acupuncture works.
For
many patients, that benefit lasted for a year, the team reported in
the Archives of Internal Medicine.
“Our
study shows that you don’t need to stick needles into people to get
the same effect,” said Dr. Daniel Cherkin of Group Health Center
for Health Studies in Seattle, who led the study.
“Historically,
some types of acupuncture have used non-penetrating needles. Such
treatments may involve physiological effects that make a clinical
difference,” Karen Sherman of Group Health, who worked on the
study, said in a statement.
The
team, wanted to study the effects of different types of acupuncture
in a large, carefully controlled study of 638 patients with chronic
low back pain.
They
divided patients into several groups. One got seven weeks of
standardized acupuncture treatment known to be effective in back
pain. Another group got an individually prescribed acupuncture
treatment.
A
third group was treated using a toothpick in a needle guide tube that
did not pierce the skin as regular acupuncture does, but targeting
the correct acupuncture “points”.
A
fourth group just got standard medical treatment, which included
medication and physical therapy.
After
eight weeks, 60 percent of the patients who got any type of
acupuncture reported significant improvement in their ability to
function compared with those who got standard medical care alone.
But
there was no significant difference in the pain relief people got
from the acupuncture using needles or from toothpicks.
The
researchers said there is some evidence that even needles were used
2,000 years ago in acupuncture treatment, and some imaging studies
have shown that “superficial and deep needling of an acupuncture
point elicited similar blood oxygen level-dependent responses,” the
team wrote.
Another
study even found that lightly touching the skin can induce some
emotional and hormonal reactions, which could explain the benefit,
they wrote.
Or,
it may simply be the experience of visiting an acupuncturist for
treatments that helps.
Regardless
of how it worked, they said acupuncture appears to be a relatively
safe and painless way of easing an aching back, especially when
traditional medicine alone fails.
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