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Acupuncture provides pain relief and improves function for people with osteoarthritis of the knee and serves as an effective complement to standard care. This landmark study was funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), both components of the National Institutes of Health. The findings of the study--the longest and largest randomized, controlled phase III clinical trial of acupuncture ever conducted--were published in the December 21, 2004, issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. This is great news for arthritis patients that have been looking for alternatives since limited pain relief options are available after the recall of Vioxx and expected recall of Celebrex, plus continued problems with Bextra and Aleve.
The multi-site study team, including rheumatologists and licensed acupuncturists, enrolled 570 patients, aged 50 or older with osteoarthritis of the knee. Participants had significant pain in their knee the month before joining the study, but had never experienced acupuncture, had not had knee surgery in the previous 6 months, and had not used steroid or similar injections. Participants were randomly assigned to receive one of three treatments: acupuncture, sham acupuncture, or participation in a control group that followed the Arthritis Foundation's self-help course for managing their condition. Patients continued to receive standard medical care from their primary physicians, including anti-inflammatory medications, such as COX-2 selective inhibitors, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and opioid pain relievers.
"For the first time, a clinical trial with sufficient rigor, size, and duration has shown that acupuncture reduces the pain and functional impairment of osteoarthritis of the knee," said Stephen E. Straus, M.D., NCCAM Director. "These results also indicate that acupuncture can serve as an effective addition to a standard regimen of care and improve quality of life for knee osteoarthritis sufferers. NCCAM has been building a portfolio of basic and clinical research that is now revealing the power and promise of applying stringent research methods to ancient practices like acupuncture."
"More than 20 million Americans have osteoarthritis. This disease is one of the most frequent causes of physical disability among adults," said Stephen I. Katz, M.D., Ph.D., NIAMS Director. "Thus, seeking an effective means of decreasing osteoarthritis pain and increasing function is of critical importance."
During the course of the study, led by Brian M. Berman, M.D., Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine and Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, 190 patients received true acupuncture and 191 patients received sham acupuncture for 24 treatment sessions over 26 weeks. Sham acupuncture is a procedure designed to prevent patients from being able to detect if needles are actually inserted at treatment points. In both the sham and true acupuncture procedures, a screen prevented patients from seeing the knee treatment area and learning which treatment they received. In the education control group, 189 participants attended six, 2-hour group sessions over 12 weeks based on the Arthritis Foundation's Arthritis Self-Help Course, a proven, effective model.
On joining the study, patients' pain and knee function were assessed using standard arthritis research survey instruments and measurement tools, such as the Western Ontario McMasters Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC). Patients' progress was assessed at 4, 8, 14, and 26 weeks. By week 8, participants receiving acupuncture were showing a significant increase in function and by week 14 a significant decrease in pain, compared with the sham and control groups. These results, shown by declining scores on the WOMAC index, held through week 26. Overall, those who received acupuncture had a 40 percent decrease in pain and a nearly 40 percent improvement in function compared to baseline assessments.
"This trial, which builds upon our previous NCCAM-funded research, establishes that acupuncture is an effective complement to conventional arthritis treatment and can be successfully employed as part of a multidisciplinary approach to treating the symptoms of osteoarthritis," said Dr. Berman.
Acupuncture--the practice of inserting thin needles into specific body points to improve health and well-being--originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. In 2002, acupuncture was used by an estimated 2.1 million U.S. adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2002 National Health Interview Survey. The acupuncture technique that has been most studied scientifically involves penetrating the skin with thin, solid, metallic needles that are manipulated by the hands or by electrical stimulation. In recent years, scientific inquiry has begun to shed more light on acupuncture's possible mechanisms and potential benefits, especially in treating painful conditions such as arthritis.
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Danielle just returned from a trip to Japan, but what she did not do was to research on the Net what to do to protect herself before going there. Despite being the safest country in the world otherwise, Japan still has a few sick men and she unfortunately ran into one of them. She tells MYNIPPON, "This Japanese dude in my train touched my chest and pretended like it was an accident and then he took pictures of my chest with his cell phone. I agree with you that Japan is a wonderful place and experiences like that suck."
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People who are under short-term but intense pressure to meet deadlines run a six times higher risk of having a heart attack within the next 24 hours, according to a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Remember those bosses who think that the only way to get more work out of you is to put an impossible deadline? What they are trying to do is to essentially kill you. So while you look for another boss, you also need to watch out for your own health.
Men were 80 percent more likely to have a heart attack if they had experienced a conflict at work within the preceding 12 months, and the risk increased further if they felt strongly affected, according to the study.
Read tips on how to eliminate stress from your life and how to take a green tea bath to de-stress.
And then there are men who not only wear thongs themselves and love women who do. Looks like this is the best time ever for thong manufacturers.
No wonder we have received dozens of questions from MYNIPPON fashion channel fans. We have tried to answer all the questions from our readers in an article on thong styles for women.
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