Acupuncture and Fibromyalgia

There is new hope for the millions of americans suffering from fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is a disorder that causes muscle pain, stiffness and fatigue for unknown reasons. It affects between three and six percent of Americans, mainly women. Treating the disorder using western medicine can be frustrating. This is why many are now turning to old, eastern medicine for an answer.

Alternative medicine like acupuncture could hold hope for millions of Americans suffering from fibromyaglia. Fibromyalgia is a disorder that causes muscle pain, stiffness and fatigue for unknown reasons. It affects between three and six percent of Americans, mainly women. Treating the disorder using western medicine can be frustrating. This is why many are now turning to old, eastern medicine for an answer.

"I was debilitated for about a year. Swollen joints muscle aches, my whole body was pain..Chronic pain every day." Lisa Suarez has fibromyalgia. She even had to have someone take care of her for a year. Medications didn’t work. So she has turned to acupuncture. New research out of the Mayo Clinic supports the use of acupuncture for symptoms typical for fibromyalgia. After completion of the treatments, patients were unable to guess whether they were in the acupuncture group or control group. Those getting acupuncture had marked improvement in their fibromyaglia symptoms.

The largest benefit was observed 1-month following treatment. Still, a study released a month ago says acupuncture is no more effective than a fake acupuncture at controlling pain. It leaves a lot of questions, including, how in the world does acupuncture work to control pain, if it indeed does?

Dr. Charles Kim is a western trained physical medicine physician who is also trained in acupuncture. He says, "This is the billion dollar question. But one thing I’ve noticed is that I’m getting results with patients. These are patients who have been through most any other specialty or other physicians and really they’re told there’s nothing more we can do for you and live with the pain."

Dr. Kim believes these studies, both supporting and debunking acupuncture for pain control, are problematic. He says, comparing it to a fake acupuncture can’t be done. "It’s very difficult to measure acupuncture in the western sense that we know it, meaning a randomized control trial. If an acupuncture needle was placed in the hand, patients describe it as thought their hands are paralyzed. It’s heavy like it never been before. You can’t control for that."

It’s believed that acupuncture works on energy channels in the body called xi. Dr. Kim says the thinking goes that when the channels get blocked that’s when disease occurs. Using acupuncture in distinct points in the body stimulates that energy.