Acupuncture for Knee Osteoarthritis

If you've tried all the pain medicines, the heat packs, and you still have aching knees, there's new evidence that acupuncture might help with your osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of joint disease, and the most common location for osteoarthritis is, in fact, the knee. And with our aging baby boomers, more and more of us are going to have to deal with this problem, which is hardly insignificant.

Alternative medicine like acupuncture could help knee osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of joint disease, and the most common location for osteoarthritis is, in fact, the knee. And with our aging baby boomers, more and more of us are going to have to deal with this problem, which is hardly insignificant.

"I used to walk around the park several times and that was like two miles, and then I couldn't do it and that broke my heart", says Lee Giovanniello who like the millions of folks is suffering from osteoarthritis of the knee, commonly known as the old age, wear and tear arthritis. As in Lee’s case, knee osteoarthritis can lead to pain, loss of mobility, and overall decreased ability to function in day to day life.

I'm very good at dancing and I couldn't do that, and it really hurt and I'm not going to give in to it, so, that's when I came to Michael. Michael Gaeta, a licensed acupuncturist who is treating Lee, says, "Acupuncture is an aspect of Chinese medicine. There is an energy system that underlines the body, the mind and the emotions and unbalances in this energy system will result in illness or disease or some type of disharmony somewhere in the person's life".

Acupuncture has been used for knee osteoarthritis by many, yet, the true benefits are controversial. Previous studies have failed to show a benefit of acupuncture in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee. But the authors of this study say that the designs of those studies were flawed. And that in fact when combined with an anti-inflammatory, acupuncture is in fact effective.

In this research, both groups got an anti-inflammatory, but one group received real acupuncture, and the other got fake acupuncture. After 12 weeks, those receiving real acupuncture had a greater reduction in pain and stiffness, and had overall an improved quality of life. "Acupuncture treatment is a whole, it's a systemic treatment. We'll use points in a variety of areas in the body to help strengthen the body's ability to heal itself and the point in the opposite elbow, so it was her left knee that was bothering her, I used a point in her right elbow which is often helpful at benefiting the opposite knee", states Gaeta.

Lee exclaims, "After the first treatment, oh I felt great, I walked out of here dancing, and I said Michael you did it!" Lee says she needs to keep coming every two months or so for maintenance, but she says, "acupuncture did the trick. I can dance! I do the bikes and ya know it's great!"

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