Acupuncture for pain management
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The idea of being pierced by needles doesn’t appeal to everyone, but according to Jason Busse, an epidemiologist, at McMaster University’s National Pain Institute, it may offer some relief to chronic pain sufferers, “the simple action of putting a needle into someone appears to generate some aspect of pain relief.” How much is the question.
Daniel Agostinelli practices acupuncture and teaches the therapy. He says modern acupuncture triggers contractions in the muscles that help heal tissue, “It’ll allow the tissue to relax, it will take the pain away, you’ll get better blood profusion, better oxygen, better metabolic processes happening at that area, even at that local site where the needle is inserted.”
The treatment has allowed his patient, Gino Capolongo, to return to work as a custodian after taking time off for pain, “if I do like this, it hurts. Since I’ve been coming here- it’s been about a year, once a week- it makes it a lot better. I can cope with it much better.”
Many people experience some degree of relief with acupuncture but Dr. Ramesh Zacharias, who heads the Michael G. Degroote Pain Clinic at Hamilton Health Sciences, says it’s important for patients to set clear expectations before starting a complimentary therapy, “if you can’t set a limit to say, i will try this alternative therapy for four weeks, eight weeks, twelve weeks. and if it doesn’t work, i’m going to call it a day, you could end up spending a lot of money chasing dreams.”
Busse says research has shown that when compared to a placebo treatment, the benefit of acupuncture is modest, “So acupuncture versus care as usual, you see a larger effect. when you try it against an acupuncture where people think they’ve had the treatment but they haven’t, the effect is.”still statistically significant, but it tends to get a lot smaller.”
Still, both pain experts say it’s okay if part of the benefit patients experience comes from the placebo effect. The say that by getting enough pain relief to resume most of their daily activities, a patient’s improved mobility and mood will contribute to further reduction in pain.
