Sep 24, 2007 7:17 pm US/Eastern
Patients Get Point After Acupuncture Treatments
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MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Every year, thousands of people across South Florida seek an alternative to traditional medicine to treat a variety of discomforts and pain.
Zone Horton said when she injured her back in a car accident, pills and special exercises did nothing to east the pain.
"Nothing seemed to work," said Horton, "I couldn't lay on my right side, I couldn't sleep on my right side."
Horton said she was willing to try just about anything that would offer relief, so that is when she turned to acupuncture.
"It worked," said Horton, "I don't know how, but the pain finally went away."
Now a new study published in the "Archives of Internal Medicine" finds many back pain sufferers might find relief by 'sticking' with acupuncture.
CBS4's Dr. Sean Kenniff says the German study followed more than a thousand people with chronic lower back pain. One group was treated with drugs, physical therapy and exercises. A second group was treated with traditional Chinese acupuncture. And a third group was treated with so-called 'sham acupuncture,' where needles are placed in the skin but not as deeply, and not at the proper points.
After six months, almost half the patients (47.6%) who used traditional acupuncture and nearly as many of those who received the 'sham' treatment (44.2%) reported significant pain relief. Only about a quarter of those who received traditional medical treatment (27%) reported pain relief.
"People who had the acupuncture were twice as likely to get results than those who did not have the acupuncture," said Dr. Carmion Pope with the Sunrise Medical Group.
Pope, a medical doctor who also uses acupuncture as a treatment, believes acupuncture helps by increasing levels of endorphins which are the body's natural pain killers.
"By doing the acupuncture, people are getting that endorphin release, they're getting that mind-body connection," said Pope, "and that's what makes it work."
Horton says after several acupuncture treatments she was virtually pain free and able to go back to work.
Dr. Pope can be reached at 1-866-915-5689.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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