Back pain has a huge impact on a person. It is one of the most common reasons to call out of work in fact. Acupuncture has been used for back pain for millennia and has been gaining acceptance as an effective and safe treatment.
Within recent years, the New England Journal of Medicine has written in favor of acupuncture for back pain. The authors, all respected and established researchers, carefully analyze the current situation with regards to back pain, and even though there is controversy in the research, recommend treatment.
Some acupuncture skeptics ask why would these scientists make a recommendation in favor of acupuncture even though the research is unclear? The answer is easy, because acupuncture works and it is very safe.
The problem with the research is not that acupuncture does not work. But that it is very difficult to create a research study with acupuncture. In this research study, the acupuncture group was not different from the placebo acupuncture group. But both the acupuncture and the acupuncture placebo groups were better than standard treatment. Yes, you read that correctly, the placebo acupuncture was better than conventional treatment. How could this be?…
Acupuncture is a safe recommendation
The researchers recommend acupuncture for back pain because it is safe and it works better than conventional treatment. People are suffering with pain everyday and study after study show there is minimal risk of severe side effects and acupuncture reduces pain.
To those with back pain it does not matter if it works better than a placebo. They just need to feel better.
