Acupuncture is an effective clinical treatment for osteoporosis

Researchers at Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China confirmed that acupuncture is an effective clinical treatment for osteoporosis. In their study, which was published in The American Journal of Chinese Medicine, they gathered the existing evidence and evaluated the efficacy of acupuncture as a clinical treatment for osteoporosis.

• The team included randomized controlled trials on warm acupuncture, needling, or electroacupuncture compared with sole Western medicine on osteoporosis from six English and four Chinese databases for their meta-analysis.
• They gathered a total of 35 studies involving 3,014 patients.
• Based on their analysis, they found that warm acupuncture can increase the bone mineral density of lumbar and femur and the level of serum calcium and estradiol compared with Western medicine.
• Warm acupuncture has also been found to relieve pain and reduce the level of serum alkaline phosphatase compared with sole Western medicine.
• They found that electroacupuncture could relieve pain, increase the level of serum calcium, and decrease the level of serum alkaline phosphatase compared with sole Western medicine.
• Needling has been found to reduce pain compared with sole Western medicine.
• These results suggest warm acupuncture seemed to be more effective than electroacupuncture and needling for osteoporosis.

Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that acupuncture, in general, could be an effective alternative treatment for osteoporosis.

To read more studies on acupuncture and other traditional Chinese medicine, visit ChineseMedicine.news.

Journal Reference:

Pan H, Jin R, Li M, Liu Z, Xie Q, Wang P. THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ACUPUNCTURE FOR OSTEOPOROSIS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS. The American Journal of Chinese Medicine. 4 April 2018; 46(3): 489-513. DOI: 10.1142/s0192415x18500258