Acupuncturre’s Pain Relief Equal to Painkilling Drugs

A team of scientists from two British universities carried out brain scans on patients while they underwent Acupuncture treatment. The scans showed differences in the brain’s response to acupuncture needles compared with tests using dummy needles that did not puncture the skin.

Doctors found that the part of the brain that manages pain and the nervous system showed pain relief levels of as much as 15 per cent.

Dr. George Lewith, from the University of Southampton’s Complementary Medicine Research Unit, said the improvement is “exactly the same size of effect you would get from…real painkillers (pharmaceuticals)  for chronic pain. The evidence we now have is that acupuncture works very well on pain.”

The patients in the study were put through three tests in random order, while ‘brain maps’ were created using sophisticated scans at University College London. In one test, researchers used blunt needles that pricked the skin, but which the brain registered as the sensation of touch. Dummy needles, where the tip was pushed back once it touched the skin, were then used, and in the third test the patients underwent acupuncture treatment with real needles. 

The acupuncture needles had two measurable effects on the patients’ brains: as with the dummy needles, the brain released natural opiates in response to the expected effect of the needles.  

But the scans showed that the real needles had an extra effect and stimulated another part of the brain called the ipsilateral insular. This improved pain relief of 10-15% was similar to the effect of taking conventional analgesic drugs.

SOURCE: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10123440