Acupuncture for Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a condition affecting the joints of the human body through the breakdown of the cartilage between the joints commonly affecting the knee joints. The condition usually affects older people and is caused by being overweight, aging, and deformations of the joints. Younger people can also be affected by osteoarthritis when victims of an injury to bones and cartilage of a joint.    In this case, osteoarthritis is caused by damage to the cartilage that sits at the end of each bone allowing the bones to glide easily over each other where they meet. 

This is usually a very painful condition and results in an impeded range of motion, guarding and accommodation to avoid the pain resulting in pain down or up the "kinetic chain" ie. ankle or hip pain
that also can then result in pain.  

So what are the treatment options for this painful and debilitating condition?  First of all, I advise most of these patients to make an appointment with or call their GP or Internist to ask them to order an MRI to evaluate the soft tissues in the injured joint.  This is an excellent tool to get an inside look at the joint an intelligently evaluate the joint and treatment options.   Getting an MRI does not necessarily lead to surgery.  However, if you go to an orthopedic surgeon for an evaluation, their frame of reference and training is surgery.  My point is do not be surprised if they recommend surgery as a solution.  In some chronic and severe cases, this is the only option.  If the patient is elderly, overweight and the cartilage is crushed, this is the only option to relieve the pain.  However, if they opt for surgery, I tell these patients that they must try and lose extra weight.  If they continue to gain weight, this will only continue to add stress to the other joints leading to further osteoarthritis-more pain, more surgery.

If the MRI reveals a strain or mild tear, acupuncture for osteoarthritis can be effectively used to relieve pain and swelling in the joints that are affected negatively by the medical condition. In a landmark study  published by the Annals of Internal Medicine, (Berman BM, Lao L, Langenberg P, Lee WL, Gilpin AMK, Hochberg MC. Effectiveness of Acupuncture as Adjunctive Therapy in Osteoarthritis of the Knee: A Randomized, Controlled Trial. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2004; 141(12):901910.) researchers demonstrated that acupuncture provides pain relief and improves function for people with osteoarthritis of the knee and serves as an effective complement to standard care compared with control. The study, the largest Phase III clinical trial of acupuncture for knee osteoarthritis, was funded by NCCAM and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, both      components of the National Institutes of Health.