Australian hospitals are finally catching up with what the Chinese have long known –acupuncture is a great alternative form of pain relief.
Acupuncture is fast gaining acceptance in mainstream medicine right across the Western world. It’s already used routinely in several Australian emergency departments and is now undergoing a randomised, controlled trial in three Melbourne hospitals to alleviate pain from acute migraines, back pain and ankle sprain.
Researchers at the University of York and Hull York Medical School in the UK have just mapped acupuncture’s effect on the brain and have found that it changes specific neural structures, deactivating the areas in the brain associated with the processing of pain.
This is key, says Professor Marc Cohen, head of the trial and professor of complementary medicine at RMIT University.
“We know that pain is the most common reason for people coming to emergency departments, and we know that it’s not very well treated in that a lot of people don’t get sufficient pain relief,” he says.
“We also know that pharmacotherapy, the main method of treating pain in emergency situations, has severe side effects. Some people can’t tolerate drugs, others find that opioid medication such as pethidine or morphine causes nausea and constipation.
Once you give morphine you have to watch the patient for several hours and monitor blood pressure and nausea.
“What we’ve found anecdotally is that people who have come into an emergency department in pain and tried acupuncture, have had their pain relieved in a very short period of time.”
Acupuncture can also be safely combined with most conventional drugs and treatments and has very few side effects.
Read the original article here.
Acupuncture is fast gaining acceptance in mainstream medicine right across the Western world. It’s already used routinely in several Australian emergency departments and is now undergoing a randomised, controlled trial in three Melbourne hospitals to alleviate pain from acute migraines, back pain and ankle sprain.
Researchers at the University of York and Hull York Medical School in the UK have just mapped acupuncture’s effect on the brain and have found that it changes specific neural structures, deactivating the areas in the brain associated with the processing of pain.
This is key, says Professor Marc Cohen, head of the trial and professor of complementary medicine at RMIT University.
“We know that pain is the most common reason for people coming to emergency departments, and we know that it’s not very well treated in that a lot of people don’t get sufficient pain relief,” he says.
“We also know that pharmacotherapy, the main method of treating pain in emergency situations, has severe side effects. Some people can’t tolerate drugs, others find that opioid medication such as pethidine or morphine causes nausea and constipation.
Once you give morphine you have to watch the patient for several hours and monitor blood pressure and nausea.
“What we’ve found anecdotally is that people who have come into an emergency department in pain and tried acupuncture, have had their pain relieved in a very short period of time.”
Acupuncture can also be safely combined with most conventional drugs and treatments and has very few side effects.
Read the original article here.
