Acupuncture has been touted as a helpful aid in pain relief for some patients, but now the alternative therapy treatment may prove useful for another condition.
A new study looks into the efficacy of acupuncture when used to treat seasonal allergy suffers.
The study's author Dr. Benno Brinkhaus from the Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics at Charité University Medical Center in Berlin said that he would recommend acupuncture to patients who have tried more traditional therapies first.
"From my experience as a physician and acupuncturist, and as a researcher, I would recommend trying acupuncture if patients are not satisfied with the conventional anti-allergic medication or treatment or they suffer from more or less serious side effects of the conventional medication," Brinkaus said.
"Also because acupuncture is a relatively safe treatment."
Acupuncture is a process in which tiny needles are placed under a patient's skin at specific points to reduce particular symptoms a patient is experiencing. For allergy sufferers this could mean pesky symptoms like nasal congestion, runny nose and itchy eyes that are associated with the condition.
In the study published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, 422 people who tested positive for pollen-related allergies and that experienced nasal symptoms as a result of it were analyzed by researchers.
The subjects recorded their symptoms and indicated which medications, along with doses, they took for their ailment.
They were then split into three groups: one received 12 acupuncture treatments, the second group received 12 faux acupuncture procedures as well as took antihistamine medications as needed and the third group took antihistamines alone.
The researchers surveyed the patients after two months and found that the group who received the acupuncture therapy displayed a higher amount of improvement in their allergy symptoms.
And the findings also suggest that there may be a strong placebo effect associated with acupuncture because even the group who received the fake treatments reported some relief of their allergy symptoms.
But the study also acknowledges that more research needs to be performed to establish the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of seasonal allergies.
"The effectiveness of acupuncture for [season allergies] compared with other antiallergic interventions and the possible underlying mechanisms of any effect, including context effects, need to be addressed in further research," the study says
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
