Scientific Proof to How your Body react to Acupuncture - Gout

Frequent and regular sessions of Acupuncture are effective in the treatment of gout.

Gout is a kind of inflammatory arthritis that causes pain and swelling in the joints especially at the big toe or lower limb. It usually flares for a week or two and will resolve thereafter.

Gout occurs when high levels of urate build up the body and form needle-shaped crystals in and around the joint over a long period of time. This leads to inflammation and arthritis of the joint.

Current management of gout requires the use of a combination of anti-inflammatory and urate-lowering agents, including colchicine, NSAIDs and glucocorticoids (antiinflammatory), as well as probenecid and allopurinol (urate-lowering). While these urate-lowering agents are physiologically effective, it has been found that the quality of gout management is typically poor and that the benefits of using drug to treat is very short-term while long-term pharmacological treatment often produces side effects.

In recent years, more and more studies have been conducted on the use of acupuncture to treat patients with gout and gouty arthritis. Acupuncture is a particularly useful focus because it is popular with patients, especially for pain-related conditions.

And here are some of the scientific papers that support that:

Below are some of the scientific papers that support Acupuncture treats and manages pain.

Read another blog post here on Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine for Pain Management.

Conclusion: Acupuncture is efficacious as a therapy for gouty arthritis patients. There is significant efficacy of acupuncture treatment vs standard therapy in improving quality of life and decreasing uric acid of patients with gout.

Conclusion: Acupuncture stimulation triggers a sequence of events that include the release of neurotransmitters and endogenous opioidlike substances and the activation of c-Fos within the central nervous system. It can relieve pain associated with many acute and chronic pain conditions including gouty arthritis.

Conclusion: Acupuncture combined with herbal medicine performed better than acupuncture or herbal medicine alone and conventional therapy in terms of improving clinical efficacy, lowering uric acid, and improving VAS score.