Acupuncture for neck pain: does it work?
Chronic neck pain is one of the most common pain issues faced by students and office workers.
Spending hours at a desk each day, combined with poor postural habits, can be the root cause of the pain. However, sports injuries, whiplash, the wrong mattress or pillow can also trigger the pain.
All things considered, regardless of how the neck pain begins….
Many people find relief with acupuncture when seemingly nothing else helped.
Medical Studies On the Effects of Acupuncture For Neck Pain
Scientific researchers have been conducting clinical trials on the use of acupuncture for neck pain since the 1980’s. Not to mention, most of these studies have confirmed that acupuncture is safe and effective.
For Example, one recent pilot study conducted at the Kyunghee University in Seoul, Korea.
Found that acupuncture three times per week was as effective as 80 mg of NSAIDs taken daily for chronic neck pain.
Acupuncture Study conducted in Germany
Concluded that patients with chronic neck pain (lasting more than six months) experienced considerable long-term relief with acupuncture. In comparison to a control group receiving conventional medical care and no acupuncture.
In conclusion, since acupuncture is a cost-effective treatment modality that is relatively free of side effects. It would be wise for medical professionals to recommend acupuncture to patients with neck pain. Previous to prescribing potentially addictive pharmaceutical drugs and risky surgical procedures.
Sources:
1) Sage Journals
2) NCBI
3) AACMA
4) Journal of the International Association of the Study of Pain