Acupuncture for arthritis: effectiveness of the method and patient reviews

Features of the method

Acupuncture helps against pain

Research in the field of medicine proves that the impact of needles on reflex points of the body causes a number of changes in the functioning of the body and in particular the nervous system:

1. Analgesic effect. The needles excite certain types of sensory nerve fibers: nerve impulses enter the brain faster than pain impulses and activate inhibitory interneurons, which reduce the ability of some parts of the brain to perceive pain from affected organs.
2. General improvement in the functions of the central nervous system. Excitation of nerve endings associated with the endorphinergic system stimulates the pituitary gland to release endorphins. This helps improve the functioning of the central nervous system and other body systems.
3. Improving blood supply and innervation. The needles activate areas of the brain responsible for the functioning of a particular organ, increasing blood circulation and nerve conduction, which accelerates regeneration processes.

Many people associate the effectiveness of acupuncture with the “placebo” effect, believing that the effect of this technique is based on self-hypnosis.

Belief in the success of the treatment and trust in the specialist performing the procedure are important, but recorded cases of acupuncture curing small children and animals, as well as studies of patients who have undergone acupuncture using MRI and Doppler ultrasonography indicate the presence of a therapeutic effect.

Red flags for neck pain

A serious underlying cause is more likely in people who:

• The onset of symptoms appeared before the age of 20 years or after 55 years.
• Weakness involving more than one myotome or sensory disturbance involving more than one dermatome.
• Intense or increasing pain.

Red flags suggesting possible malignancy, infection or inflammation:

• Fever.
• Unexplained weight loss.
• History of inflammatory arthritis.
• A history of malignancy, drug abuse, tuberculosis, AIDS, or other infection.
• Immunosuppression.
• Pain that gets worse, is very intense and/or disturbs sleep.
• Lymphadenopathy.
• Local point tenderness over the vertebral body.

Red flags suggesting myelopathy (spinal cord compression):

• Progression of symptoms.
• Gait disturbance; weakness or impaired motor function in the hands; loss of bladder/bowel control.
• Lhermitte's sign (bending the neck causes an electric shock sensation that travels down the spine and into the extremities).
• Pathological symptoms in the lower extremities (Babinski reflex, hyperreflexia, clonus, spasticity) and in the upper extremities (atrophy, hyporeflexia).
• Various sensory changes (loss of proprioception more noticeable in the arms than in the legs).

Red flags indicating the possibility of severe skeletal injury:

• Trauma history.
• Previous neck surgery.
• Osteoporosis or risk factors for osteoporosis.
• Increase and persistence of pain.

Red flags indicating vascular insufficiency:

• Dizziness and darkening before the eyes (compression of the vertebral artery) when moving, especially when straightening the neck.
• Dizziness, syncope episodes.

Indications for acupuncture

Acupuncture is also used to eliminate excess weight and bad habits.

One of the advantages of acupuncture is its wide range of applications. This technique is used as a complementary treatment against many diseases:

1. Pathologies of the nervous system: neurosis, neuralgia, neuritis, vegetative-vascular dystonia, dizziness, migraines, hysteria, nervous tics, vertebral hernias, radiculitis, enuresis.
2. Respiratory pathologies: chronic pneumonia, bronchitis, tracheitis, bronchial asthma, chronic laryngitis.
3. Pathologies of the cardiovascular system: hypertension 1-2 degrees, arterial hypotension, arrhythmias, heart blockades.
4. Pathologies of the musculoskeletal system: scoliosis, sprains, arthrosis, arthritis, myositis, bursitis, osteochondrosis, fractures, periarthritis, heel spurs.
5. Pathologies of the digestive system: nausea, cholestasis, constipation, ulcers, gastralgia, functional gastrointestinal disorders, gastroduodenitis.
6. Pathologies of the reproductive system: menstrual cycle disorders, hormonal infertility, menopausal syndrome, ovarian dysfunction.
7. Pathologies of the genitourinary system: chronic cystitis, nephritis, prostatitis.
8. Eye pathologies: blurred vision, strabismus, oculomotor disorders.
9. Allergic reactions: itching, eczema, neurodermatitis, urticaria.
10. Hormonal pathologies: thyroiditis, hypothyroidism, type 2 diabetes mellitus, early stage thyrotoxicosis, hypothalamic syndrome.

Acupuncture is also used to eliminate excess weight and bad habits: drug addiction, alcoholism, smoking. It is important to remember that this technique cannot be used as an independent method of treating diseases. Acupuncture is always used as one of the components of complex therapy and only under the supervision of the attending physician.

Drug therapy

Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in women is carried out comprehensively, with the appointment of symptomatic and basic therapy. Drugs of these two groups are prescribed simultaneously:

• symptomatic remedies can quickly alleviate a woman’s condition by eliminating swelling and pain; are prescribed in the shortest possible courses;
• basic drugs suppress the mechanism of disease development; they have been accepted for years.

Symptomatic treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in women

To reduce the most severe manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis, medications from the group of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are primarily prescribed. Most of them eliminate tissue swelling and associated pain. One of the first and most effective NSAIDs is Diclofenac. It is prescribed in the form of injections, rectal suppositories, oral tablets, ointments and gels. The disadvantage of the drug is side effects: gastric ulcers and decreased blood clotting.

More modern drugs of this group - Nimesulide, Meloxicam, with high efficiency, have almost no such side effects.

Symptomatic treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in women

Medicines from the group of glucocorticoid hormones (Betamethasone, Prednisolone, etc.) relieve swelling and pain in arthritis even better. But their use in women is associated with the risk of stimulating the synthesis of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1 and TNF-alpha, so drugs of this series are prescribed with caution, only when indicated and in short courses. They also have many serious side effects.

As soon as the pain decreases, symptomatic therapy is removed. In order to reduce the dosage of drugs from these groups, they are often prescribed in combination with folk remedies and homeopathic medicines:

• celery juice
  - prescribed 20 ml three times a day 30 minutes before meals as an analgesic and anti-inflammatory agent; course of treatment 1.5 months;
• Goal T
  is a homeopathic drug, prescribed in the form of intramuscular injections, lozenges and ointments; relieves joint inflammation and pain.

Only a doctor can prescribe folk and homeopathic remedies. Taking them on your own is absolutely ineffective; moreover, it can accelerate the progression of the disease.

Basic therapy

Basic therapy drugs are also divided into two large groups - synthetic and biological. Synthetic ones include Methotrexate, Sulfasalazine, Lkflunomide. They suppress the increased reactivity of the immune system and have an anti-inflammatory effect. Most often, the time-tested Methotrexate is prescribed, but at the same time the content of folic acid in the body decreases, so it must be prescribed simultaneously with Methotrexate.

Biological basic drugs include drugs that specifically suppress educational cytokines. These drugs are especially effective in the treatment of female forms of rheumatoid arthritis, since cytokines are the main cause of a long-term inflammatory process. The use of Infliximab and Adalimumab, drugs containing antibodies to TNF-alpha, is especially effective in women. If IL-1 cytokines predominate in a woman’s blood, then Anakinra, which contains antibodies to this cytokine, is prescribed.

Additional therapeutic procedures

These methods include:

• physiotherapeutic procedures
  – enhance the effectiveness of drug therapy in women suffering from arthritis;
• plasmapheresis and hemosorption
  - used for severe rheumatoid arthritis in women to cleanse the blood of toxic products;
• Exercise therapy and massage
  prevent the development of severe ankylosis (immobility of joints); courses are conducted only as prescribed by a doctor and under the supervision of a physical therapy instructor; doing exercises on your own can cause irreparable harm to the body;
• orthopedic correction methods
  - the use of special devices that hold the limb in the correct position, as a result of which the process of deformation of the limbs is stopped;
• surgical operations
  - endoprosthetics (in case of a high degree of damage to the joint, replacing it with an artificial one).

Pros and cons of reflexology for arthritis

Acupuncture helps relieve pain and improves blood circulation

Acupuncture for arthritis has a number of beneficial effects that help relieve symptoms of the disease and speed up the treatment process:

• relieves pain;
• normalizes blood circulation;
• improves metabolic processes;
• relieves spasm;
• relieves pain;
• promotes body relaxation;
• calms the nervous system;
• reduces inflammation;
• relieves swelling.

Unlike some types of medications used to relieve pain, acupuncture does not cause addiction. It can also be combined with other treatment methods.

With the correct technique, the procedure has no disadvantages, but it has contraindications and cannot always be used to treat arthritis. In addition, it may be difficult to find a good specialist who has experience in acupuncture and does it well. Improper procedure and use of unsterile instruments can cause serious harm to the patient's health.

Diagnostics

The following diagnostic criteria for rheumatoid arthritis in women exist:

• Clinical
  : characteristic symptoms of RA.
• Laboratory
  :
  general blood test - acceleration of ESR, decrease in hemoglobin;
• biochemical analysis - the appearance of C-reactive protein (CRP) - a sign of inflammation;
• immunological analysis - the presence in the blood of rheumatoid factor, antibodies to peptides containing the amino acid citrulline (ACCP), cytokines IL1 and TNF-alpha. Women's blood is also tested for hormones to rule out diseases that support the autoimmune inflammatory process.
• Instrumental
  :
  X-ray – signs of progressive arthritis and joint damage;
• Ultrasound - signs of damage to articular and periarticular tissues;
• MRI – detection of articular changes in the pre-erosive period, already 4 weeks after the onset of the disease.

How is acupuncture performed?

Painful sensations during an acupuncture session are not excessive

During the first session, the specialist analyzes the patient’s health status to determine the effectiveness of the procedure and determines the position of acupuncture points. Next, the patient’s skin is disinfected, and disposable needles are screwed into it manually or using a special device at a certain angle. The discomfort is minimal, although with each acupuncture session the pain may increase slightly: this is due to increased nerve conduction of the tissue - the skin becomes more sensitive to injections.

Typically, patients experience pulsation, pressure, itching, slight tingling, heaviness, or numbness when inserting needles.

Having inserted the required number of needles (usually no more than 8-10), the master acts on them manually or using weak discharges of electricity for 20-40 minutes. At the end of the procedure, the needles are painlessly removed: some of them even come out of the tissue on their own.

Surgery

The most common disc-related surgery is a discectomy, in which the disc is removed through an incision. In the cervical spine, discectomy can be performed either anteriorly or posteriorly. In some cases, vertebral fusion surgery may be recommended. Most patients who have a discectomy recover fairly quickly from surgery with the help of physical therapy. Discectomy is usually performed when a herniated disc is present, as most disc bulges can be successfully treated conservatively.

Acupuncture points for the treatment of arthritis

Acupuncture points

There are 12-14 pairs of meridians, energy channels and 361 acupuncture points on the human body, the impact of which opens the internal energy reserves of the body, directing them to fight diseases. All of them are located close to the nerve endings. Which points the specialist will use depends on the location of the inflammatory foci and the severity of the disease. In addition, during each new session, the position of the needles and manipulation methods may change.

When treating arthritis of various etiologies with acupuncture, points are usually used that are located on the back along the spine, on the legs in the area of ​​the legs, knees and hips, on the arms in the area of ​​the forearms, shoulders and elbow joints.

Contraindications

Pregnancy is a relative contraindication

Contraindications to the use of acupuncture are divided into absolute, relative and local:

1. Absolute contraindications: age under 1 year, blood diseases, mental disorders, malignant tumors, infectious diseases, acute surgical diseases, complicated pregnancy, fever, were of unknown origin.
2. Relative contraindications: age over 70 years, pregnancy, poliomyelitis, cerebral circulatory disorders, multiple sclerosis, physical or emotional exhaustion, muscular dystrophy, poliomyelitis.
3. Local contraindications: varicose veins, scars, moles, skin diseases.

Children under 7 years of age are also not recommended to have needles inserted into the front of the head or face.

Possible complications

The consequence of improper acupuncture can even be fainting.

Ignoring contraindications or violating acupuncture technique can lead to negative consequences:

• bruising;
• soreness;
• damage to blood vessels, nerves, tendons, internal organs;
• degeneration of benign formations into cancerous ones when they are damaged;
• decreased blood pressure;
• noise in ears;
• fainting;
• infection with hepatitis, AIDS.

To avoid complications, you must undergo an examination and consult with your doctor about the possibility of using acupuncture. You should also take the choice of a specialist seriously, since most of the side effects occur when the procedure is performed incorrectly.

Why does rheumatoid arthritis develop?

The cause of rheumatoid arthritis is not only genetic predisposition. Sometimes infections and viruses - herpes, hepatitis B, measles, mumps - lead to inflammatory processes in the joint and connective tissue. If there is a pathological agent in the body, one or more unfavorable factors are enough to start the process of degradation in the mobile joints. The trigger for arthritis can be intoxication, hypothermia, excessive sunlight, stress and other negative circumstances.

In rheumatoid arthritis, the immune system produces antibodies that fight not foreign cells, but healthy cells and tissues. This is how inflammation occurs in the joint, the synovial membrane thickens and becomes dense. As it increases, it damages the cartilage, which leads to weakening of muscles, tendons and ligaments. An inflamed joint destroys bones. Outwardly, it may look like arthrosis, but the mechanism of thickening here is completely different from osteophytes.

The herpes virus in the body is one of the causes of rheumatoid arthritis