Acupuncture has been around for as long as man has pretty much.  There is evidence that it could have existed as far back as the stone age.  Even some stone needles have by archeologists in Inner Mongolia.  That is a long time for something to be used.  So, it must be great right?  Well, it is actually a pretty controversial treatment still – but, there are a lot of people that love it and swear by it.  That leaves me to wonder, could it help with osteoarthritis?

Well, I didn’t have to look very far, as there was a study about this somewhat recently.  Tests were done on various conditions, including knee osteoarthritis.  The results?  Well, they weren’t very conclusive.

Danish researches tested on 3000 patients with 13 acupuncture studies.  They used real acupuncture, a placebo acupuncture, and no acupuncture on these subjects.  Compared to the placebo, the real acupuncture only gave slight relief.  So, I guess that is slightly good.  But, it probably isn’t really, because the improvement and relief from pain was so minimal that it was considered below “clinically relevant”.

I’m no wordsmith, but that makes it sound like it is pretty worthless.  Still, I wonder about it.  Have any of my readers ever tried acupuncture?  I’d love to know your results.