Suffer from sciatica, acupuncture can help

The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in the body and begins from nerve roots in the lumbar spinal cord in the low back and runs through the buttock area down to the lower limb ending at the feet. The pain of sciatica is sometimes referred to as sciatic nerve pain. Sciatica is pain caused by irritating sciatic nerve. It is a syndrome involving nerve root impingement or inflammation that causes neurological symptoms in the areas that are supplied by the affected nerve roots. The pain of sciatica radiates out from the lower back, down the buttocks and into one or both of the legs, right down to the calf. The most prominent symptoms include unilateral leg pain radiating to the foot or toes that is greater than low back pain. The accompanied symptoms can include numbness, tingling, muscle weakness, loss of tendon reflexes. It may involve increased pain on straight leg raising and neurological symptoms limited to one nerve root. Sciatic pain can range from being mild to very painful and may last just a few days or for months or years. The pain often gets worse over time and may also be made worse by: sneezing, coughing or laughing, standing or sitting for a long period of time, bending backwards. The treatment for sciatica is primarily aimed at pain control.

Many studies investigated the effect of acupuncture on sciatica. For example, a study involved with 962 patients with sciatica has shown that acupuncture significantly released sciatic pain and related other symptoms. Acupuncture was more effective than pain killers NSAIDs (ibuprofen, meloxicam, and diclofenac). Another study involved with a total of 1842 patients with sciatica has also shown that acupuncture reduces sciatic pain significantly and reduction of pain was greater than conventional medication such as ibuprofen as mentioned above. Acupuncture is clinically effective, reduces pain intensity, and increases pain threshold in patients with sciatica.

How does acupuncture work? Acupuncture stimulates inhibitory nerve fibers for a short period, reducing transmission of pain signal to the brain. Acupuncture also activates endogenous analgesic mechanisms causing secretion of endorphin which is an endogenous opioid and triggering release of adenosine producing a rapidly effective analgesic action on radicular sciatica. Extensive research has shown that acupuncture analgesia may be initiated by stimulation of high-threshold, small-diameter nerves in the muscles.

References

Qin et al Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2015;2015:425108. doi: 10.1155/2015/425108.

Ji m et al Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2015;2015:192808. doi: 10.1155/2015/192808.