Acupuncture helps reduce pain from slipped disk---research update

The inner portion of the disk can protrude through the outer ring due to injury or weakness. This is known as slipped disk, herniated, or prolapsed disk. Lumber disks are the common site to slip. This causes pain and discomfort at the low back. If the slipped disk compresses the nerves, pain and numbness may occur along the route of the nerve. Acupuncture can help release come symptoms of the slipped the disk, such as reduces pain and numbness. A recent review evaluate evidence for the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of slipped lumbar disk. 3503 participants were included in the study. Acupuncture has more pain reduction. The result has shown that acupuncture has better effect than other treatments including lumbar traction, ibuprofen, diclofenac sodium, meloxicam, mannitol plus dexamethasone and mecobalamin, fugui gutong capsule plus ibuprofen, mannitol plus dexamethasone, loxoprofen and huoxue zhitong decoction.

References
Tang S1 et al Acupunct Med. 2018 Apr;36(2):62-70. doi: 10.1136/acupmed-2016-011332. Epub 2018 Mar 1.