Acupuncture is effective for low back pain

Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders in today’s society. LBP is described as pain and discomfort at lower back region, with or without referred leg pain.

According to a report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2013, back pain, together with neck pain, was the second highest cause amongst the 20 leading non-fatal health outcomes from the year 2000 to 2011, the number one cause for the most years lived with disability (YLDs) in the world. The age group 40–69 is affected the most and women have higher LPB prevalence than men. The prevalence of LBP for the year 2016 was estimated more than 511 million of the world’s population, an increase of 18.0%, as compared to 2006.

The goal of LBP treatment is to control or reduce pain, to improve structure impairment of the spine and to return to the normal life activities as soon as possible. However, most of the pharmacological treatments produce limited pain relief and are accompanied by serious side effects, such as drowsiness, dizziness, negative impact to liver and gastrointestinal function. Acupuncture for LBP is one of the most commonly used non-pharmacological pain-relieving techniques. Acupuncture as pain relief is widely used in many of the countries throughout the world. It is legally recognised by many countries in Asia, Australia, America, Canada, and some parts of Europe and Latin America and well accepted by many patients globally. In the USA alone, the number of acupuncture users increased by 50% in ten years between 2002 and 2012. As of December 2010, across Europe, 96,380 acupuncturists were registered. Eighty-thousand were medical and 16,380 were non-medical practitioners. Acupuncture is so popular due to its low adverse effects and cost-effectiveness

References
Tiaw-Kee Lim et al (2018) Medicines (Basel). 2018 Jun 25;5(3). pii: E63. doi: 10.3390/medicines5030063.