Which acupuncture points are used for your back pain?
Why acupuncture is effective for low back pain?
There are several mechanisms that explained the effectiveness of acupuncture on pain relief. Acupuncture stimulates nerve endings located in muscles and other tissues leading to production of endorphins and other neurohormonal factors. Acupuncture reduces inflammation by releasing vascular and immunomodulatory factors. Acupuncture increases local blood circulation and improves muscle stiffness, joint mobility and swelling.
Standardization of acupuncture points for low back pain
Acupuncture treatment for specific patients with chronic low back pain vary widely across practitioners. If you go and see a few different acupuncturists, you would get acupuncture at different points. There are no standardized acupuncture points for any conditions. A study has shown that twenty diagnoses and 65 acupoints were used at least once; and only one point UB23 was used for every patient by most acupuncturists. In China standardization of acupuncture points was encouraged to achieve best outcome of the treatment. There was a study compared the efficacy of standardized acupuncture and individualised acupuncture points. In this study up to 15 sessions of acupuncture treatments were offered. 78 patients were in the standard acupuncture group and 72 patients were in the individual acupuncture group. Both acupuncture interventions were applied by the same medical doctor specialized in western general medicine (25 years of clinical practice) and trained in Chinese medicine with 20 years' experience in treating low back pain with acupuncture. The result has shown that the average pain severity after 8 weeks and 26 weeks did not differ significantly between both groups. This study has shown the possibility of standardization of acupuncture treatment for chronic back pain patients. However in real world, there is no standardized acupuncture points for back pain. If you see different acupuncturist, you have got different acupuncture points and different effects. Which acupuncture points do your acupuncturist used?
Acupuncture points are frequently used in lower back pain
There are over 400 acupuncture points in human body according to Chinese medicine theory. The selection of appropriate acupuncture points is the first step to obtain therapeutic effects. Lee SH et al analysed acupuncture points from 53 studies using modern techniques to extract most commonly used acupuncture points. There were 33 most frequently used acupoints for lower back pain (LBP). The most frequently used acupoints in the treatment of low-back pain were BL23 (51%), BL25 (43%), BL24 (32%), BL40 (32%), BL60 (32%), GB30 (32%), BL26 (28%), BL32 (28%), and GB34 (21%). All local acupoints for LBP are on the Bladder and the Governing vessel especially at the low back position of these meridians. Most of the distant acupoints are on the Bladder and Gallbladder meridians. The acupoints include seven acupoints (BL23, BL24, BL25, BL26, and BL32 as local points and BL40 and BL60 as distal points) on the bladder meridian and two acupoints (GB30 as a local point and GB34 as a distal point) on the gallbladder meridian.
There are several mechanisms that explained the effectiveness of acupuncture on pain relief. Acupuncture stimulates nerve endings located in muscles and other tissues leading to production of endorphins and other neurohormonal factors. Acupuncture reduces inflammation by releasing vascular and immunomodulatory factors. Acupuncture increases local blood circulation and improves muscle stiffness, joint mobility and swelling.
Standardization of acupuncture points for low back pain
Acupuncture treatment for specific patients with chronic low back pain vary widely across practitioners. If you go and see a few different acupuncturists, you would get acupuncture at different points. There are no standardized acupuncture points for any conditions. A study has shown that twenty diagnoses and 65 acupoints were used at least once; and only one point UB23 was used for every patient by most acupuncturists. In China standardization of acupuncture points was encouraged to achieve best outcome of the treatment. There was a study compared the efficacy of standardized acupuncture and individualised acupuncture points. In this study up to 15 sessions of acupuncture treatments were offered. 78 patients were in the standard acupuncture group and 72 patients were in the individual acupuncture group. Both acupuncture interventions were applied by the same medical doctor specialized in western general medicine (25 years of clinical practice) and trained in Chinese medicine with 20 years' experience in treating low back pain with acupuncture. The result has shown that the average pain severity after 8 weeks and 26 weeks did not differ significantly between both groups. This study has shown the possibility of standardization of acupuncture treatment for chronic back pain patients. However in real world, there is no standardized acupuncture points for back pain. If you see different acupuncturist, you have got different acupuncture points and different effects. Which acupuncture points do your acupuncturist used?
Acupuncture points are frequently used in lower back pain
There are over 400 acupuncture points in human body according to Chinese medicine theory. The selection of appropriate acupuncture points is the first step to obtain therapeutic effects. Lee SH et al analysed acupuncture points from 53 studies using modern techniques to extract most commonly used acupuncture points. There were 33 most frequently used acupoints for lower back pain (LBP). The most frequently used acupoints in the treatment of low-back pain were BL23 (51%), BL25 (43%), BL24 (32%), BL40 (32%), BL60 (32%), GB30 (32%), BL26 (28%), BL32 (28%), and GB34 (21%). All local acupoints for LBP are on the Bladder and the Governing vessel especially at the low back position of these meridians. Most of the distant acupoints are on the Bladder and Gallbladder meridians. The acupoints include seven acupoints (BL23, BL24, BL25, BL26, and BL32 as local points and BL40 and BL60 as distal points) on the bladder meridian and two acupoints (GB30 as a local point and GB34 as a distal point) on the gallbladder meridian.
