Hello
We are absolute experts in the treatment of fibromyalgia. Our only focus when treating fibromyalgia is permanent cure of the condition. Anything less, to us, is like giving them another pill to swallow for years.
This week we will review an article that looks to see if acupuncture/dry needling works. By works I mean, permanent fix. Short term relief is not good enough.
This week’s article is called “Efficacy of Dry Needling and Acupuncture in Patients with Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis”
A systematic review being a review of all the studies done on this and the best possible evidence we have.
“A total of twenty-four studies were included in this systematic review”
They found that “dry needling is shown to induce improvements in short-term subjective pain perception, pain pressure thresholds, mobility, fatigue, quality of life, physical function, physical role, general health, vitality, social function, emotional role and mental health.”
Short term benefits for such a chronic condition are like just using a bigger bucket for a roof leak. It just takes longer to get worse.
Another finding was “Acupuncture and scalp acupuncture showed to be effective in the treatment of fibromyalgia for reducing pain and disability in the short term if combined with other treatments, reducing the adverse effects and treatment costs. Although the placebo effect seems to play a relevant role in these improvements since sham acupuncture demonstrated significant reduction in pain and disability, real treatment seems to be more effective.”
Placebo is when you believe the treatment will work and therefore you feel better.
It seems this technique only works until that belief wears off. Then you are right back to where you were before. I am certain anyone with fibromyalgia knows what going through this cycle of feeling better then worse than before feels like.
Do you want to keep going through this cycle? Or do you want to try something different?
Jason
