Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis in the United States, affecting more than 16 million Americans and approximately 75% of the population over age 50. Also known as degenerative joint disease, the condition causes the breakdown of cartilage in joints, leading to joint pain and stiffness. It can affect any joint in the body, but is most frequently seen in a person's hips, knees and spine.
Numerous pilot studies have been conducted both in the U.S. and overseas to find treatments to combat the effects of osteoarthritis (OA). Unfortunately, there is no known cure for the disease, and many of the current treatment options available either provide inadequate symptom relief or cause unwanted side-effects.
One form of treatment that appears to hold promise for OA sufferers is acupuncture. Thanks to a grant from the National Institutes of Health, the University of Maryland School of Medicine's (UMSM) Complementary Medicine Program is about to conduct an investigational research study to determine whether it can benefit people who suffer from osteoarthritis-related knee pain.
Dr. Katherine Wright, a research associate at the university, will coordinate the two-year study, multi-site study. In addition to UMSM, research will be conducted at Innovative Medical Research in Catonsville, Maryland; the Veterans Administration Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida; and the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.
A total of 570 volunteers will be selected to participate in the study. In order to qualify, participants must meet the following criteria:
Volunteers will be subjected to a medical history, a brief physical exam, a standing x-ray of their knees and a series of questionnaires on symptoms and lifestyle related to OA. Participants who meet the criteria will be randomized into either an acupuncture group; a placebo acupuncture group; or a group arthritis education and self-help training group.
Volunteers will participate in the study for a total of 24 weeks and will be paid a stipend for their participation. All information will be kept in strictest confidence with public health and privacy acts. For more information on the study, please call:
In Baltimore: (410) 448-6279 or 6384
In New York: (212) 774-2626
In West Palm Beach: (561) 882-6652
or visit the Complementary Medicine Program's website at www.compmed.ummc.umaryland.edu.
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
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One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
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