Opioids continue to be prescribed, and at unacceptable rates considering the number of clinical guidelines recommending nondrug pain-relief options first and limited use second in most cases. One possible exception: patients experiencing chronic cancer-related pain. For this population, opioids remain a cornerstone management option.
However, as with opioids in particular and all pharmaceuticals in general, the potential side effects can be problematic. Case in point: opioid-related constipation (OIC), which affects more than half of noncancer patients (and up to 90% of cancer patients) taking them, according to research. One possible remedy for this common, frustrating side effect of treatment: electroacupuncture.
Published in JAMA Network Open by Dr. Weiming Wang, et al., a new clinical trial conducted at six tertiary hospitals in China randomized 100 cancer patients (ages 18-85) into two equal groups for comparison. "After a 1-week run-in period without the use of laxatives or stool softeners," both groups received eight weeks of treatment (24 sessions) of either electroacupuncture or sham EA.
Each 30-minute session featured bilateral needling of acupoints ST 25 (Tianshu), SP 14 (Fujie) and ST 37 (Shangjuxu) in the EA group. Electrodes provided a continuous wave of 10 Hz and a current intensity of 0.5 to 4 mA, depending on patient comfort.
Sham EA featured needle insertion without manipulation at non-acupoints. Electrodes were attached, but with a current intensity of 0.1-0.2 mA for only 30 seconds.
The primary outcome measure: ability to have at least three spontaneous bowel movements (without the need for rescue medication / other interventions in the previous 24 hours) per week (and an increase of at least one bowel movement from baseline in the same week) for at least 75% of the treatment period.
At week eight (end of treatment window), electroacupuncture patients achieving the primary outcome measure ("responders") topped sham EA responders significantly: 40.1% of the EA group vs. only 9% of the sham EA group. Electroacupuncture also "provided greater relief for most OIC symptoms and improved quality of life among patients with OIC," according to study findings.
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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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