Acupuncture for chronic pain: What does the National Institute for Health Research say
In the UK each year 4 million acupuncture treatments are carried out establishing acupuncture as one of the most commonly used complementary health treatments available.
The video above was produced by the National Institute of Health Research as a summary of a review they compiled looking at acupuncture in the treatment of various different kinds of pain.
The review was large and assessed over 140 trials and concluded that acupuncture is more than a placebo in the treatment of chronic pain. The review of the trials also showed that acupuncture improved quality of in comparison to standard medical care in people with musculoskeletal pain, and that acupuncture was better than standard care in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee and outperformed both weight loss and exercise interventions.
You can read full details of the study here: