Acupuncture For Fibromyalgia Pain Relief
Fibromyalgia is a syndrome that causes chronic pain and fatigue. The cause is unknown and there is no agreed
treatment.
A study from the Mayo Clinic1 suggests that acupuncture may be useful in relieving the pain of fibromyalgia. The Mayo fibromyalgia acupuncture study involved 50
fibromyalgia patients enrolled in a randomized, controlled trial to determine if acupuncture for fibromyalgia
pain relief improved symptoms.
Symptoms of fibromyalgia in patients who received acupuncture significantly improved compared with the control
group, according to the study.
"The results of the study convince me there is something more than the placebo effect to acupuncture," says
David Martin, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the acupuncture article and a Mayo Clinic anesthesiologist.
"It affirms a lot of clinical impressions that this complementary medical technique is helpful for patients."
Patients who received acupuncture for pain relief in fibromyalgia reported improvement in chronic fatigue and
anxiety, among other symptoms. Acupuncture was well tolerated, with minimal side effects.
Another study however failed to show any improvement in fibromyalgia when acupuncture was added to the
treatment regimen. In this study of 100 patients the aim was to see whether real acupuncture was more effective
than sham acupuncture at treating fibromyalgia patients.
The researchers assigned patients to 12 weeks of twice-weekly treatment with either true acupuncture for
fibromyalgia or 1 of 3 comparison groups. All 3 comparison groups were a form of sham acupuncture. All patients
could continue whatever other treatments they had been using for fibromyalgia before the study started. The
researchers collected patient ratings of pain after 1, 4, 8, and 12 weeks of treatment and at 18 and 24 weeks after
treatment was over.
The results failed to show any benefit from acupuncture compared to sham acupuncture.2
1.Reference: Martin DP, Sletten CD, Williams BA, et al. Acupuncture
Improves Symptoms of Fibromyalgia: A Randomized, Controlled Trial. Abstract #1260-P130. Presented at the 11th World
Congress on Pain, Sydney, Australia, Aug. 25, 2005.
2.A Randomized Clinical Trial of Acupuncture Compared with Sham
Acupuncture in Fibromyalgia Nassim P. Assefi, Karen J. Sherman, Clemma Jacobsen, Jack Goldberg, Wayne R. Smith, AND
Dedra Buchwald Annals of Internal medicine 2005 143: 10-19
Resources
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Biomedical Acupuncture for Pain Management: An Integrative
Approach
This is text book for practitioners who wish to or who already do, incorporate
acupuncture into their practice.
This book has received very positive feedback from practitioners and patients alike.
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Acupressure Atlas
"Both the medical doctors authoring this book, have through painstaking thoroughness,
explained and elucidated every point, meridian and technique to facilitate the reader to obtain
expertise in this self-healing form of treatment." (Sheela Bhojwani, East and West
Series, Vol. 50, No. 3, Mar 2008 )
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Acupressure Points
"This is a very useful reference for anyone interested in playing an active part in
healing themselves. Just look up your complaint (headache, nausea, etc) and the book provides
several points that may help, along with a description of the points, their names and what they
are specifically helpful for.
The book also provides detailed instructions and photos to help you get the proper position of
the points. Very easy to use and understand." 
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The Trigger Point Therapy Work Book
Most acupuncture points coincide with the “trigger points” described by Janet G. Travell, MD,
whose textbook, "Myofascial Pain & Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual" is widely used at
pain management centers in the Western world.
The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook
"This is an excellent book (with medical references) that does a very good job of helping you
get rid of pain..." Customer
"After a full year of severe dysfunction of my right hand, arm, and particularly my right thumb
THE TRIGGER POINT THERAPY WORKBOOK revealed to me the astonishing fact that most of my trouble
was being caused by 'trigger points' in the scalene muscles of my neck and also in the area
above my clavicle. What could I do about it? Simply massage them away - within half an hour of
hitting the correct locations my right thumb (and hand and arm) seemed to heal by about 60%!
The rest of the healing took maybe 3 more weeks of finding these things and methodically
deactivating them..."
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