Osteoarthritis involves damage to articular cartilage and other structures in and around joints, with variable levels of inflammation.(Hunter 2006) The most commonly affected joints are the knee and the hip.
Acupuncture treatment may help to relieve pain and improve function in patients with osteoarthritis by:
reducing inflammation, by promoting release of vascular and immunomodulatory factorsincreasing local microcirculation , which aids dispersal of swelling.inhibiting painstimulating nerves located in muscles and other tissues, which leads to release of endorphins and other neurohumoral factors, and changes the processing of pain in the brain and spinal cordinhibiting the activity of cytokines that are mediators of inflammation, including interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6 and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha (Xu 2009; Wu 2010);
Below is a video of a group of ladies receiving acupuncture via the NHS in a group setting. The video shows that acupuncture has helped a group of selected patients who otherwise would of had replacement knee surgery.
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