Acupuncture More Effective than Pills for Gout Relief
/A unique form of arthritis, gout is most often experienced as a sudden and painful attack of swelling, redness and pain in the joints — commonly the feet. It can appear out of nowhere, and can come and go, only adding to the frustration of the disease.
Thankfully, it has been proven acupuncture can help. In fact, it’s even more effective than traditional medicine in treating gout.
All patients in the study were, “given standardized lifestyle and dietary advice to help them manage their condition. This included reducing their dietary intake of high-purine foods, organ meats, and alcohol. Patients were counseled on avoiding stress, cold temperature exposure, and overwork. All patients were advised to increase water consumption.”
These are healthy habits that can hep to improve anyone’s lifestyle and overall health.
As far as the two study groups, those in the drug group were prescribed indomethacin enteric-coated 75 mg tablets to be taken twice daily for 10 days.
Patients in the acupuncture group did not take the medication, and instead had acupuncture treatment administered at the following primary acupoints:
Zusanli (ST36)
Sanyinjiao (SP6)
Yinlingquan (SP9)
Quchi (LI11)
Ashi points
Overall, HealthCMI reports that . acupuncture produced a higher total effective rate than the medication, including greater reductions in pain, swelling, and redness.
The study yielded an 86.96% effective rate in improvements in a patients clinical symptoms, as opposed to those who were taking the pharmaceutical. Unsurprisingly, acupuncture also caused fewer adverse reactions, with an incidence of just 2.17% compared with 23.91% in the drug group.
The numbers speak for themselves.
There are ways to prevent gout, too. The MayoClinic recommends:
Drinking plenty of fluids
limiting or abstaining from alcohol
Increasing protein from low-fat dairy . products
Limiting intake of fish, meat and poultry
Maintaining a healthy body weight