Acupuncture Improves Quality of Life for MS Patients

Electroacupuncture for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: a tiny electrical current is run between two needles.

Brazilian researchers have carried out a pilot study which shows that electroacupuncture can improve the quality of life for patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Thirty-one patients with the condition who were undergoing treatment with immunomodulator drugs, were randomly assigned to receive either electroacupuncture or sham electroacupuncture. Sessions were weekly for thirty minutes, for a period of six months, and delivered in the MS outpatient department of a university hospital by an experienced acupuncturist with more than ten years in practice.

Compared with the sham control group, the true electroacupuncture group reported enhancements in various quality of life measures, including significant reductions in pain and depression scores, improved sleep and appetite, reduced incontinence and constipation, and disappearance of leg spasms. The researchers conclude that their work provides evidence that electroacupuncture can significantly improve various aspects of the quality of life of MS patients, especially pain.

(Impact of Electroacupuncture on Quality of Life for Patients with Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis Under Treatment with Immunomodulators: A Randomised Study. BMC Complementary & Altern Medicine, November 2012.)

Author: Robin Costello

I offer traditional Chinese acupuncture in Exeter, from a tranquil clinic a mile from the city centre, and next to the University of Exeter. I graduated originally from the London School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine’s 3 year full time Acupuncture Diploma (DipAc) course. I am on the practitioners register of the British Acupuncture Council (MBAcC), a regulatory and professional body with an entry standard of a full three year undergraduate degree level training. I have worked in a hospital in south west China, deepening my knowledge and using acupuncture and Chinese massage (tuina) as the treatment of choice in its country of origin. I have taught Chinese medicine in colleges, the NHS and at university level. I also practise Qi Gong, and Chinese dietary therapy, that is the medicinal use of ordinary foods, chosen to help achieve particular therapeutic effects in different individuals.