Arthritis Relief with Acupressure

This is the web page that will focus on arthritis. This page will include background, research, articles, how to start using the points, blogs, facebook, twitter connections and all other networking information. This page will be open only to people who are part of the acupressure study program and are allowing us to assist them to get the best personal results possible and to track their progress.

The link to the points for relief of arthritis are found below. In general you should include the points for arthritis along with the specific points for the part of the body (see "S" for skeleton points on the ear) or type of arthritis that you are working with.

Arthritis

Arthritis Micros

Arthritis Middle Finger

Arthritis Wrist

Arthritis Rheumatoid

Spondylitis

The Washington Acupuncture Center treated over 10,000 with acupuncture with 80% having very significant improvement. Below are their comments when considering this condition.

MUSCULOSKELETAL DISORDERS

Acupuncture will not change bony abnormalities or restore completely atrophied tissues, but it is useful for relieving pain, stiffness, and swelling of muscles and joint structures.

ARTHRITIS

The term arthritis means “inflammation of the joints,” and usually involves pain, stiffness, and limitation of function. Rheumatism is another name for it. Although arthritis occurs in a number of different forms, there are essentially two major types: (1) inflammatory, which may be exudative, proliferative, or a combination of both; and (2) degenerative, which may result from injury, malnutrition, and limited capacity of the articular cartilaginous surface to repair itself. The first group includes the types of arthritis associated with infective agents, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and connective arthitissue disorders. The second group comprises degenerative joint diseases, such as osteoarthritis and hypertrophic arthritis.

Gout is a form of arthritis characterized by increased blood uric acid and is basically a metabolic disorder. In cases of persistent gouty arthritis, acupuncture can be given along with any prescribed medication to relieve the unpleasant symptoms. Most types of arthritis tend to be relentlessly progressive, with increasing joint destruction, pain, and limitation of motion. Until the disease becomes severe, many people relieve their symptoms with non-prescription drugs containing aspirin (acetylsalysilic acid). Unfortunately, this tends to cause stomach ulcers and a generalized bleeding tendency. Phenylbutazone and indomethacin may also give temporary relief, but their use is associated with a large number of toxic, and sometimes fatal, side effects. For arthritis that does not respond to the above drugs, some physicians prescribe such toxic substances as gold salts, antimalarial agents, corticosteroids, and immu-nosuppressive therapy with cytoxan and imuran. The harm these chemicals do to a patient’s general health outweighs their temporary advantages.

Megavitamin therapy with high doses of Vitamin C and Pantothenate is helpful in reducing arthritis symptoms and the bleeding induced by many antiarthritis drugs. These vitamins help restore the function of adrenal glands suppressed by cortisone and its derivatives.They should be instituted promptly and continued after acupuncture. Corticoid drugs must be reduced very slowly to avoid serious with-drawal symptoms, but most other antiarthritis drugs can be discontinued as soon as pain is relieved by acupuncture.

The Washington Acupuncture Center has treated over 10,000 patients for various forms of arthritis and more than 80 % of them have had significant improvement. Most patients have their pain, swelling, and stiffness significantly relieved by the time they have had six to ten acupuncture treatments. Some of them have remained free from these symptoms for more than five years after their first course oftreatments. Others have had a recurrence of pain after a year or sixmonths, but the pain was relieved again after another course of treatment. Some people with severe rheumatoid arthritis have been able to stay almost symptom-free by having maintenance treatments once a week or less often. They have been able to discontinue the corticoids, phenylbutazone, gold salts, and other dangerous drugs they have been taking and have a normal life. Acupuncture will not change bony deformities, of course, but it is remarkable how well a person can function in spite of these if he is free from pain and stiffness.

CONNECTIVE TISSUE DISORDERS RELATED TO ARTHRITIS

Some serious connective tissue disorders include arthritis symptoms and are, therefore, thought to be related to arthritis. Like arthritis,they have an obscure etiology which may be similar to that of arthritis.Those which may be helped by acupuncture include lupus erythematosus, polymyositis, Sjögren’s syndrome, and Reiter’s syndrome.

Lupus erythematosus may be cutaneous or systemic, the latter being much more serious. It may afflict young people, especially women, and progress from the skin to connective tissues throughout the body. The typical skin lesions are circumscribed macules and plaques with erythema, follicular plugging, scales, telangiectasis and atrophy. Sunlight exacerbates the skin lesions. The main medications given to treat lupus are cortisone derivatives and antimalaria drugs.These medications bring only temporary relief of symptoms and may cause other problems. Selection of acupuncture points to treat lupus depends on the symptomology.

Polymyositis is simultaneous inflammation of many muscles. It is a painful and disabling condition which may respond to acupuncturefor relief of pain in the afflicted areas.

Reiter’s syndrome is urethritis, conjunctivitis, and polyarthritis. Because of the similarity of its symptoms to gonorrheal arthritis, a course of antibiotics should be given before acupuncture. The arthritic manifestations of Reiter’s syndrome should be treated with acupuncture points similar to those for treating other types of arthritis.

Sjogren’s syndrome is a symptom complex that includes polyarthritis, enlargement of the parotid gland, and drying of the conjunctiva, mucous membranes of the mouth, nasopharynx, and bronchial tree. No medications have been found helpful for treatment of this disorder.

Acupuncture & Rheumatoid Arthritis

*Acupuncture has traditionally been successfully employed in China to treat most illnesses. There is little doubt that acupuncture is an excellent therapy for people suffering with this condition as it works through the nervous system and energy channels in the body. Treatment has been shown to cause the brain to release endorphines and encephalins (natural pain killers), boost the immune system and calm the nervous system.

There are several studies suggesting that acupuncture can be very helpful in the treatment of arthritis. For instance, a recent study in Russia (1) found that 73% of patients suffering from Ankylosing Spondylitis benefitted from acupuncture treatment. When acupuncture was combined with UV light treatment the response rate increased to 93%.

In another study, 54 Rheumatoid Arthritis sufferers were given acupuncture (warm needling) with Zhuifengsu (chinese herb) The effective rate was found to be 100%. (2)

A study of auriculo-electropuncture (AEP) - treatment of points on the ear - by a double blind method was conducted in Russia with 16 arthrits patients. Not only did they all feel better as a result of the treatment but they all showed "statistically significant" improvement in blood samples. (3)

Traditional acupuncturists treat the whole person rather than a disease and therefore attempt to get to the root cause of the problem rather than treating the symptoms and, like other holistic practitioners, will consider all lifestyle and environmental factors before commencing treatment. Controlled medical tudies indicate that acupuncture is an appropriate therapy to adopt in holistic treatment of Arthritis.

(1) [The combined use of acupuncture and UV irradiation in treating the neurological manifestations of lumbar osteochondrosis] Sochetannoe primenenie akupunktury i oblucheniia UF-luchami v lechenii nevrologicheskikh proiavlenii poiasnichnogo osteokhondroza. Tsarev IuK; Troshina ED Vopr Kurortol Fizioter Lech Fiz Kult (USSR) May-Jun 1991, (3) p25-9,
(2) Effect of acupuncture and point-injection treatment on immunologic function in rheumatoid arthritis. Liu X; Sun L; Xiao J; Yin S; Liu C; Li Q; Li H; Jin B General Hospital of PLA, Beijing. J Tradit Chin Med (CHINA) Sep 1993, 13 (3) p174-8
(3) [Auriculo-electropuncture in rheumatoid arthritis (a double-blind study)] Aurikuloelektropunktura pri revmatoidnom artrite (dvoinoe slepoe ispytanie). Ruchkin IN; Burdeinyi AP Ter Arkh 1987, 59 (12) p26-30

*OBJECTIVE: Acupuncture is commonly used by patients with chronic painful musculoskeletal disorders. There are, however, few well-designed studies of its efficacy. This paper describes a randomized placebo-controlled cross-over design to evaluate acupuncture as a useful treatment adjunct in the management of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
METHODS: Sixty-four patients were centrally randomized from a hospital-based rheumatology out-patient clinic. Fifty-six patients were suitable for study, all were on second-line therapy and aged 18-75 yr. There had been no change in therapy for the preceding 3 months. Patients who had previous acupuncture, anticoagulation, fear of needles or infection were excluded. Single-point (Liver 3) acupuncture or placebo was given with an intervening 6 week wash-out period. The acupuncturist, patient and statistician were blinded as far as possible. The outcome measures included the inflammatory markers (erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein), visual analogue scale of pain, global patient assessment, 28 swollen and tender joint count, and a general health questionnaire.
RESULTS: The results demonstrated no significant effect of treatment or period and no significant interaction between treatment and period for any outcome variable. No adverse effects were reported.
CONCLUSION: Acupuncture of this type cannot be considered as a useful adjunct to therapy in patients with RA. Possible reasons why this is the case are discussed.

David J, Townsend S, Sathanathan R, Kriss S, Dore CJ Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Trust, Reading, UK.