Acupuncture for Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid Arthritis, or RA, is an inflammatory autoimmune disease. Like with many other autoimmune diseases, RA occurs when a body’s immune system attacks healthy cells. For RA specifically, this can cause pain and aching, swelling, stiffness, fatigue, and other symptoms that interfere with day-to-day living and quality of life.
Folks with RA often live with symptoms that impair their mobility and ability to function well in their day-to-day life. Common treatments in Western medicine for RA range from increasing physical activity to some pharmacological options.
According to an article from Chou and Chu, “The mainstream of the management regarding RA is the use of nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, analgesics, and biological agents. But the concerns may arise when taking accompanying side effects and toxicity into consideration.”
Past studies on the use of acupuncture to treat and manage symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis have been promising, especially as a complementary treatment to more common Western medicine methodologies.
In acupuncture and East Asian medicine, acupuncture “has been used for thousands of years to treat various clinical disorders to treat various clinical disorders including ‘Bi’ or RA like conditions,” with some success according to Chou & Chu. Bi, the article continues, is a group of diseases that acupuncture practitioners maintain is caused by “the invasion of wind, cold, dampness, or heat pathogen on the meridians involving muscles, sinews, bones, and joints…” which manifest in the symptoms we associate with rheumatoid arthritis.
Common treatments in acupuncture and East Asian medicine for these concerns is often a combination of acupuncture, moxibustion, and other common modalities of the practice. While researchers have encountered some difficulty in determining which modality is most effective in treating RA, studies support the ability of acupuncture to treat and manage the symptoms of this autoimmune disease.
The Arthritis Foundation, an organization dedicated to research, advocacy, and education about arthritis, cites the “beneficial role in treatment for some people with rheumatoid arthritis,” that acupuncture shows in recent research, and suggests it as a natural therapy for RA.
An article from Jingwen et al. states, “Acupuncture therapy, as a complementary and alternative therapy, has definite efficacy in the treatment of RA, mainly showing obvious advantages in improving patients’ clinic symptoms, delaying disease progression, alleviating pain, etc. with small adverse reactions and low cost.”
The article from Chou and Chu states, “… acupuncture alone or combined with other treatment modalities is beneficial to the clinical conditions of RA without adverse effects reported and can improve function and quality of life and is worth trying.”
Another study found that “Evidence suggests that acupuncture alone or in combination with other treatment modalities is beneficial for clinical treatment of RA, does not results in adverse effects, and significantly improves quality of life and function.”
All in all, acupuncture and other East Asian modalities of treatment may offer patients with rheumatoid arthritis a way to manage their symptoms and lessen pain, stiffness, and swelling that is a result of their autoimmune disease.
Our offices offer robust treatments that include acupuncture, moxibustion, herbal medicine, and more. Each of our acupuncture providers would love to speak with you about managing symptoms and getting you back to a pain-free life in which you can enjoy all your usual activities. Email us at info@loveacu.net or call our offices at (503) 343 9851 for more information.
If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911. Do not wait for an appointment with us. We are happy to work with you on chronic or ongoing health conditions; however, we are not equipped for or specialized in urgent or emergent care.
For Further Reading:
“Acupuncture for Arthritis,” Arthritis Foundation.
“Intradermal acupuncture for rheumatoid arthritis,” Tials, 22; Luo & Peng, 2021.