A recent research study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, has shown that Acupuncture reduces pain and the underlying inflammation in pediatric patients.
Acupuncture treatment was shown to lessen pain and reduce the underlying inflammation in pediatric patients with a diagnosis of acute appendicitis.
Researchers from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California assessed subjective pain among pediatric patients immediately before and 20 minutes after treatment by a licensed acupuncturist. The researchers also measured two biomarkers of inflammation in blood samples taken before, during, and 30 minutes after needle placement. The patients’ subjective pain decreased, likely due to the acupuncture treatment, the authors reported.
Furthermore, one of the inflammatory biomarkers (white blood cell count) “showed a modest and noticeable drop” suggesting “that the effectiveness of acupuncture may have a biophysiological basis”, said the study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.