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Chronic Pain
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Pain
Is acupuncture medically proven to be a long-term solution for muscle pain?
Is acupuncture medically proven to be a long-term solution for muscle pain?
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No. Acupuncture has not been proven to be a long-term solution for muscle pain.
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InteliHealth
2010-05-05
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Diana Post, MD
2012-05-05
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Harvard Medical School
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General Medical Questions
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Q: Is acupuncture medically proven to be a long-term solution for muscle pain?
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The Trusted Source
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Diana Post, M.D., is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

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May 05, 2010
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A:

No. Acupuncture has not been proven to be a long-term solution for muscle pain.

Acupuncture has been studied for many chronic pain conditions, but there have not been good, long-term studies treating chronic muscle pain.

Some studies have shown that acupuncture may be beneficial for certain painful conditions. These include chronic back pain, headaches and knee arthritis. Most of these studies compared acupuncture to a placebo (or "sham") acupuncture or to no treatment. (Sham acupuncture involves using acupuncture points that are not felt to be useful, and inserting needles only to a superficial depth.)

These studies have shown that acupuncture appears to be no better than "sham" acupuncture, but that it is probably better than no treatment at all for these conditions.

More research is needed to look at acupuncture for muscular pain.

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