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MONDAY, Oct. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Acupuncture
and an extract of turmeric -- the spice that gives curry its kick -- may both
offer significant pain relief to some arthritis patients, two new studies
suggest.
Reporting in the November issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a German team says a
combination of acupuncture and conventional medicine can boost quality of life
for patients suffering from osteoarthritis.
And in a second study in the same issue, American researchers say the ingestion
of a special turmeric extract could help prevent or curb both acute and chronic
rheumatoid arthritis.
The findings should be heartening to the roughly 40 percent of arthritis
patients in the United States who say they've turned to some form of alternative
medicine.
"If I had arthritis, I would be very excited about this," said Dr. Janet L.
Funk, the lead author of the turmeric study and an assistant professor of
physiological sciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
According to the Arthritis Foundation, nearly one in five Americans (46 million)
suffers from one of the more than 100 various joint diseases that constitute
arthritis. An additional 23 million have chronic joint pain that has yet to be
formally diagnosed.
Osteoarthritis is caused by a progressive degeneration of bone cartilage and is
the most common type of arthritis in the United States. Rheumatoid arthritis is
an immunological disorder characterized by a painful inflammation of the lining
of the joints.
In her study, Funk built on earlier research she had conducted with rats. Those
efforts suggested that turmeric might prevent joint inflammation.
In her current work, she first broke down the specific contents of commonly sold
turmeric dietary supplements.
In the lab, she and her colleagues then isolated a turmeric extract that was
free of essential oils and structurally similar to that found in commercial
varieties. The extract was based largely on curcuminoids -- a compound they
believed to be most protective against arthritic inflammation.
Funk's group administered the extract to female rats both before and after the
onset of rheumatoid arthritis. They then tracked changes in the rodents' bone
density and integrity.
The turmeric extract appeared to block inflammatory pathways associated with
rheumatoid arthritis in rats at a particularly early point in the development of
the disease. The extract had a beneficial impact if given three days after
arthritis set in, but not if given eight days after disease onset.
Investigations in the laboratory revealed that turmeric stops a particular
protein from launching an inflammatory "chain reaction" linked to swelling and
pain. The expression of hundreds of genes normally involved in instigating bone
destruction and swelling was also altered by the turmeric.
Funk stressed, however, that the findings are preliminary, and the extract needs
to be tested in people.
"I feel an obligation to make clear that people should not run out to buy and
consume turmeric powder," she cautioned. "First of all, a very small percent of
the ground-up root that we buy in the grocery store is the protective part of
the root, so it's not going to get you anywhere." In fact, the compound used in
the study probably makes up only about 3 percent of the weight of current
store-bought turmeric supplements, Funk said.
"That means that if this pans out in further studies, patients will be taking a
purified extract, and this is all really exciting," she said. "But we still need
conclusive proof that this extract is safe and efficacious."
In the second study, researchers led by Dr. Claudia M. Witt of Charite
University Medical Center in Berlin spent three years tracking the treatment
results of 3,500 male and female osteoarthritis patients suffering from either
knee or hip pain.
For six months, all the participants were permitted to continue whatever
conventional western medical treatments they had been undergoing prior to the
onset of the treatment trials.
However, in addition, over 3,200 of the patients also received up to 15 sessions
of needle-stimulation acupuncture during the first three months of the study.
The remaining 310 patients received no acupuncture in the first three months.
They were offered such treatment in the final three months of the study period,
however.
All acupuncture sessions were administered by physicians who had received a
minimum of 140 hours of certified training.
Symptom and pain questionnaires were completed at the onset of the study and at
three months and six months of therapy.
Patients with chronic osteoarthritis pain who underwent a combination of routine
medical care plus acupuncture demonstrated significant quality of life
improvements, the researchers found. This included increased mobility and pain
reduction above and beyond that experienced by patients who did not receive
acupuncture.
For those who began their acupuncture treatments immediately, osteoarthritis
improvement held steady three months after cessation of the sessions. For those
patients who had begun acupuncture three months into the study period,
comparable improvements occurred by the time they ended their sessions at the
six-month mark.
The authors said acupuncture appeared to be a safe medical intervention with
minor side effects observed in just over 5 percent of patients.
The study, one of the largest of its kind, demonstrated that acupuncture was a
viable therapeutic option for people suffering from osteoarthritis, the German
team said.
"I'm not surprised that people can be treated with acupuncture and get better,"
said Marshall H. Sager, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa.-based doctor of osteopathic medicine,
acupuncturist, and past president of the American Academy of Medical
Acupuncture.
"Using acupuncture adjunctively with western medicine is very common, because if
you can do both approaches, you're way ahead of the game," he said. "Some people
are not amenable to medication, either because of allergenic effects or because
they just don't want to consume artificial things. And so, this is a way to
start the healing process by engaging and stimulating the body's own inherent
ability to heal itself."
However, Sager cautioned that American patients who consider this alternative
route should choose carefully when they seek out acupuncture care.
For more of the story: click here |
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