Biopuncture for Knee Pain
Although many patients have experienced good clinical results from receiving biopuncture for pain management, there have been few clinical studies done to validate claims of it’s efficacy. Recently, however, at the American College of Rheumatology 2014 Annual Meeting a study of 232 patients with knee osteoarthritis was presented that substantiates these claims.
In the multi-center, double-blind, randomized, controlled trial, 232 patients with moderate-to-severe chronic knee osteoarthritis were randomized to three weekly injections of a low dose FDA approved botanical product or saline. By day 15, patients experienced significant reductions in pain without any serious adverse events.
Dr. Carlos J. Lozada, M.D., Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, stated in his presentation: “This treatment protocol provided statistically significant and clinically relevant pain relief for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, a condition for which pain relief can be challenging to achieve. This potentially represents an additional option in the management of osteoarthritis, especially for those patients who cannot tolerate non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), are not candidates for corticosteroid treatment, or do not respond to other therapies.”
These low dose botanical products are listed in the Physician’s Desk Reference and have been available globally for more than 60 years to help manage the pain of osteoarthritis. In the last 10 years, more than 1.5 million ampules of these remedies have been sold in the U.S. alone. In my professional clinical experience this approach provides a safe and effective treatment, not only for knee pain but also for shoulder, ankle, and low back pain. Hopefully additional clinical trials will soon acknowledge the benefit of these products for other painful conditions. If you are interested in learning more about how biopuncture might help your particular situation, please contact our office for further information.
