Acupuncture Reduces Menopausal Pains, Study Says

A study indicates that acupuncture reduces the austerity of hot flashes, the most common symptom of menopause that causes profuse sweating, in women. About half of the women in the study had lessened the frequency of the menopausal symptom.

The study was printed in the journal Menopause on September 28, 2016. It was led by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, according to Science Daily.

Nancy Davis, Ph.D., professor of Public Health Sciences at Wake Forest School of Medicine and the lead author of the study explained that women bothered by hot flashes and night sweats may want to give acupuncture a try as a relatively low-cost and low-risk treatment. She further explained that women will know if acupuncture will work for them. Those who had the reduction in their hot flashes saw a benefit after three to four weeks of weekly treatments.

The study involved 209 perimenopausal and postmenopausal women ages 45 to 60. They experienced an average of at least four hot flashes or night sweats each day. Some of them chosen randomly had received 20 acupuncture treatments within six months.

The results showed that of the 170 women who had acupuncture treatment, about 11.9 percent of them had an 85 percent decrease in hot flashes by the eighth week of the study. In the study group, about 47 percent of them had a 47 percent decrease with the same time frame. On the other hand, 37 percent had a 9.6 percent slight reduction of hot flashes and four percent had a 100 percent increase in the frequency of hot flashes.

Acupuncture derived from Latin word acus meaning needle and puncture -to puncture. It is a type of alternative medicine that involves thin needles being inserted into the body. It is also referred to as the traditional Chinese medicine. Acupuncture is used for treating pain relief and other medical conditions.