Research Archive

Researchers in Denmark have compared acupuncture with transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) and analgesic medication for pain relief during labour. 607 healthy women in labour at term were randomised to receive acupuncture, TENS or analgesics. Pain scores were comparable in all groups, but use of pharmacological and invasive methods was found to be significantly lower in the acupuncture ...

Acupuncture may help alleviate dyspepsia during pregnancy, according to a Brazilian team. Forty-two pregnant women with dyspepsia were randomly allocated to receive acupuncture or conventional treatment alone. Significant improvements in symptoms were found in the acupuncture group, who also used less medication. (Acupuncture for dyspepsia in pregnancy: a prospective, randomised, controlled study. ...

One week of continuous auricular acupuncture decreases the pain and disability experienced by women with pregnancy-related low back and posterior pelvic pain. In a randomised controlled trial, American clinicians randomly assigned pregnant women to continuous auricular acupuncture, sham auricular acupuncture or a waiting list control. All participants were monitored for two weeks. Participants in ...

Ginger (Sheng Jiang) is an effective remedy for nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. A single blind clinical trial carried out in Iran randomly assigned 67 pregnant women to receive either 1000 mg ginger in capsules or placebo capsules for four days. Ginger users demonstrated a higher rate of nausea improvement than placebo users (85% versus 56%). The decrease in vomiting among ginger users was a ...

Acupuncture may be more effective than physiotherapy for pregnancy-related low-back and pelvic pain, according to a recent prospective study. Sixty pregnant women with low-back and pelvic pain were randomised to receive 10 treatments of either acupuncture (30-minute sessions, given within 1 month) or physiotherapy (50-minute sessions of counselling and physical therapies, given within 6 to 8 weeks ...

Swedish researchers have compared acupuncture with non-penetrating sham acupuncture in women with pelvic girdle pain (PGP) during pregnancy. In a randomised double-blinded controlled trial 115 pregnant women with PGP were randomly allocated to standard treatment plus acupuncture or to standard treatment plus non-penetrating sham acupuncture for eight weeks. After treatment, median pain decreased i ...

A Brazilian study which compared the levels of low back and pelvic pain in women treated by acupuncture compared to non-treated controls, found that the acupuncture group showed a greater reduction in overall pain, maximum pain and  pain at the time of interview, reduced use of analgesics, and greater capacity to perform general activities, to walk and to work. (Acupuncture in Medicine, 2004 ...

regnant women who experience exceptionally severe morning sickness may benefit from acupuncture in addition to standard treatment, researchers in Sweden report. In a study of 33 pregnant women, only 7 of 17 women were still vomiting 3 days after acupuncture compared with 12 of 16 women who received a sham acupuncture treatment, according to findings published in the October issue of the Journal of ...

In a study to assess the benefits of acupressure at Neiguan P-6 in the treatment of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, researches at Lund University in Sweden asked 60 pregnant women suffering from symptoms to a) wear a wrist band at Neiguan P-6, b) wear a wristband at a placebo point, and c) wear no wrist band. Both the Neiguan P-6 and the placebo groups showed a reduction in nausea and vomiting, ...