Acupuncture for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
By Adrienne Dwllwo
Research Brief
A small but growing body of evidence suggests that acupuncture may be an effective treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome.
A recent Chinese study showed that 2 treatments from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) were effective -- acupuncture and Shenmai injection (which is composed of 2 common TCM herbs.) However, researchers say acupuncture was the far more effective treatment.
Specifically, researchers say the treatments made participants less fatigued and eased fatigue-related symptoms, such as brain function.
Last April, a separate study also out of China found that circadian rhythm (your internal "body clock") was abnormal in people with chronic fatigue syndrome, and that treatment with electroacupuncture was able to regulate the circadian rhythm and improve daytime cognitive function.
The term "electroacupuncture" has 2 different meanings. In TCM, it means using electricity in conjunction with needles to provide higher levels of stimulation. In the U.S., it's often used to describe treatment with low-voltage electricity instead of needles. The abstract didn't specify which form was used, and I can't read the article because it's in Chinese. However, since this was a Chinese study published in a Chinese journal, my assumption is that they used the TCM definition.
In Dec. 2009, another Chinese research group published a meta analysis of 28 published studies on acupuncture for chronic fatigue syndrome. It concluded that acupuncture does appear effective but that more high-quality studies need to be done before we know for sure.
If you're interested in trying acupuncture, it might help to print out the first two studies, linked above, so your acupuncturist knows which sites the researchers used.
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