Acupressure, Too, For Low Back Pain

Last month we reported that yoga has a beneficial effect in treating chronic low back pain. Now a randomized study has been reported in the British Medical Journal showing that acupressure is superior to physical therapy in relieving low back pain.

A clinic in Taiwan treated 129 patients with chronic low back pain with acupressure from an experienced therapist or with physical therapy, for one month. Recognized scales (translated into Chinese) were used to score the results at the end of the treatment period. Average scores for ‘low back pain’, ‘leg pain’, interference with normal work’, and ‘days off work/school’ were lower for the acupressure group that for the physical therapy group. Satisfaction scores were higher in the acupressure group. And the beneficial results persisted for up to 6 months.

It’s important to note that the study was done in Taiwan , where one can expect that there are highly experienced acupressurists – probably superior in skills to local experts in physical therapy. It will be interesting to see if this study can be replicated in a ’Western’ environment, using USA-trained acupressurists and physical therapists.