Medicina Tradicional y Naturopatía Clínica

Abstracto

Apex Ear Bloodletting, Dairy Product Restrictions and Scalp Acupuncture in Reducing Knee Pain among Patients Treated with Auricular Acupuncture-A Double Blind Study

Huang Wei Ling

Statement of the problem: According to Western medicine, chronic knee pain can have different causes. The problem is usually associated with sprained ligaments, meniscus tears, tendinitis, and runner's knee. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the energy alterations related to it, is the imbalance of the Kidney and Liver.

Purpose: To observe the effectiveness of auricular acupuncture (AA), observing: age and gender, previous treatment, use or non-use of apex ear bloodletting (AEB), influence of dairy product restrictions on the results of patients suffering from knee pain, and a numerical analysis of the quantity of pain before and after AA treatment.

Methods: Research of over 900 AA patient records: 86 (9.6%) knee pain symptoms; 40 (4.4% of total records and 46.5% of those with knee pain symptoms) reached after phone-calling.

Results: Gender: 72% female; 28% male. Side: Right Knee: 27%; Left Knee: 35%; Both: 38%. In relation to the pain improvement, when the patient followed the dairy product restrictions, compared to the other dietary restrictions, the author obtained the following results respectively: Pain improvement up to 20% (5.41% versus 0.00%); from 21% to 50% (21.62% versus 5.41%); from 51% to 80% (21.62% versus 2.70%); above 80% (37.84% versus 5.41%). The average pain intensity reduction when the pain was one knee was 4.609 to 6.751, and when the pain was in both knees, the reduction was 2.426 to 5.708. Regarding apex ear bloodletting, the females were divided into three groups according to their intensity reduction: between 70 to 100% eighty percent improved (12 patients) and twenty percent did not (3 patients), between 40 to 70% sixty-two point five percent improved (5 patients) and thirty-seven point five did not (3 patients), and up to 40% eighty-three point three percent improved (5 patients) and sixteen point six seven did not (1 patient).

Conclusion: The majority of the subjects were females. There was a reduction of pain intensity mainly in the group who did apex ear bloodletting and when the knee pain was on one side. There was a co-relation between pain reduction intensity and the avoidance of dairy products.