Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Acupuncture Ibs

Question:
Just wondering if any of you have tried acupuncture to help with your crohn's or colitis symptoms.   Remicade just isn't working as well as it used to.   A friend of a friend has been getting acupuncture treatments for crohn's and swears that it has put her into remission. I'm always a bit skeptical about trying new things (and I'm not that fond of needles either),

Answer:
No never have....but trying something like acupuncture should be easy as compared to trying remicade. People have died from remicade. It has a black box warning on it...serious stuff. Plus it costs thousands and thousands of dollars just for a single treatment of remicade. I can't see acupuncture being anywhere near the cost, and it's been around for a awfully long time. Plus acupuncture is not suppose to be painful, so i can't imagine it being anything worse than what we have to go through with having IBD. There should be tons of info on acupuncture. There are no studies of acupuncture in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome. However, it was recently reported that electro-acupuncture, in which a small electrical shock is delivered via the acupuncture needle, could cause the stomachs of dogs to empty faster. This is the first clear evidence that acupuncture is able to affect the function of the bowel and suggests that acupuncture might be useful in treating irritable bowel. (More clinical trials are needed). 2 Part article.  1st part mostly discusses the disease; the second part gets into the oriental perspective. The summary of the acupuncture therapy is this: Oriental medicine approaches treatment of Crohn's disease similar to treatment of abdominal pain and diarrhea. Herbs and acupuncture are effective in controlling the symptoms and signs of Crohn's disease. Optimal treatment, however, requires full cooperation of the patient to adhere strictly to treatment and preventative guidelines.