Acupunture Might Help Us Manage Pain

Acupuncture is so widely accepted as a healing process that even the US National Institutes of Health's CAM division states that "acupuncture is among the oldest healing practices in the world."

It has been used to treat back pain, joint pain, neck pain, and headaches.

A new study, reported on Time.com , showed that acupuncture may actually modulate the brain's perception of pain.

The study, led by Dr. Nina Theysohn at the University Hospital in Essen, Germany, and colleagues at University of Duisburg-Essenused, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to track brain activity both before and during acupuncture.

Comparisons of the brain scans before and after acupuncture showed that areas of the brain that were active during the pain stimulus were dampened during acupuncture. This led researchers to conclude that the needles actually do cause a change in the way that the brain perceives and processes pain.

The hope is that this knowledge can help us develop better ways to treat pain.