Acupuncture can help women suffering from the most common symptoms of menopause, it is claimed.
A study suggests the ancient Chinese needle therapy can curb the severity of hot flushes and also relieve mood swings among women receiving it regularly.
Hot flushes can suddenly produce an uncomfortable feeling of intense heat, while frequent flushes at night can disrupt sleep.
The symptoms are caused by the dilation of blood vessels in the skin and are linked to hormone imbalances, but they are still not fully understood.
Medication proven to combat flushes includes Hormone Replacement Therapy and some antidepressants, which appear to damp down the body's blood vessel system.
In the study, which was published in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine, Turkish researchers looked at 53 menopausal women.
Twenty seven received acupuncture twice a week for ten weeks. This involved placing needles at certain points on the body to boost energy and release endorphins, the body's natural painkillers.
The remaining volunteers were given 'dummy' acupuncture with blunted needles.
At the end of the trial, those receiving genuine treatment had lower scores for the intensity of the hot flushes and mood swings they experienced – which progressively improved over the treatment period – compared with those given dummy needles.
The researchers said the effect on endorphins might curb flushes by stabilising the body's temperature controls, but they were unable to say how long the effect lasted after treatment finished.
The researchers admit the trial was small but claim the complementary therapy could be worth trying for menopausal women unable or unwilling to use HRT.
In a different study from Norway, women reported a reduction in frequency and intensity of hot flushes both by night and by day having used acupuncture for 12 weeks.
However David Sturdee, president of the International Menopause Society, said: "The evidence is not strong from previous studies and this is a small trial. We need to have much bigger numbers to prove this really can help women going through the menopause."
Acupuncture can help women suffering from the most common symptoms of menopause, it is claimed.
A study suggests the ancient Chinese needle therapy can curb the severity of hot flushes and also relieve mood swings among women receiving it regularly.
Hot flushes can suddenly produce an uncomfortable feeling of intense heat, while frequent flushes at night can disrupt sleep.
The symptoms are caused by the dilation of blood vessels in the skin and are linked to hormone imbalances, but they are still not fully understood.
Medication proven to combat flushes includes Hormone Replacement Therapy and some antidepressants, which appear to damp down the body's blood vessel system.
In the study, which was published in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine, Turkish researchers looked at 53 menopausal women.
Twenty seven received acupuncture twice a week for ten weeks. This involved placing needles at certain points on the body to boost energy and release endorphins, the body's natural painkillers.
The remaining volunteers were given 'dummy' acupuncture with blunted needles.
At the end of the trial, those receiving genuine treatment had lower scores for the intensity of the hot flushes and mood swings they experienced – which progressively improved over the treatment period – compared with those given dummy needles.
The researchers said the effect on endorphins might curb flushes by stabilising the body's temperature controls, but they were unable to say how long the effect lasted after treatment finished.
The researchers admit the trial was small but claim the complementary therapy could be worth trying for menopausal women unable or unwilling to use HRT.
In a different study from Norway, women reported a reduction in frequency and intensity of hot flushes both by night and by day having used acupuncture for 12 weeks.
However David Sturdee, president of the International Menopause Society, said: "The evidence is not strong from previous studies and this is a small trial. We need to have much bigger numbers to prove this really can help women going through the menopause."Acupuncture can help women suffering from the most common symptoms of menopause, it is claimed.
A study suggests the ancient Chinese needle therapy can curb the severity of hot flushes and also relieve mood swings among women receiving it regularly.
Hot flushes can suddenly produce an uncomfortable feeling of intense heat, while frequent flushes at night can disrupt sleep.
The symptoms are caused by the dilation of blood vessels in the skin and are linked to hormone imbalances, but they are still not fully understood.
Medication proven to combat flushes includes Hormone Replacement Therapy and some antidepressants, which appear to damp down the body's blood vessel system.
In the study, which was published in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine, Turkish researchers looked at 53 menopausal women.
Twenty seven received acupuncture twice a week for ten weeks. This involved placing needles at certain points on the body to boost energy and release endorphins, the body's natural painkillers.
The remaining volunteers were given 'dummy' acupuncture with blunted needles.
At the end of the trial, those receiving genuine treatment had lower scores for the intensity of the hot flushes and mood swings they experienced – which progressively improved over the treatment period – compared with those given dummy needles.
The researchers said the effect on endorphins might curb flushes by stabilising the body's temperature controls, but they were unable to say how long the effect lasted after treatment finished.
The researchers admit the trial was small but claim the complementary therapy could be worth trying for menopausal women unable or unwilling to use HRT.
In a different study from Norway, women reported a reduction in frequency and intensity of hot flushes both by night and by day having used acupuncture for 12 weeks.
However David Sturdee, president of the International Menopause Society, said: "The evidence is not strong from previous studies and this is a small trial. We need to have much bigger numbers to prove this really can help women going through the menopause."BYJenny HopeDaily Mail UK
It was June 1979 when World Health Organisation conducted a symposium on acupuncture in Bejing, China. Doctors who participated in this symposium created a list of 43 diseases that might benefit from acupuncture. This list however was not based on well design clinical trials with appropriate control. The need for performing such studies was mentioned.
Almost twenty years later, in 1997, National Institutes of Health published Consensus Statement, summarizing the state of knowledge drawn from clinical trial concerning acupuncture efficacy. The Authors concluded that there were “promising results showing efficacy of acupuncture in adult postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and in postoperative dental pain” In other conditions, mostly various kinds of pain, acupuncture “might be useful as an adjunct treatment or an acceptable alternative”
One year before publication of statement mentioned above, the meeting of scientists, called WHO Consultation on Acupuncture, was organized in beautiful Italian town of Cervia. That meeting resulted in creation of official report on the effectiveness of acupuncture based on data from controlled clinical trials. The report was finally published in 2003. The results of 255 trials published before the end of 1998 or beginning of 1999 were included.