acupuncture and phytotherapy

One of the lectures given at the Seventh National Congress of SPEM (Portuguese Society for Multiple Sclerosis) was about electro acupuncture, electro acupuncture’s effects in Multiple Sclerosis and physiological explanations for the effect of acupuncture.

As always worth it to hear a lecture by APAE (Portuguese Association of Electric Acupuncture). And the will after listening was I “want more”. One of those “want more” turned out to be expressed in a question that has not had a complete response.

To say that acupuncture is good for treating a given disease may not be the most accurate information for patients, since this disease, particularly multiple sclerosis, may have varied symptoms. The question remains: For what symptoms, in multiple sclerosis (MS), acupuncture can offer relief.

MS patients present varying symptoms. Among the many symptoms that the patient may feel is a tingling or lack of strength in limbs, visual disturbances (double vision, loss of central vision, etc …), emotional or mental changes, ataxia (involuntary trembling of the limbs) , sexual dysfunction and urinary dysfunction.

Since multiple sclerosis may be characterized by the presence of symptoms is a huge question of what it really means to say that acupuncture can help patients with multiple sclerosis.

Acupuncture has shown efficacy in treating depression, motor and sensory problems. But not yet demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of erectile dysfunction and can hardly be successfully used for all sorts of visual problems. On the other side acupuncture shows results in the treatment of sensory and motor problems but in patients whose nervous system is not suffering demyelination. Have acupuncture treatment the same results under these circumstances?

Other issues are also important. Acupuncture is good for treating acute phases of disease but not chronic phase? Can slow the progression of the disease? Or retards the evolution of some particular symptoms? All these issues are important but easily erased when buried about statements such as “acupuncture can be used to treat multiple sclerosis.”