Plantar Fasciitis and Acupuncture, A Solution.

Plantar Fasciitis (PF) is a frequently seen musculoskeletal problem of the foot which we treat successfully, almost daily, at the Northside Holistic Center. PF is a painful inflammatory process of the plantar fascia, which is the connective tissue on the sole of the foot beginning at the base of the heel and spreading across the foot toward the toes. It is quite a common problem and can mainifest in two distinct populations: athletes who use their feet a lot and heavier people whose feet bear the brunt of the excessive weight. Those who are suffering with PF, and there are as many as 2 million Americans who go through this each year, experience pain in all or part of this region. The pain is often at its worst as they get out of bed in the morning and can often be exacerbated by flexing the muscles in the toes to bring the toes closer to the shin (referred to as 'dorsiflexion').

PF can trigger many other problems including heel spurs caused by the chronic inflammation in the region causing the calcification, as well as knee and back pain caused by gait changes associated with the pain from the feet. When our patients have been suffering for a long time with plantar fasciitis we will often work on these linked issues at the same time as the problem in the plantar fascia, which is at it's source.

Acupuncture is incredibly useful in remedying this problem and can be used alone or in conjunction with other modalities such as stretching, custom orthotics and physical therapy. It tends to perform much better, long term, and with fewer side effects than steroid injections.

 

Research/Articles

A Greek study entitled, Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis in Recreational Athletes: Two Different Therapeutic Protocols, (which can be read about here) found that:

Acupuncture should be considered as a major therapeutic instrument for the decrease of heel pain in plantar fasciitis (PF) . . . Scores for pain and mobility/function were significantly smaller [indicating improvement] in the acupuncture group after two months of treatment.

One treatment protocol for plantar fasciitis involves treating the unaffected side. We tend to use this technique when the affected side is so painful that the patient can not bear to be touched in that region. While on the surface this may appear counterintuitive, it is supported by thousands of years of clinical experience. A recent Japanese study demonstrates how this may work from a Western perspective and can be read about here:

Blood supply to the Achilles tendon can be increased by treating the contralateral [opposite side] tendon with either acupuncture or a heat pack. Japanese scientists used lasers to measure blood volume (THb) and oxygen saturation (StO2) of treated and non-treated tendons during treatment (10 minutes for acupuncture, 20 minutes for heat) and recovery periods (40 minutes). During both treatments, THb and StO2 of the treated tendon increased significantly from the resting level. The increased THb and StO2 of the treated tendon were maintained until the end of the recovery period after removal of the acupuncture needle, but they decreased after removal of the hot pack. Although THb of the non-treated tendon did not change during either acupuncture or heat treatment, it increased gradually after removal of the acupuncture needle or hot pack. The authors suggest that blood circulation to an injured tendon in a plaster cast could be improved by applying acupuncture or heat treatments to the contralateral healthy limb.

A British study, from the Orthopedics Department of a Bedford hospital [read it here], on the effects of acupuncture for non-responsive plantar fasciitis concluded that:

Our study demonstrates that acupuncture is effective in treating patients with chronic heel pain due to plantar fasciitis and that the addition of trigger point acupuncture in poor or non-responders may be useful.  

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) made available the abstract of a study demonstrating the efficacy of acupuncture for plantar fascitis, finding a success rate of more than 80%. The study can be read about here.

Largest Study Ever Concludes that Acupuncture 'Very Effective in Treating Pain'

From the Annals of Internal Medicine comes the results of the largest study ever on acupuncture and pain management. Business Insider reported on this study and quotes it as saying, 

Data compiled from 29 studies of almost 18,000 people found that acupuncture was better at relieving pain than not having the treatment at all or undergoing a sham procedure, according to research reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine today.

While this finding is hardly surprising to acupuncturists or the millions of clients who have experienced the benefits of acupuncture treatments for their pain issues, it is reassuring to have such a prestigious journal publish such uniformly positive results.

Acupuncture Helps Heal Cervical Disc Damage

A recent large study concluded that acupuncture was more useful than medication or surgery in helping repair cervical disc herniation. An article about the study, which can be read about here, adds,

This research is not isolated. Numerous studies have demonstrated that acupuncture is beneficial to patients with neck pain, including disc herniations. Perhaps most striking was a large scale, multi-year study of approximately 18,000 patients. Published in the prestigious Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers concluded that acupuncture is effective for the treatment of neck and back pain, osteoarthritis, headaches and shoulder pain. The investigators noted, “Acupuncture is effective for the treatment of chronic pain and is therefore a reasonable referral option.” In a similar investigation, researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, and the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine concluded that, “Recent clinical trial and systematic review results clearly show acupuncture to be more beneficial than conventional standard care for many pain conditions….”

Acupuncture Improves Outcome for Lung Cancer Chemotherapy.

Oncologists have been searching for years for a means to reduce the toxicity of lung cancer therapy. New research suggests that acupuncture may provide a solution. A study looking at managing side effects of Taxol, found that stimulating acupoints caused the drug to become focused in the lung tissue, where it could do the most good and less concentrated in other body tissues where the presence of the drug could elicit side effects.

The researchers note that electroacupuncture influences “tissue distribution of Paclitaxel.” Additionally, they posit that tissue distribution changes may be one of the effective action mechanisms by which acupuncture exerts its therapeutic effects during chemotherapy. They concluded, “Acupuncture at Feishu acupoint facilitated the delivery of Paclitaxel to lung more effectively than did acupuncture at Lingtai acupoint.” In addition, both acupuncture points “resulted in an obvious decrease of Paclitaxel distribution in kidney and delayed Paclitaxel distribution in liver.” 

Acupuncture Outperforms Drug Therapy for Rheumatoid Arthritis

While not surpising to those of us who treat autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis on a daily basis, it is refreshing to see research backing up our therapeutic strategies. A study compared acupuncture and Chinese herbal therapy to conventional immunomodulating drug therapies and found that Chinese medicine worked better for patients than the Western medical options.

Researchers concluded that acupuncture combined with a special herbal formula produces positive patient outcomes for rheumatoid arthritis sufferers. In a surprise finding, the acupuncture combined with herbal medicine group outperformed the drug control group. Members of the drug group received a combination of NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications) combined with a powerful anti-rheumatic drug, methotrexate. The acupuncture combined with herbal medicine group had an overall effective rate of 95.08% and the drug group had an effective rate of 68.85%. Acupuncture applied to the back reduces pain according to a new study. In addition, the adverse side effects associated with the drug group was significant at 18.0% whereas the acupuncture combined with herbal medicine group had a 3.2% adverse effect rate. The researchers concluded that acupuncture with herbs is safer and more effective than NSAIDs combined with methotrexate.