Can acupressure improve chronic lower back pain?

A recent randomised control trail looked at the impact of on acupressure on people with chronic lower back pain.  Researchers randomly assigned 67 participants with chronic low back pain into three groups

  1. relaxing acupressure
  2. stimulating acupressure
  3. usual care

Participants in the acupressure groups were trained to administer acupressure to certain parts of the body for 30 minutes daily over 6 weeks.  Stimulating acupressure consisted of six acupoints, with four of the acupoints performed on both the left and the right sides of the body (total of 10 points). The acupoints were Du 20, Ren 6 (Ren 6), Large Intestine 4 (LI4), Stomach 36 (ST36), Spleen 6 (SP6), and Kidney 3 (K3). Participants in usual care group were told to continue with whatever treatments they were currently receiving.

Researchers found that compared to the usual care group those who performed stimulating acupressure experienced pain and fatigue improvement.

So if you have been strugling with chronic lower back pain why not book one of our deep tissue massages?

Reserach

https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine/article/20/12/2588/5522931

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