Fibromyalgia

Presentation Slides

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

Acupuncture showed a significant effect in the management of fibromyalgia patients. It reduced pain, depression, and enhanced quality of life.

2022 Healthcare Efficacy of Acupuncture, Intravenous Lidocaine, and Diet in the Management of Patients with Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis
Almutairi NM, Hilal FM, Bashawyah A, Dammas FA, Yamak Altinpulluk E, Hou JD, Lin JA, Varrassi G, Chang KV, Allam AES

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

Acupuncture is more effective than control treatment in alleviating pain and improving well-being in both the short- and long-term in patients with fibromyalgia.

2022 Journal of Pain Research Effect of Acupuncture on Pain, Fatigue, Sleep, Physical Function, Stiffness, Well-Being, and Safety in Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Zheng C, Zhou T

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Review Article

Increasing evidence supports the use of acupuncture as part of multimodal approaches to the treatment of fibromyalgia with additive efficacy to traditional therapy.

2021 Orthopedic Reviews Efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of fibromyalgia
Berger AA, Liu Y, Nguyen J, Spraggins R, Reed DS, Lee C, Hasoon J, Kaye AD

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

The majority of studies concluded the superiority of short-term analgesic effects over various controls and suggested that acupuncture may be efficacious for chronic musculoskeletal pain.

2020 Current Rheumatology Reports Acupuncture and Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain
Zhang YJ, Wang C

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

Acupuncture is an effective and safe treatment for patients with fibromyalgia. It may be more effective in relieving pain in both the short and long term compared with conventional medication.

2019 Journal of Pain Research Acupuncture therapy for fibromyalgia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Zhang X, Chen H, Xu W, Song Y, Gu Y, Ni G

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

Chili pepper has preventive and therapeutic properties for many ailments such as different types of cancer, rheumatism, stiff joints, bronchitis and chest colds with cough and headache, arthritis, heart arrhythmias and used as stomachic.

2018 MOJ Food Processing & Technology Medicinal uses and health benefits of chili pepper (Capsicum spp.) : a review
Saleh BK, Omer A, Teweldemedhin B.

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

Compared with no treatment and standard therapy, acupuncture improves pain and stiffness in people with fibromyalgia.

2013 Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews Acupuncture for treating fibromyalgia
Deare JC, Zheng Z, Xue CC, Liu JP, Shang J, Scott SW, Littlejohn G.

Executive Summary

Write an executive summary in the form of a blog article on the topic of "Research into Chinese medicine treatment for Fibromyalgia" summarising the research below and using language that can be easily understood by patients and avoiding medical jargon using a professional and caring tone of voice.

Write an executive summary in the form of a blog article on the topic of "Researched Chinese medicine treatments for Fibromyalgia" summarising the research below in an objective and easy to understand way, and using language that can be easily understood by patients. Group the article into Chinese medicine treatments first, followed by nutrition and other treatments. Avoid using medical jargon and use a professional and caring tone of voice.

Write me a concise but easy to understand executive summary on the topic of "Chinese medicine treatments for Fibromyalgia" based on the following research that I will give you. Your summary should be 2 paragraphs long in Australian English spelling and include references to the studies.

A Systematic Review published in 2022 in the journal Healthcare found that Acupuncture showed a significant effect in the management of fibromyalgia patients. It reduced pain, depression, and enhanced quality of life. There were 23 included RCTs. The total sample size was 1409 patients. Compared with the sham/placebo group, the network analysis showed the highest improvement in the quality of life in the acupuncture group standardized mean difference, and then in the physiotherapy group. For the pain, there was a significant reduction with acupuncture, compared with sham/placebo. Regarding depression, it showed a significant reduction with acupuncture compared with sham/placebo. Finally, for stiffness, it showed no significant differences in the stiffness between acupuncture, fluoxetine, and physiotherapy compared with sham/placebo.

A Systematic Review published in 2022 in the journal Journal of Pain Research found that Acupuncture is more effective than control treatment in alleviating pain and improving well-being in both the short- and long-term in patients with fibromyalgia. This meta-analysis included 12 studies with 715 participants comparing the effects of real acupuncture with control intervention. The results indicated that acupuncture could effectively relieve pain and improve well-being in patients with FM, with both short - and long-term benefits. However, acupuncture had no effect on fatigue, sleep, physical function, and stiffness compared with control treatment. The subgroup analysis indicated that the real acupuncture group produced more analgesic effects than the control group, with different number of sessions, types of acupuncture, and stimulation. In addition, acupuncture was not associated with serious reactions and had a reliable safety profile.

A Review Article published in 2021 in the journal Orthopedic Reviews found that Increasing evidence supports the use of acupuncture as part of multimodal approaches to the treatment of fibromyalgia with additive efficacy to traditional therapy. Given the positive evidence in most studies examining the use of acupuncture as an adjunct to exercise, physical therapy, or pharmacological treatment, and in light of the safety and availability of the treatment, there seems to be increasing evidence supporting the incorporation of acupuncture as part of multi-modality treatment plans for fibromyalgia.

A Systematic Review published in 2020 in the journal Current Rheumatology Reports found that The majority of studies concluded the superiority of short-term analgesic effects over various controls and suggested that acupuncture may be efficacious for chronic musculoskeletal pain. We examined 16 review articles and 11 randomized controlled trials published in the last 5 years on the clinical efficacy of acupuncture in adults with CMP conditions. The available evidence suggests that acupuncture does have short-term pain relief benefits for patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis and chronic low back pain and is a safe and reasonable referral option. Acupuncture may also have a beneficial role for fibromyalgia. However, the available evidence does not support the use of acupuncture for treating hip osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

A Systematic Review published in 2019 in the journal Journal of Pain Research found that Acupuncture is an effective and safe treatment for patients with fibromyalgia. It may be more effective in relieving pain in both the short and long term compared with conventional medication. We included 12 RCTs that compared acupuncture therapy to sham acupuncture or conventional medication. With respect to reducing pain (VAS 0–10 cm scale), there was moderate-quality evidence showing that real acupuncture was more effective than sham acupuncture in the short term, and similar results were obtained with low-quality evidence in the long term. With respect to improving the quality of life, there was low-quality evidence showing that real acupuncture was more effective than sham acupuncture in both the short and long term. In the comparison of acupuncture vs conventional medication, we found very low-quality evidence showing that acupuncture was more effective in relieving pain in both the short and long term.

A Systematic Review published in 2018 in the journal MOJ Food Processing & Technology found that Chili pepper has preventive and therapeutic properties for many ailments such as different types of cancer, rheumatism, stiff joints, bronchitis and chest colds with cough and headache, arthritis, heart arrhythmias and used as stomachic. A vanilloid receptor known as VR1 which was later found to be member of the family TRP and was called TRPV1 (transient receptor potential vanilloid subtype 1) is the receptor for capsaicin and is universally distributed in the brain, sensory nerves, dorsal root ganglia, bladder, gut, and blood vessels. Capsaicin is activate and then desensitize or block VR1 and was found to be powerful drug in animal models of human disease. Capsaicin plays a potential role in cardiometabolic protection through the activation of TRPV1 in different target organs or tissues, which suggests that TRPV1 may be a promising target for the management of cardiometabolic diseases such as obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes and atherosclerosis. However, association between the dosage of dietary capsaicin and the effect on cardiometabolic protection need to be clarified for determining the daily usage or intake of capsaicin or its derivatives. The activation of VR1 by capsaicin make it possible to be involved in various human disease states ranging from genetic pain insensitivity to chronic pain syndromes. In addition to that VR1 has much broader clinical benefits than mere pain case. Chili pepper has preventive and therapeutic properties for many ailments such as different types of cancer, rheumatism, stiff joints, bronchitis and chest colds with cough and headache, arthritis, heart arrhythmias and used as stomachic. Chili preparations for treating ailments can be standard capsaicin, pharmaceutically prepared gels, creams and plasters, essential oils distilled from pods, powder prepared by crashing pods and extracts by soaking pods in water or ethanol.

A Systematic Review published in 2013 in the journal Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews found that Compared with no treatment and standard therapy, acupuncture improves pain and stiffness in people with fibromyalgia. There is low to moderate-level evidence that compared with no treatment and standard therapy, acupuncture improves pain and stiffness in people with fibromyalgia. There is moderate-level evidence that the effect of acupuncture does not differ from sham acupuncture in reducing pain or fatigue, or improving sleep or global well-being. EA is probably better than MA for pain and stiffness reduction and improvement of global well-being, sleep and fatigue. The effect lasts up to one month, but is not maintained at six months follow-up. MA probably does not improve pain or physical functioning. Acupuncture appears safe. People with fibromyalgia may consider using EA alone or with exercise and medication. The small sample size, scarcity of studies for each comparison, lack of an ideal sham acupuncture weaken the level of evidence and its clinical implications. Larger studies are warranted.

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