Although there are several treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, including JAK inhibitors and corticosteroids, there is no cure for this disease. There are things people can do to reduce pain, such as getting a massage or acupuncture treatment.
Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine rooted in traditional Chinese medicine. According to NIHTTrusted Source, this involves “using small needles or pressure on specific points on the body.”
In addition to helping relieve the pain of rheumatoid arthritis, acupuncture can also treat other painful conditions, including mood disorders, nausea, and fibromyalgia.
Acupuncture induces changes in the central nervous system, resulting in relief. The NIHTTrusted source explains that acupuncture “suppresses the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (such as TNF-alpha)” and “promotes the expression of anti-inflammatory factors and tissue repair.”
Because people with inflammatory diseases associated with rheumatoid arthritis factors are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, including ischemic stroke, therapies that reduce the inflammatory process, such as acupuncture, may provide traditional pain relief benefits.
For this purpose, researchers used data from the Taiwan Catastrophic Disease Patient Database to determine whether there is an association between acupuncture and stroke in rheumatoid arthritis participants.
The authors included subjects who were at least 18 years old, had no barriers to health insurance, and had no history of stroke before the start of the study window.
The participant sample included 23,226 people with rheumatoid arthritis diagnosed between 1997 and 2010. Of that group, 12,266 people received an average of 10 acupuncture treatments over a 3-year period.
The pool of participants is mainly women, and while the researchers included adults of all ages, the age group of 40-59 women comprised the majority of participants.
After collecting this data, they looked at how participants received treatment and major health events during the study period. By the end of the follow-up period, more than 900 participants had an ischemic stroke. Ischemic stroke cuts off the blood supply to the brain.
Of those participants, 341 from the acupuncture group had an ischemic stroke. Compared to the group that did not receive acupuncture treatment, the risk of stroke was reduced by 43%.
When the researchers looked more closely at the data to see if different demographics or medical conditions might have affected these findings, they found no evidence of this.
“The benefit of acupuncture treatment in reducing ischemic stroke in patients with rheumatoid arthritis was independent of sex, age, type of medication used, and comorbidities,” the author concluded.
The author also noted that “because it cannot be directly proven through our research design … but it offers important ideas for future research.” Tadwalkar was the first to show that rheumatoid arthritis can cause cardiovascular diseases such as stroke.
Dr. Tadwalkar continued, “This inflammatory process damages the lining of blood vessels and leads to narrowing of the arteries and increased susceptibility to heart attack and stroke.
Dr Tadwalkar found the research findings “exciting”.
“We see the possibility of an association between acupuncture and reducing the risk of stroke in people managing rheumatoid arthritis,” said Dr. Tadwalkar. “The review suggests that acupuncture may play a more important role than traditional approaches and impact overall health outcomes in this patient population.”
