Reported in the American Journal of Chinese Medicine, researchers from Sichuan University in Chengdu China recently conducted a study looked at the effectiveness of acupuncture for gout (gouty arthritis).  While acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) are often used to treat gout clinically the underlying mechanisms of effectiveness are not well understood.  This animal study looked at the metabolic effects of acupuncture for gout.

By injecting the rats with monosodium urate crystals the animals were essentially given acute gouty arthritis.  Metabolic analysis was done via blood and plasma levels both before and after acupuncture treatment.  As we have seen clinically acupuncture was shown to restore the metabolic levels in the rats resolving an acute flare-up of gouty arthritis.

Studies of this nature are important as we slowly move the general knowledge of the public away from the idea that acupuncture simply modulates pain.  Even when treating painful conditions such as gouty arthritis we can see that acupuncture creates measurable internal changes and relieves symptoms by resolving the core systemic imbalance.