Allergy Treatment with Acupuncture

This spring’s allergy season has been a severe one and here in Florida it can be a a problem all year round as various tropical trees and shrubs bloom and thrive in any season. Acupuncture has already been seen to help relieve pain in patients and a new study indicates that it might relieve allergies as well.

Many patients plagued with allergy symptoms like sneezing, watery eyes and a scratchy throat use over-the-counter antihistamines for relief, but now more and more are turning to acupuncture and herbal treatments when they find that the medications don’t alleviate the symptoms or produce unwanted side-effects such as drowsiness. Acupuncture has no known side-effects and now, as reported on CNN.com, a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows that many patients report relief after undergoing acupuncture treatment for allergies.

The researchers put patients into three groups: one received 12 acupuncture treatments and took antihistamines as needed, a second group received 12 fake acupuncture treatments (needles placed at random, non-meaningful points in the body) and took antihistamines as needed, while the final group only took antihistamines for symptoms.

After two months, the researchers asked the patients about their symptoms and how much medication they used. The participants who received the real acupuncture treatments with their antihistamines showed a greater improvement in their allergy symptoms and less use of antihistamines compared to the other group.

 Due perhaps to the unusually mild winter in Florida and around the country, many people have been reporting more severe allergy symptoms this year. If you’re suffering from allergies, give us a call at 305-394-0668 to see if acupuncture can help you.