If they are doing it in the olympics, should we?

After seeing so many athletes with cupping therapy during the Olympic games, I became curious if this was actually a good therapy for muscular tension.  Of course, I wanted to know the actual Treatment Score and efficacy of cupping on muscular disorders.  I went to PubMed and initially researched cupping therapy, figuring that was too general for what I actually wanted to know.  I was anticipating that I would have to narrow down my search to at least one body part, or one injury type. I was surprised: I found few clinical observations on cupping, and no actual randomized controlled trials. I elected to review the article on cupping in relation to lumbar myofascial pain, as that seemed to be the closest study to what I was interested in.



I went to the Treatment Scores website and put in the information that I had. Unfortunately, the entire article was not available for me to view, so I had limited information to work with. Below are the initial findings I put in the StarBlocks.



The study type only got a quality score of "60", since it was a prospective, controlled study.  The overall quality of the study was given a "B" grade.  However, the actual treatment score for acupuncture with heated lamps, versus acupuncture with cupping, was different. This can be seen in the comparison of the two treatments below.


It does appear that acupuncture can mildly improve symptoms of lumbar back pain.  However, as per above, cupping in addition to acupuncture, actually significantly helps improve back pain more than just acupuncture alone. Those Olympic athletes may actually be on to something!

Source:
[Clinical observation on therapeutic effect of cupping combined with acupuncture stimulation at trigger points for lumbar myofascial pain syndrome].
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=25219130

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DISCLAIMERS:
You must consult your own licensed physician, or other licensed medical professional, for diagnosis, treatment, and for the interpretation of all medical statistics including Treatment Scores. Treatment Scores are for educational purposes only. Treatment Scores may be incomplete, inaccurate, harmful, or even cause death if used for treatment instead of consulting a licensed medical professional. No medical advice is being given. We DO NOT CLAIM to cure, treat, or prevent any illness or condition. Nor do our services provide medical advice or constitute a physician patient relationship. Contact a physician or other medical professional if you suspect that you are ill. Call emergency services (call 911 if available) or go to the nearest emergency room if an emergency is suspected. We are not responsible for any delays in care from using our website, our services, or for any other reason. We are not responsible for any consequential damages of any nature whatsoever. We make no warranties of any kind in connection with our writings or the use of TreatmentScoresBlog.com or TreatmentScores.com. Treatment Scores are about what happened to patients studied in the past; they do not predict the future.

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Copyright © 2016 Treatment Scores, Inc.

Ouch, My Head!

Ever had a headache and medication did not work?  Ever had a migraine headache and thought, "if there was just a quick treatment for this, I'd be good and able to function the rest of the day"?  For the first time in my life, I had a migraine headache.  It was awful:  head pain, unrelentless nausea, and a full work day scheduled.  I had no idea what to do.  I thought, "gee, I wish I had medicine for this, though any medications I'm familiar with have side effects I cannot function with".  So after my headache subsided (days later), I decided to research acute migraine treatments.  I narrowed my search down to ER visits, as that seemed like the best way to actually manage an acute migraine if a person does not already have regular medical care for migraine headaches.

I found a great study comparing natural IV magnesium sulfate to commonly used migraine medications of IV dexamthasone and metoclopramide.  What this studied showed was actually very interesting.  First of all, I found that both treatments worked very well.
























As you can see above, the magnesium worked better at the 2 hour mark than did the combination therapy.  So you already assume that of course you would want the magnesium treatment, and you are right.  What you don't see from this one conclusion, however, is that at the 20 minute mark, magnesium had achieved a 35% reduction in headache pain as compared to the combination therapy, which only achieved a 9.8% reduction in headache pain.  What you also don't see are the side effects each of the therapies had.  You can see that information below:  

These two pictures further illustrate how magnesium has a Treatment Grade of an "A", while the combination therapy has a Treatment Grade of "B".   Magnesium only had a side effect rate of 4% nausea, while the combination medication had a side effect rate of 7% and included other side effects such as vomiting, lethargy and vertigo.  

It is extremely important that we have access to all of this data readily.  Had I known that I could access a single website to find out such information, I would have been able to better understand my treatment options and find adequate treatment sooner. This is not to say that all ERs would have been amenable to my own treatment suggestions, but at least Treatment Scores would have been readily disposable to them as well.  



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DISCLAIMERS:
You must consult your own licensed physician, or other licensed medical professional, for diagnosis, treatment, and for the interpretation of all medical statistics including Treatment Scores. Treatment Scores are for educational purposes only. Treatment Scores may be incomplete, inaccurate, harmful, or even cause death if used for treatment instead of consulting a licensed medical professional. No medical advice is being given. We DO NOT CLAIM to cure, treat, or prevent any illness or condition. Nor do our services provide medical advice or constitute a physician patient relationship. Contact a physician or other medical professional if you suspect that you are ill. Call emergency services (call 911 if available) or go to the nearest emergency room if an emergency is suspected. We are not responsible for any delays in care from using our website, our services, or for any other reason. We are not responsible for any consequential damages of any nature whatsoever. We make no warranties of any kind in connection with our writings or the use of TreatmentScoresBlog.com or TreatmentScores.com. Treatment Scores are about what happened to patients studied in the past; they do not predict the future.

COPYRIGHT:
Copyright © 2016 Treatment Scores, Inc.