Self Moxibustion Promoted For Use In Military for Myofascial Back Pain

Moxibustion is an externally applied herbal technique commonly used within Chinese Medicine (see What Is Moxibustion? for more information).  Moxibustion has a wide range of uses and is often recommended by acupuncturists as a home/self treatment and used in many clinics during patient visits as well.  Recently researchers from the Acupuncture-Moxibustion department of the General Hospital of the Chinese PLA in Beijing conducted a study to evaluable the effectiveness of moxibustion for myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) of the back.

Researchers randomly divided 58 military patients into a moxibustion treatment group and a herbal plaster treatment group (herbal plasters are commonly used within Chinese Medicine for a variety of pain related issues).

Treatment within the moxibustion group entailed using moxibustion at the acupuncture point GB 34 for 15 minutes along with massage (acupressure) at the area.  Treatment was offered once a day for 5 days.

Researchers found that both groups had noted improvement in symptoms with the moxibustion group being superior to the plaster medicine group.  The total effective rate in the moxibustion group was 96.7% compared with 35.7% in the herbal plaster group.  The researchers concluded that this simple treatment is not only effective but "reduces the conventional medical cost" of back pain.