Acupuncture and Multiple Sclerosis

/ Dahms Acupuncture/

What is Multiple Sclerosis?

“Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated inflammatory disease that attacks myelinated axons in the central nervous system, destroying the myelin and the axon in variable degrees and producing significant physical disability within 20–25 years in more than 30% of patients.“ (1)

Signs & Symptoms

Classic MS signs and symptoms are as follows (1):

  • Sensory loss

  • Muscle cramping secondary to spasticity

  • Bladder, bowel, and sexual dysfunction

  • Dysarthria (scanning speech), nystagmus, and intention tremor

  • Bilateral facial weakness or trigeminal neuralgia

  • Heat intolerance

  • Optic neuritis

  • fatigue (70% of cases) and dizziness

  • Pain: Occurs in 30–50% of patients at some point in their illness

Recently, there was a possible link made to a previous infection with a type of herpes virus, Epstein-Barr virus.

“The underlying cause of MS remains unknown. One possibility is that it’s triggered by a viral infection. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been among the top suspects. EBV is a herpes virus that often causes no symptoms. However, it can cause infectious mononucleosis, or mono, in some people. After an EBV infection, the virus remains in a latent state within cells and, in some cases, may reactivate. EBV eventually infects about 95% of adults, but very few will develop MS.“ (2)

Acupuncture for Multiple Sclerosis

In 2022, a literature review of 31 studies was conducted. “The advantages of acupuncture are mainly reflected in regulating neuro-immune system, improving the quality of life, reducing fatigue, improving the bladder function, reducing the spasm and pain of the limbs, delaying the progression of the disease, and reducing relapses.” (3)

“Conclusions: According to the review of the recent articles, traditional Chinese acupuncture and scalp acupuncture appear to help improve the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (including fatigue, neural functional deficits, pain, gait impairments, and bladder dysfunction) and reduce relapses. Therefore, acupuncture could be used as an integrative therapy in patients with MS.” (3)

References:

(1)Medscape: Multiple Sclerosis. https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1146199-overview

(2) Longitudinal analysis reveals high prevalence of Epstein-Barr virus associated with multiple sclerosis. Bjornevik K, Cortese M, Healy BC, Kuhle J, Mina MJ, Leng Y, Elledge SJ, Niebuhr DW, Scher AI, Munger KL, Ascherio A. Science. 2022 Jan 21;375(6578):296-301. doi: 10.1126/science.abj8222. Epub 2022 Jan 13. PMID: 35025605.

(3) Khodaie F, Abbasi N, Kazemi Motlagh AH, Zhao B, Naser Moghadasi A. Acupuncture for multiple sclerosis: A literature review. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2022 Apr;60:103715. doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2022.103715. Epub 2022 Feb 26. PMID: 35259684.