Does Acupuncture Help Combat Bone Loss?
/Getting a diagnosis of either osteopenia or osteoporosis can be very distressing. You want to do all you can to regain the bone you have lost and prevent further deterioration. While making sure you have adequate protein, Vitamin D, and calcium, sometimes more off-beat interventions show up as possible bone fighters as well.
I was recently asked, “Does acupuncture help combat bone loss?”
I honestly hadn't spent much time looking into it. At first, I couldn't imagine how acupuncture could help with bone. While it is well known that acupuncture can be useful for pain relief in cancer patients, people with TMJ, and low back pain, as well as helping people with insomnia and lowering blood pressure, I hadn't heard anything about it being used to treat osteopenia or osteoporosis.
With every question I get, the first thing I do is search PUBMED for quality articles. I usually look for articles published in the past 5-8 years. With this search, I have to say, there was not much there.
The most recent meta-analysis was done in 2022, Acupuncture for Osteoporosis: a Review of Its Clinical and Preclinical Studies. The authors reviewed over 100 articles published since 2000. They concluded that there is a lack of high-quality evidence for the treatment of osteoporosis with acupuncture. That said, there are a few promising studies, including those that use electro-acupuncture.
In 2023, the Effect of laser acupuncture on pain and density of bone in osteoporotic postmenopausal women: a randomized controlled trial, was published in the journal Menopause. For this study, 68 post-menopausal women between 50-60 years of age, with osteoporosis and wrist pain were treated with Vitamin D, calcium, and fluoride daily for 12 weeks. Half of the women also received laser acupuncture to the lower abdomen, back and legs for 20 minutes, 3 times a week, over 12 weeks.
Both groups showed significant improvement in their forearm t-score at the conclusion of the study. The Laser acupuncture group did a bit better. The authors stated that the exact mechanism of action promoting bone health is not known. There wasn't any long-term follow-up, and since both groups improved, the addition of Vitamin D, calcium and fluoride probably had some effect. Further investigation is needed to make actual recommendations.
It is interesting to see that the authors only reported the forearm bone density, and not the spine or femur. If they were using DEXA scans, it seems this information should have been available.
Takeaway:
If you want to spend 20 minutes, 3 times a week doing something for bone loss, a proven intervention is resistance exercise. While acupuncture has some interesting promise, the strong evidence we need for you is not here yet.
Of course, if acupuncture is something you are already doing, you can keep going and you may be getting a small bone benefit. But at this time, I would not call it a first-line defense.
Here are three exercises I would recommend spending your 20 minutes doing each week to promote bone preservation and building:
#1: Exercise One: Biceps Curl
#2: Exercise Two: Bent Elbow Fly
#3: Exercise Three: Goblet Squat / Sit to Stand at a Chair
That's it. I love your questions.
As always, my references are listed below.
I hope you found this helpful.
Andrea Trombley PT, DPT
References:
Hassan, E. S., Maged, A. M., Kotb, A., Fouad, M., El-Nassery, N., & Kamal, W. M. (2023). Effect of laser acupuncture on pain and density of bone in osteoporotic postmenopausal women: a randomized controlled trial. Menopause (New York, N.Y.), 30(5), 545–550. https://doi.org/10.1097/GME.0000000000002166
Tian, Y., Wang, L., Xu, T., Li, R., Zhu, R., Chen, B., Zhang, H., Xia, B., Che, Y., Zhao, D., & Zhang, D. (2022). Acupuncture for Osteoporosis: a Review of Its Clinical and Preclinical Studies. Journal of acupuncture and meridian studies, 15(5), 281–299. https://doi.org/10.51507/j.jams.2022.15.5.281
Zhang, J., Zhou, X., Jiang, H., Zhu, W., Chi, H., Jiang, L., Zhang, S., Yang, J., Deng, S., Li, B., Zhuo, B., Zhang, M., Cao, B., & Meng, Z. (2024). Acupuncture for insomnia symptoms in hypertensive patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in neurology, 15, 1329132. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2024.1329132