07.05.09
Can External Qigong Therapy Benefit Osteoarthritis of the Knee?
External qigong therapy (EQT) is a traditional Chinese medicine practice that has been found to reduce pain. Researchers studied the effects of external qigong therapy on patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) (Chen et al., 2008).
A total of 112 patients with knee OA were involved in the study. The test groups were treated by two therapists with EQT individually, for five to six sessions in 3 weeks. The control group was treated by the sham healer with the same number of sessions and duration.
The study found that the treatment groups had significant reduction in pain after intervention. Specifically, patients treated by one healer reported better outcomes with more reduction in pain, greater improvement in functionality, and reduction in negative mood. However, patients treated by the other healer did not have such significant improvement.
The results of therapy lasted at 3 months follow-up. This study indicates that external qigong therapy might be helpful for the treatment of OA. However, it seems the efficacy is relevant to the quality of the healer. More studies with a larger scale are needed to find out the role of external qigong therapy in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.
Reference:
Chen, K. W., Perlman, A., et al. (2008) Effects of external qigong therapy on osteoarthritis of the knee. A randomized controlled trial. Clin Rheumatol 27, 1497-1505.
