Patients with carpal tunnel syndrome who did not respond to previous treatment experienced much less pain from their condition after treatment applying lasers and electrical stimulation to acupuncture points.

During the study, 11 patients received alternating rounds of treatment using lasers and electrical stimulation directed at acupuncture points along the hand and wrist, and a "sham" treatment, which did not provide any therapeutic benefits. Both treatments were painless, and patients could not tell which they were receiving at different times.

The investigators found that most patients reported less pain after receiving a series of real treatments, but no improvement after the sham treatment. Following the study, all were able to return to their previous jobs -- as a typist and housepainter, for example -- and most reported no deterioration in their symptoms for between 1 and 3 years after the treatment.

Acupuncture involves placing fine needles at specific points on the body's surface. Traditional theory holds that these points connect with energy pathways or meridians that run through the body, and acupuncture helps keep this natural energy flow running smoothly.

Marked by numbness and tingling in the hand and wrist, and pain that can extend up to the shoulder, carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is caused by work or hobbies that involve repetitive motions of the upper limbs. Swelling in the wrist compresses nerves that travel from the forearm to the hand through a "tunnel" in the wrist.

Treatment includes painkillers, braces, steroid injections into the joint, and surgery to "release" the ligament that runs through the tunnel and puts pressure on nerves.
However, many of those existing treatments do not work. Injecting steroids often only removes pain for 2 to 4 months, and only 40% of those who undergo surgery are eventually able to return to normal functioning.

Furthermore, those treatments can be expensive, they note. In 1993, treating one case of CTS in California cost more than $5,000 without surgery.

The study included 11 hands from 11 patients, all of whom had tried and failed previous treatments, including one person who had undergone surgery.

During the study, patients received a series of 9 to 12 treatments, either real or sham. After a treatment series, patients were then given a round of the treatment they had not yet received. The real treatment consisted of lasers and transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) directed at acupuncture points along the hand and wrist.

Three patients responded extremely well to the sham treatment, and so were not included in the analysis. Of the eight others, none experienced a reduction in pain after the sham treatment, and seven said their pain was reduced by at least half after the real treatment. All 11 were able to go back to their original jobs after the study ended.

Given how long patients live pain-free, the treatment seems to do more than just masking symptoms. Rather than just simply alleviating the pain and symptoms, the treatment appears to cure the problem.

Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation July 2002;83:978-987

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Unlike the landmark placebo study on knee surgery that was published last week, this procedure actually worked. The placebo effect in this small trial was near the 30% one typically sees in placebo trials. In other words, nearly 1/3 of the patients got better when given no "real" treatment other than the psycho-emotional belief that they would get better. There was, however, a clear difference between the laser and placebo groups: 2/3 of the group that actually received the laser acupuncture showed improvement. This is another clear indication of the validity of EFT, which operates with the acupuncture meridians. Rather than using a laser, as in this study, EFT uses gentle tapping that introduces a kinetic energy into the acupuncture meridian. While EFT can work for some carpal tunnel cases, more likely the carpal tunnel would resolve with a structural approach like the one described in the study or via NST, the technique we use in our office. NST is a gentle massage technique from Australia that has worked incredibly well for nearly all our carpal tunnel patients to permanently resolve the problem in a few sessions. NST helps your body actually repair and recover the damaged tissue; we have rarely found the need to refer any patients with carpal tunnel for injections or surgical intervention. If you are interested in this procedure, please see this list of practitioners. Health care professional should consider our NST training course in September - the only NST course being offered in the U.S. for the rest of the year. Last week one of the leading EFT practitioners in the US, Dr. Patricia Carrington, wrote me about her experiences with NST: I want to thank you for steering me to NST via your website. I have now had three treatments of it (and will take more) and am finding it extraordinary, but in unexpected ways. I went to an advanced practitioner listed on your site who fortunately works only 30 minutes from me. I had scheduled the session because of a hiatus hernia that is quite troublesome for me, but the results came in other areas. Even after the first session my fingers loosened up so much that I am literally typing twice as fast at the keyboard, and using ALL of my fingers on it for the first time in my life actually -- a real joy -- and my walking is so improved. But the most impressive thing, other than the gratifying sense of balance between left and right sides of my body that it has given me, is its mood elevating effect. I feel light and wonderfully happy even under stressful circumstances in what I can only describe as a "new" way. Dr. Patricia Carrington