News story
Acupuncture Probably Doesn't Help Erectile Dysfunction
Posted: Monday, 10 August, 2009 | Categories: Erectile Dysfunction, Treatments
Acupuncture is often touted as a miracle cure for everything from migraines to infertility. However a new study has indicated that the evidence that acupuncture can cure impotence is weak at best.
Previous studies had shown that the ancient Chinese procedure, where specific areas of the body are stimulated when special pins are inserted, could restore erectile function. They seemed to show that the needles increased the amount of nitric oxide in the body, known to help men achieve an erectile.
However reporting in the journal BJU International, a team from the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine said that having evaluated the studies, there was “no convincing evidence” that acupuncture made a difference to ED.
Looking at the data from across 80 research studies, Dr Myeong Lee and her team discovered that only two were randomized control trials, the most reliable type of trial that involves two groups of patients, half of whom are given a placebo treatment.
Out of those two, one reported that the treatment was beneficial, while the other did not. There were also two other trials identified by the authors of the study, where there was no placebo group. Both those trials showed that acupuncture was beneficial for men suffering from ED.
Dr. Lee said that this showed the design of the studies was open to bias and often suggested false-positive results. She concluded that there was no definite proof that the treatment worked and called for “more rigorous trials.”