Acupuncture may relieve frequent urination

Acupuncture might relieve some of the symptoms of overactive bladder, if performed at specific sites on the skin. Researchers from the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland conducted a study of 85 women with the condition, marked by an overwhelming and frequent urge to urinate, found that a few sessions of acupuncture improved these symptoms for many. Women who received treatment to acupuncture points thought to affect bladder control, including areas in the lower back and abdomen, reported fewer trips to the bathroom and less urgency to urinate, as compared to their peers who had acupuncture at other sites on the skin. Both groups reported improvement in urge incontinence, or urinary leakage. Acupuncture is among the most widely practiced forms of traditional or alternative medicine, with research showing it may aid in conditions such as arthritis and post-surgery nausea. Practitioners use fine needles to pierce the skin at specific points, and then manipulate the needle by hand or, in some cases, with electrical stimulation. According to traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture points are connected to pathways in the body that conduct energy, and stimulating the points promotes the flow of this energy. Modern research has suggested that acupuncture may work by altering signals among nerve cells or affecting the release of various chemicals of the central nervous system. The procedure may help overactive bladder symptoms by decreasing nerve stimulation to the bladder. To find out researchers recruited 85 women with symptoms of overactive bladder with urge incontinence; who made at least eight trips to the bathroom a day, often had an urgent need to urinate and regularly had problems with leaking. The women were randomly assigned to receive either acupuncture to sites associated with bladder function on the inner leg, low back, lower abdomen and outer knee or placebo acupuncture to other sites on the body. After four weekly sessions, women who received the bladder-targeting acupuncture had a drop-off in both frequency and urgency symptoms. There was no clear benefit in the other acupuncture group. On the other hand, incontinence problems waned significantly in both groups. It's unclear how long the effects on bladder symptoms may last. More research is needed to see whether acupuncture could be more effective if combined with medication or other available treatments.