An acupuncturist in New York City, Arkady Kiner has been practicing alternative medicine since 1999. The recipient of a master’s in oriental medicine from Mercy College, Arkady Kiner has treated a wide range of issues in his role with American Acupuncture Therapeutics PC.
A recent study at China’s Nanyang Municipal Central Hospital found acupuncture to be an effective treatment for patients with lumbar disc protrusions. The study focused on 78 patients who were diagnosed with lumbar disc protrusions between 2016 and 2017. These individuals were between the ages of 20 and 50, experienced pain in the lower back and lower extremities, and met both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine’s diagnostic criteria for lumbar disc protrusion.
Participants in the study were randomly divided into two groups: standard acupuncture and Yao San Zhen, an acupoint prescription involving the placement of three needles in the lumbar section of the spine. On average, each participant received over three months of treatment.
Both acupuncture treatments were linked to improvements in patients in regard to their Oswestry Disability Index and Japanese Orthopedic Association Lower Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire scores. The former measurement quantifies how much patients are affected by low back pain; meanwhile, the latter measurement checks patients’ degree of back pain. In addition, CT scans showed that the average size of the lumbar disc protrusion decreased after treatment, along with patients’ nerve root compression ratio.
