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Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) has always posed a big problem for people who suffer from it, as proton pump inhibitors, the most common drug treatment, have serious and potentially deadly side effects.<\/p>\nGastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) has always posed a big problem for people who suffer from it, as proton pump inhibitors, the most common drug treatment, have serious and potentially deadly side effects.<\/p>\n
Now a new study has proven an old, natural method has proven extremely effective for curing acid reflux and GERD. In fact, up to 93% of participants reported complete relief.<\/p>\n
To respond to this dilemma, Chinese researchers decided to test the effectiveness of acupuncture as a treatment of GERD. They published their findings in the Journal Zhen Ci Yan Jiu<\/em> (or Acupuncture research when translated).<\/p>\n They recruited 58 people diagnosed with GERD conditions that were so bad that they could not sleep at night.<\/p>\n They then divided them into two groups: 28 who received acupuncture and 30 who received medication.<\/p>\n The medication group took a proton pump inhibitor twice a day for 8 weeks.<\/p>\n Subjects in the acupuncture group were punctured with needles to all the spots below the spinous processes, from T 3 to T 12, once every alternate day, for eight weeks.<\/p>\n The subjects were also given three questionnaires to test the severity of their symptoms before and after the treatment.<\/p>\n 1. The Reflux Diagnostic Questionnaire for heartburn, abdominal pain, acid reflux, and food regurgitation.<\/p>\n 2. The GERD symptom scale for digestion, reflux, food regurgitation, pain, cardiovascular effects, and so forth.<\/p>\n 3. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index for sleep duration and quality.<\/p>\n After the treatments, both groups had experienced significant relief from their previous state.<\/p>\n Furthermore, it could be seen that acupuncture group improved a lot more on all three-measurement questionnaires when compared to the group that took medication.<\/p>\n 1. On the Reflux Diagnostic Questionnaire, 43.3% of the medicated subjects and 71.4% of the acupuncture subjects reported being completely cured or experiencing a massive improvement.<\/p>\n 2. On the GERD symptom scale, 56.7% of the medicated subjects and 89.3% of the acupuncture subjects reported being completely cured or experiencing a big improvement.<\/p>\n 3. On the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, 60% of the medicated subjects and 92.9% of the acupuncture subjects reported being completely cured or experiencing a massive improvement.<\/p>\n If this study is right, then it would mean that acupuncture is a substantially better treatment for acid reflux than dangerous proton pump inhibitors.<\/p>\n