Laser acupuncture plus vitamins beneficial in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis

Laser acupuncture, when combined with supplementation with calcium and fluoride-containing vitamin D, appears to increase forearm bone mineral density (BMD) and reduce wrist pain in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, according to the results of a randomized controlled trial.

The trial included 68 postmenopausal women diagnosed with osteoporosis. They were randomly assigned to receive vitamin supplements alone (drug-only group, n=34) or in combination with laser acupuncture therapy (drug/acupuncture group, n=34).

All patients received calcium and vitamin D₃ that contained fluoride, administered daily for 12 weeks. Participants in the drug/acupuncture group also underwent three sessions of laser acupuncture therapy, with each session lasting 20 minutes.

The BMD of the nondominant arm was assessed at the end of treatment as the primary endpoint. Wrist pain was also evaluated as a secondary endpoint.

By the end of treatment, T-scores of forearm BMD had improved in both treatment groups, but the increase was greater in the drug/acupuncture group (from −2.944 at baseline to −1.652) than in the drug-only group (from −2.844 at baseline −2.597; p<0.0001).

The same was true for wrist pain, with the visual analogue scale score decreasing at a greater extent in the drug/acupuncture group (from 7.24 at baseline to 3.09) than in the drug-only group (from 7.50 at baseline to 4.24; p<0.0001).

The difference in the improvements in both BMD and pain score between the drug/acupuncture group and the drug-only group was significant (p<0.0001).