Living with ongoing pain can be exhausting. Whether it's your back, neck, shoulders, knees, or persistent headaches, chronic pain has a way of affecting far more than the area that hurts. It can interrupt sleep, reduce confidence in movement, limit the activities you enjoy, and gradually wear down both body and mind.

Many people come to acupuncture after trying other approaches such as physiotherapy, exercise, medication, or massage. Sometimes these treatments help. Sometimes the relief is short-lived. It's understandable to wonder whether acupuncture is any different.

The encouraging news is that acupuncture is one of the most extensively researched complementary therapies for chronic pain.

One of the largest analyses ever conducted combined the results of 29 high-quality clinical trials involving almost 18,000 people. It compared traditional acupuncture with both sham acupuncture and usual care. Across a range of chronic pain conditions, people receiving acupuncture experienced significantly greater pain relief than either comparison group, suggesting the benefits could not be explained by placebo alone.

Researchers are still working to fully understand how acupuncture reduces pain. Current evidence suggests it influences multiple systems within the body, including the nervous system and the release of naturally occurring chemicals involved in pain regulation. It may also help reduce pain sensitivity and support the body's own healing processes.

A question I often hear is, "But does it last?"

A second large analysis looked specifically at that question. Pooling data from nineteen randomised controlled trials involving more than 20,000 people with chronic musculoskeletal pain, osteoarthritis, and chronic headaches, the researchers found that the benefits of acupuncture were largely maintained over time, with only a small reduction in effect after one year. Again, the findings suggested that the improvements were greater than could be explained by placebo alone.

No treatment works for everyone, and acupuncture is no exception. But taken together, these two major bodies of research—covering close to 40,000 patients—provide strong evidence that acupuncture can offer meaningful, lasting relief for many people living with chronic pain.

In the clinic, my focus is always on understanding why pain has become persistent in the first place. Rather than simply chasing symptoms, Japanese acupuncture looks at the wider patterns that may be contributing to ongoing pain and works gently to support the body's natural capacity to recover. For many people, that means not only feeling less pain, but also moving more freely and returning to the activities that matter most. You can read more about how I support injury and pain recovery in the clinic.

References

Vickers AJ, Cronin AM, Maschino AC, et al. Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Individual Patient Data Meta-analysis. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2012;172(19):1444–1453.

Vickers AJ, Vertosick EA, Lewith G, et al. Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Update of an Individual Patient Data Meta-analysis. The Journal of Pain. 2018;19(5):455–474.

MacPherson H, Vertosick EA, Foster NE, et al. The Persistence of the Effects of Acupuncture After a Course of Treatment: A Meta-analysis of Patients with Chronic Pain. Pain. 2017;158(5):784–793.