Can Acupuncture Help You Find Relief from Sciatica?

For some, sciatica is a minor annoyance. For others, it’s downright painful. This nerve-related issue can cause burning pain in your lower back, hip, and down your leg. You may deal with numbness or pins and needles, and your affected leg might feel weak. 

If sciatica is interfering with your quality of life, you don’t have to live with it. And you don’t have to run to medication or surgery. 

Dr. Halina Snowball uses acupuncture to help you find relief from your sciatica. As an expert in hip issues, she has extensive experience helping patients with sciatica at Integrated Pain Solutions in Stamford, Connecticut. 

Come see Dr. Snowball and our team to explore if this drug-free treatment could help you.

What research says about acupuncture for sciatica

A growing body of academic literature all indicates the same thing: Acupuncture can help moderate pain for people with chronic sciatica. 

The JAMA study

One recent study has garnered a lot of attention (see: Harvard and Medical News Today). 

Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2024, the researchers in the study concluded that “in patients with chronic sciatica from herniated disk, acupuncture resulted in less pain and better function compared with sham acupuncture at week 4, and these benefits persisted through week 52.”

There’s a lot to unpack in there. For starters, the study definitely indicated that acupuncture helped people with sciatica experience less pain.

It’s also notable that it helped individuals with a herniated disc. Other sources of sciatica, like inflammation from an injury, can heal on their own. 

With a herniated disc, though, people have often turned to surgery such as a diskectomy. The individuals in this study were able to avoid going under the knife with acupuncture. 

Just as importantly, acupuncture treatment didn’t just lower pain levels temporarily. People still experienced relief at 52 weeks, making this a solid option for long-term pain management. 

Meta-analyses

The JAMA study isn’t the first time researchers have evaluated acupuncture for sciatica. In fact, so much literature exists that experts can perform meta-analyses. This means they examine the results of several independent studies, analyzing them to arrive at an overarching conclusion.

One meta-analysis looked at published research across seven databases. It found 30 randomized controlled trials involving 2,662 participants who used acupuncture for sciatica. 

This meta-analysis concluded that “acupuncture therapy is an effective and safe treatment for patients with sciatica, and it can be considered a suitable replacement for medicine treatment (MT).”

Another meta-analysis examined four databases, finding 28 randomized controlled trials involving 2,707 patients. Its researchers concluded, “In this systematic review, acupuncture treatment was significantly effective and safe compared to analgesics in sciatica.” (Analgesics are pain-relieving medications.)

Exploring acupuncture for your sciatica

If you find all of this evidence compelling, don’t hesitate to talk to Dr. Snowball. She can evaluate your sciatica to help determine if you’d be a good candidate for acupuncture. 

Call our team at 203-293-0549 to request an appointment or book one online today.