Acupuncture for Lumbosacral Spondylolysis

Lumbosacral spondylolysis is a condition common among dancers, weight lifters, and people who carry heavy things for a living. It causes back pain when bending backward, but may have no symptoms when a person bends forward.

What activities can lead to lumbar sponydylolysis?

Certain activities and sports are also associated with a higher incidence of lumbosacral spondylolysis:

• Sports that involve throwing
• Gymnastics
• Rowing
• Wrestling
• Diving
• Weight lifting
• Ballet (especially when a ballet dancer overcompensates by bending back)
• Football
• Dancing
• Volleyball
• Repeated extension, flexion, torsion, and rotation of the back, especially if done against resistance

What are the signs and symptoms of lumbar spondylolysis?

Here are a few symptoms of this condition:

• Forward bending may not elicit pain, but backward bending does
• Sciatica (a syndrome of pain, tingling, and weakness that indicates sciatic nerve involvement)
• Tight hamstrings, tight lumbar muscles
• Thigh and buttock pain
• Hyperlordosis (exaggerated curvature of the back that makes the buttocks project outwards)

How can acupuncture help people with lumbar spondylolysis?

Acupuncture has been studied repeatedly when it comes to its usefulness in lumbar spondylysis and in many other conditions. According to a review of several studies evaluating acupuncture’s effectiveness against low back pain, acupuncture seems to be effective.

Evidence strongly suggests, in fact, that acupuncture can be a very good addition to many treatments for low back pain. There is also moderate evidence indicating that acupuncture, whether sham or not, does bring about relief.

People who choose not to take medications for their low back pain may benefit from acupuncture. It does not come with the side effects of drugs and is a more natural means of achieving pain relief from lumbosacral spondylolysis.

A study has also been done to determine if fake or simulated acupuncture actually has the same effects as real acupuncture. According to the evidence presented, there seems to be no difference. This means that even simulated or sham acupuncture can help a person in pain due to lumbosacral spondylolysis.

Whether or not this healing effect is because of a psychological or “placebo” effect is uncertain. But to people in pain, what matters is that it does provide pain relief – and it does so in a natural way.

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