FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 24, 2007 file photo, Anah McMahon, L. Ac. adjusts one inch seirin acupuncture needles in the muscles around the spine of a patient to relieve lower back pain, at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in Chicago. Acupuncture gets a thumbs-up for helping relieve pain from chronic headaches, backaches and arthritis in a review of more than two dozen studies - the latest analysis of an often-studied therapy that has as many fans as critics. The new analysis was published online Monday, Sept. 10, 2012 in Archives of Internal Medicine. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green) ORG XMIT: NY810

NOBODY likes getting the needle.

But with acupuncture, a little prick can make all the difference.

And now the Gibraltar Health Authority (GHA) has formally approved its use to treat lower back pain on the Rock.

The GHA ratified the use of acupuncture after 11 physiotherapists were taught the practice at the GHA School of Health Studies last year.

John Cortes, Minister of Health, said: “They are a group of professionals whose contribution to the care of patients is often overlooked, but is absolutely vital.”

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2 COMMENTS

    • Acupuncture is available in some cases on the NHS in Britain also. It’s quite cheap and often effective as a placebo in some conditions. It IS of course, voodoo, as is homeopathy and scores of other “alternative” procedures. We should not decry the placebo effect though, it can produce astounding results. So we ought to find a way to harness it without needing to stick pins in people.

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