X-Ray Reveals Hundreds of Gold Needles in Woman's Knees

When doctors examined an X-ray image of the knees of a woman experiencing severe joint pain, they found a gold mine: hundreds of tiny gold acupuncture needles left in her tissue.

The 65-year-old South Korean woman had previously been diagnosed with osteoarthritis, a condition in which the cartilage and bones within the joints degrade, causing pain and stiffness. But when pain relievers and anti-inflammatory drugs didn't alleviate the pain in her knees and only caused stomach discomfort, she had turned to acupuncture, the doctors wrote last week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Acupuncture is an alternative medical practice that uses needles to purportedly stimulate certain points on the body, to alleviate pain or to treat various diseases.
In the woman's acupuncture treatment, the needles, which were presumably made of gold, were intentionally left in her tissue for continued stimulation, according to the report.
However, leaving the needles, or any objects, in the body may not be such a good idea, said Dr. Ali Guermazi, a professor of radiology at Boston University, who wasn't involved with the case. Foreign objects left inside the body can lead to inflammation, abscesses and infection.

continue to source article at livescience.com

I have tried acupuncture before and it did help to a degree so it does have some benefits. This is plain old quackery though.
Gold injections were a legitimate treatment which has gone out of fashion. Wikapedia says gold salts were used to reduce inflammation and to slow disease progression in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

The article says the insertion of pieces of sterile gold threads around the joint is a common treatment for arthritis in Asian countries however these do not seem to be threads and says they are needles. Gold is to soft to be used as a needle so these must be an alloy which is why they mention the MRI. Gold alone would be fine in an MRI an alloy not so much.

If they can't be removed who knows where they might finally lodge. Your body naturally try's to expel foreign objects on its own, but it generally causes pain.(think of a splinter) Unfortunately the treatment she elected for her arthritis will most likely wind up causing her far more pain than her original ailment.

the first modern recorded incidence of surgery using general anesthesia was a partial mastectomy performed by Japanese surgeon Hanaoka Seishu in 1804, who, while familiar with acupuncture, nevertheless followed in Hua's footsteps and pursued pharmacological approaches to surgical pain relief.
Chairman Mao Invented Traditional Chinese Medicine

Whatever treatment someone chooses whether it is modern, traditional, or holistic they should educate themselves on the procedure and find a trusted practitioner in that field.

Wonder if TSA would freak out over just that?

(They freak out over some similar shrapnel left in my arm and saddlebag area, every time I fly)

reply to post by Grimpachi


That's creepy weird!!! Question: Are they claiming the needles are responsible for her joint pain? Because she already had that, which is why she tried acupuncture. Don't get me wrong... I don't think it's a good idea to have prickly needles imbedded in her knees, but it sounds like she already had pain and the acupuncture didn't work.

reply to post by new_here

Are they claiming the needles are responsible for her joint pain?

No the pain was the reason she was treated with the needles and it must not have worked because the doctors discovered them in the X-ray because of joint pain still.

What amazes me in that photo is how far some of them have traveled into her leg. The article doesn't say if they can be removed. I think they will leave them be unless they work their way into an artery or some other serious area.

Grimpachi
reply to post by new_here

 

Are they claiming the needles are responsible for her joint pain?

No the pain was the reason she was treated with the needles and it must not have worked because the doctors discovered them in the X-ray because of joint pain still.

What amazes me in that photo is how far some of them have traveled into her leg. The article doesn't say if they can be removed. I think they will leave them be unless they work their way into an artery or some other serious area.

how much is her leg worth.instead of gold finger its gold leg.