While treating a 65-year-old woman for knee osteoarthritis, doctors in South Korea discovered hundreds of pure gold threads inserted in her legs.
The unnamed patient had previously experienced severe pain and stiffness in her knees due to osteoarthritis and had been prescribed painkillers, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and even steroid injections directly into her knees, none of which proved effective enough to allow her to lead a normal, pain-free life. Not only did the pain not go away, but she developed negative side effects because of the drugs, including severe stomach pain, so she decided to give alternative medicine a chance, more specifically, a controversial procedure known as gold thread acupuncture.
Photo: The New England Journal of Medicine
At first, the woman underwent weekly sessions of acupuncture where tiny gold threads were inserted around her knees, but this only exacerbated her osteoarthritis pain, so she increased her visits to the acupuncturist to several times per week. Eventually, the pain in her knees got so bad that she had no choice but to go back to the hospital.
An X-ray exam revealed a thickening and hardening of the inner part of the tibia, bony growths in the knee, all common symptoms of osteoarthritis – but also hundreds of tiny gold threads embedded in the tissue around the knee. Doctors warn that gold thread acupuncture has no scientifically-proven benefit for the patient, but comes with many known risks. The tiny threads can cause cysts, migrate into the body, and damage surrounding tissue, but they can also make potentially life-saving MRI scans impossible because of the risk of metal displacement and blood vessel damage.
We first covered gold thread acupuncture six years ago. The procedure has long been used in Asian countries to treat various types of pain, and is still popular, particularly among elderly patients. Apparently, the insertion of these sterile pieces of gold is believed to result in continuous stimulation inside the body and pain relief, but there is no evidence of any positive effects. On the contrary, it often makes things worse because patients delay effective medical treatments.
