Effect of electro‑acupuncture, massage, mud, and sauna therapies in patient with rheumatoid arthritis.

A 48‑year‑old married woman diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in 2007, came to our hospital in July 2014 with the complaint of severe pain and swelling over multiple joints, especially over small joints, which was associated with stiffness (more in morning), deformities of fingers and toes, with disturbed sleep and poor quality of life (QOL) for the past 7 years. She received a combination of electro acupuncture (14 sessions), massage (18 sessions), mud (18 sessions), and sauna (3 sessions) (EMMS) therapies for 30‑min, 45‑min, 30‑min, and 15‑min per session, respectively for 3 weeks. During and postintervention assessment showed reduction in visual analog scale score for pain, Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores. It also showed an increase in the scores of 10‑Meter Walk Test, isometric hand‑grip test, and short form‑36 version‑2 health survey. This result suggest that, the EMMS therapy might be considered as an effective treatments in reducing pain, depression, anxiety, and stress with improvement in physical functions, quality of sleep and QOL in patient with RA. EMMS therapies were tolerated and no side effects were reported by the patient. Though the results are encouraging, further studies are required with larger sample size and advanced inflammatory markers.

Effects of acupuncture and massage on pain, quality of sleep and health related quality of life in patient with systemic lupus erythematosus.

A 41‑years‑old woman diagnosed of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) in 2006 came to our hospital ‑ outpatient department with the complaint of severe pain and swelling over multiple joints associated with disturbed sleep/sleeplessness and poor quality of life since seven years. She received acupuncture (20 minutes) and massage (20 minutes) daily for the period of 30 days with 7 days of rest period in between after first 15 days. After intervention we observed reduction of pain in Visual Analog Scale score; improvement in day time sleepiness, and quality of sleep in Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, respectively; improvement in health related quality of life in Short Form‑36 version 2 (SF‑36v2) Health Survey. These results showed that acupuncture and massage can be considered as an integrative approach for symptomatic management of SLE.