After alarming news about popular painkillers like Celebrex and Vioxx, an American study is pointing to another way to control the pain of arthritis. A U.S. study provides more evidence that acupuncture works.

The study found the ancient treatment relieves arthritis pain in the knee and improves freedom of movement.

Acupuncture is a 2,000-year-old Chinese treatment in which needles are inserted in specific points on the body.

"For the first time, a clinical trial with sufficient rigor, size, and duration has shown that acupuncture reduces the pain and functional impairment of osteoarthritis of the knee," said Dr. Stephen Straus, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which helped fund the study.

"These results also indicate that acupuncture can serve as an effective addition to a standard regimen of care and improve quality of life for knee osteoarthritis sufferers."

Researchers studied 570 patients aged 50 or older with osteoarthritis in the knee. All of the patients had significant pain, but had never tried acupuncture or steroids, and hadn't had knee surgery in the past six months.

The subjects received either regular acupuncture treatments, a self-help course for managing pain or "sham" acupuncture as a placebo. They also continued to receive standard medical care, taking anti-inflammatory drugs and pain relievers as prescribed.

By the end of the second month of treatment, patients who received regular acupuncture treatments had a significant increase in function.

By the 14th week, those same patients had a significant reduction in pain compared to the other two groups, according to researchers.

During the course of the study, the study participants who received acupuncture had 40 per cent less pain and a 40 per cent improvement in function.

In Canada, some arthritis sufferers already enjoy the benefits of regular acupuncture treatments. "Acupuncture for me has been a godsend," says Gail Noukas.

She says acupuncture relieved the pain so she could stop taking morphine for her back pain. "I am hoping that I will be pain free or close to it because I don't want to be on drugs," Noukas says.

Dr. Linda Rapson, an MD who specializes in pain management, learned the art of acupuncture three decades ago. "I think the medical profession is waiting for this kind of a study to decide if they really want to believe acupuncture works as well as it seems to," she says.

"The study does make acupuncture...a viable option because it is safe." Doctors say the method works because the fine needles release endorphins in the body.

"What happens, based on Chinese theory, is there's a blockage of energy flow," says Dr. Peter Yea of the Canadian Association of Acupuncture. "The idea is to use a needle on certain points, on the meridians, depending on where the blockage is."

Yea says that almost anyone with arthritis pain will feel some relief after the first treatment, but acupuncture works well over the course of several treatments.

"It takes some time," Yea says. "He or she didn't have the problem overnight, so it takes some time to treat it as well."

Yea stresses that it's important to find a qualified acupuncturist for the best results. He says he treated one woman who had arthritis pain in her knee for 15 years.

After a course of treatment, "she can climb six floors of stairs."

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says an estimated 2.1 million American adults received acupuncture treatment in 2002.