Does Acupuncture Alleviate Navicular Syndrome Pain?

Palmar heel pain (also referred to as navicular syndrome or caudal heel pain) is a performance-limiting foot condition in horses. Many owners of affected animals will try anything to help relieve the discomfort, and one option that’s gaining popularity is acupuncture. A recent study of nine horses, however, revealed that while the complementary therapy seemed to relieve pain in some horses, there’s no strong evidence to suggest that it alleviates pain in all affected horses.

“There were individual horses who showed improvement following treatment in this study, but there were also individuals (in a control group) who showed improvement without treatment,