When a 65‑year‑old South Korean woman visited the clinic for knee pain, doctors weren’t expecting to strike gold — but that’s exactly what happened.
Unwanted stomach issues Living with osteoarthritis can be incredibly difficult. The condition slowly wears down the cartilage in the joints, causing stiffness, swelling, and persistent pain that can make even simple daily tasks feel exhausting.
Activities that were once effortless — climbing stairs, bending to tie your shoes, or even walking short distances — can become slow and painful.
The woman in this case had been struggling with osteoarthritis, and according to her, pain relievers and anti‑inflammatory medications offered little relief and caused unwanted stomach problems.
Shutterstock So she turned to acupuncture, according to a case published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Acupuncture, a centuries‑old alternative therapy, involves inserting needles into specific points on the body to relieve pain or treat illness. In this instance, the needles — reportedly made of gold — were intentionally left in her knees for ongoing stimulation.
But leaving needles inside the body is not without risk.
“Foreign objects left inside the body can lead to inflammation, abscesses, and infection,” said Dr. Ali Guermazi, a professor of radiology at Boston University who was not involved in the case.
Foreign invaders He also noted that embedded needles can complicate X‑ray readings. “The needles may obscure some of the anatomy,” Guermazi said in 2013.
The body doesn’t always react well to foreign materials, and the response can fall under foreign body reaction or chronic inflammation.
“The human body wants to get rid of the foreign object,” Guermazi explained. “It starts with a defense mechanism — for example, inflammation and forming fibrous tissue around the object.”
The New England Journal of Medicine Even more concerning, needles left inside the body can make future medical imaging dangerous. “The patient can’t go into an MRI because needles left in the body may move and damage an artery,” Guermazi added.
Evidence that acupuncture effectively treats medical conditions is limited. Still, it remains a popular option for joint pain, especially in some Asian countries where inserting tiny pieces of sterile gold thread around a joint is a common arthritis treatment.
In the U.S., acupuncture is also widely used — an estimated 3.1 million adults and 150,000 children received the treatment in 2007, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
For this woman, her gold‑filled knees serve as a striking reminder that sometimes, alternative medicine can leave more than just a mark — it can leave behind a literal treasure trove
