Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease. One of the most common symptoms of MS is fatigue, which about 70% of patients describe as being the worst symptom they experience.[1] MS fatigue can be very burdensome and debilitating, getting in the way of being able to complete even everyday tasks.
For people with MS, conventional treatments aren’t always effective when it comes to fatigue, and so many people turn to complementary and alternative options.[1] One therapy that many MS patients try is EFT Tapping.
I’ve seen firsthand and read many case reports of individuals with MS getting amazing results with the help of Tapping. It really seems to be an effective tool for bringing people relief from debilitating symptoms like fatigue.
But up until about a year ago, anecdotal reports were all we had as evidence for the effectiveness of Tapping in the context of MS. I’m thrilled to say that in 2021, that changed! Now we have scientific research to back up what many MS patients already know to be true; Tapping is safe and effective, and it can support significant improvements in MS fatigue.
The study we are going to explore today was published in October of 2021 in the Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research.[1]
The authors of this study wanted to know if the severity of MS patients’ fatigue would decrease if they applied Tapping as a therapeutic technique.
To figure that out, they conducted a randomized controlled trial. They gathered 50 women with MS and randomly divided them into two groups. One group received the EFT intervention, which included two sessions of EFT Tapping per week for a total of four weeks.
The other group was the control group, and they received a sham treatment. This means that they received a treatment that was designed to mimic EFT Tapping as closely as possible, but without the active component. The sham group received the psychological part of EFT (they were asked to repeat the same phrases as the treatment group), but in this case the practitioners used false Tapping points rather than the real Tapping points.
The researchers measured fatigue levels in all participants before the start of the study, at the end of the four-week study, and then four weeks later as a follow up.
When looking at the data, the researchers saw that Tapping helped to improve the participants’ fatigue levels. The real EFT Tapping treatment reduced fatigue much more so than the fake, “sham” Tapping treatment did. While both groups had similar levels of fatigue before the study began, by the time the study ended fatigue levels in the EFT Tapping group were significantly lower than in the sham group. At the four-week follow up, the same was true; the difference in fatigue levels between the two groups was still statistically significant.
For people with MS, these results are extremely promising. They help us to understand that even a short Tapping treatment – just a few sessions per week for a few weeks – can lead to significant and lasting reductions in MS fatigue.
Prior studies have found Tapping to also help improve fatigue symptoms in other challenging chronic conditions. For example, studies have shown it can help with fatigue in women undergoing breast cancer treatment and in people with tension-type headache.[2,3] This study just adds to the growing pile of evidence supporting the wide-ranging benefits of Tapping, especially for people with debilitating symptoms like fatigue.
One really cool part about this study is that the researchers were able to compare a fake, “sham” Tapping treatment (using false Tapping points) to the true, traditional Tapping technique (using the actual Tapping points that correspond to traditional Chinese acupressure points).
This allowed the researchers to test if tapping on the actual points makes a difference or not in how people feel afterwards. And what they found from their data was that yes, it does matter and it does make a difference!
As the authors of the study put it, “The results revealed that the active and superior part of the EFT was its somatic section or tapping therapy.”[1]
For the participants in the study, it wasn’t just saying the setup statements or the reminder phrases that helped. And it wasn’t just tapping randomly on different spots on the body, either. Only when the participants experienced the physical act of tapping on the real acupressure points did they see the significant benefits.
This study adds to other research that helps us to more clearly see that the physical act of tapping on the Tapping points is an active and vital component of the EFT technique. It isn’t a placebo, and it really makes a difference!
I’m so encouraged to see more and more research being done in the field of Tapping. It is exciting that we continue to discover how effective Tapping can be when applied to a wide range of different concerns, experiences, symptoms, and conditions.
For anyone dealing with a chronic condition like MS, or the symptom of fatigue, Tapping can be a very supportive self-care tool.
If you are new to Tapping, our Tapping 101 page is a great place to learn more and get to know the basics
And for specific Tapping meditations to support you in different areas of your life, be sure to try out The Tapping Solution App.
Some guided Tapping meditations we have in the app library that you might find useful include:
If you try tapping for relief from fatigue, let us know how it goes! Share your experience in the comments below.
Until next time… Keep Tapping!
Nick Ortner
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