A 65-year-old South Korean woman sought medical help for severe knee pain due to osteoarthritis.
Conventional treatments like painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, and steroid injections provided little relief and caused side effects, such as stomach issues.
She turned to a form of alternative therapy popular in some Asian countries: gold thread acupuncture. This involves inserting tiny, sterile threads or needles made of pure gold around the joint, left permanently in place to supposedly provide ongoing stimulation and pain relief.
However, the treatment didn’t help—in fact, her pain worsened, leading her to increase sessions and eventually return to the hospital.
X-rays revealed hundreds of these fine gold threads embedded in the soft tissues around her knees, appearing as bright, linear radiodense strands.
This case (originally documented around 2013–2014 in medical literature and resurfacing in recent news) highlights risks of such unproven practices: the threads can obscure X-ray readings, potentially migrate, cause inflammation or infection, and delay effective evidence-based care for conditions like osteoarthritis.
There’s no strong scientific evidence supporting gold thread implantation for arthritis pain relief, and guidelines prioritize exercise, weight management, and medications instead. The “gold” was literal—but far from a jackpot!