Acupuncture is very effective for a wide range of pain-related conditions, including:
- Arthritis and Joint Pain
- Back Pain
- Bursitis & Tendonitis
- Facial (Bell’s) Palsy
- Fibromyalgia
- Headaches & Chronic Migraines
- Hemorrhoids
- Intercostal Neuralgia
- Knee Pain
- Meniere’s Disease
- Neck Pain
- Peripheral Neuropathy
- Sciatica
- Shoulder Pain,
- Sports Injuries, Tennis Elbow
- Stroke and Paralysis
- TMJ
- Trigeminal Neuralgia
Chronic pain, whether from a pinched nerve, sciatica, arthritis or other conditions can be very frustrating for the sufferer. It is often difficult to treat nerve pain with traditional medications, as nerve pain does not respond well to prescription pain relievers, including narcotics.
BACK PAIN AND SCIATICA
Back pain, whether caused by chronic sciatica, a bulging disc, or arthritis is very painful and can be disabling. A person suffering from sciatica has an inflamed sciatic nerve. This nerve starts roughly at the base of the spine, travels down the back of the leg and then stops in your foot. Sciatic pain is difficult to treat because nerve pain does not respond well to painkillers. Sciatica can cause severe, stabbing pain and can make the patient cry out when sudden movements are made.
Any time there is pain in the body, you have sensory nerves, which are firing, and you might or might not have a structural problem causing the sensory dysfunction. In most cases chronic pain has no structural cause. The problem with most doctors who are not well versed in the field of neurology is their immediate assumption that if you have pain, there must be a structural reason for the pain. In other words, there must be some form of structure, either bone, soft tissue, disc or some object actually pushing on the sensory nerve, causing it to continuously fire. This assumption is not always true.
In order for the brain to register pain, there has to be two types of neural signals hitting the brain at about the same time. The first signal is from the sensory nerve or nerves themselves. The second is from the proprioceptive nerves which are also firing right next to the sensory nerves. The proprioceptive nerves tell the brain where your pain is emanating from. If everything is working properly, the brain will release a torrent of what are called enkephalins. These chemicals are the body’s natural pain killers, and they plug up the pain receptor sites in the brain, all along the spine, and on the the capillary beds where you feel the pain. They stop the chronic pain and allow the body to return to normal function.
Obviously, with those patients who suffer from chronic discomfort, this mechanism is no longer working. There are many reasons the body’s natural pain-relieving mechanism could have malfunctioned. However, the number one cause appears to be a chronic signal strength problem in the proprioceptive neural tissue. If the neural threshold level (signal strength) is too low, the brain will not know exactly where to release the enkaphalins and thus the pain continues. Acupuncture will raise the signal strength on the proprioceptive pathway and the result is a sudden and dramatic relief from pain. For this reason, we can treat an incredibly wide variety of pain problems.
This technique does have its own problems when a patient’s pain is caused by a structural problem. In this case, there is actual tissue pushing directly on a sensory nerve or group of nerves. Jumping the signal strength on the proprioceptive pathway alone will not solve this type of problem. These patients usually need more invasive procedures, such as surgery, and we can assist our patients in a referral to the proper Western medicine specialist.
ARTHRITIS
Arthritic pain can be felt anywhere in the body where there is a joint. Arthritis can be widespread or it can be concentrated in a knee, low back, or shoulder. It is a very common health ailment for the general public and with early management, arthritis pain does not have to be disabling. You can live with arthritis for a long time without pain if you make changes in your lifestyle that include alternative therapies.
Those that suffer from arthritis will likely find relief from acupuncture treatments because acupuncture treats the whole body and promotes overall wellness. Arthritis sufferers likely have arthritis in more than one place and analgesics only help for so long.
Chronic, low grade pain can lead to a decrease in activity and a lack of enjoyment in activities because the pain is just too much to deal with. People that suffer from chronic pain are more prone to depression because they are no longer able to do things that they once enjoyed. They may suffer loneliness and feel that they are suffering alone. As a whole-body medical system, this is the kind of condition Chinese Medicine treats with high success. Our treatments for arthritis involve a combination of pain relief, reduction of inflammation, dietary assessment and restructuring, and emotional support, resulting in an overall reduction of pain and an increase in the patient’s vitality.
FIBROMYALGIA
Many women are suffering from this syndrome, which has no cure in Western Medicine. Fibromyalgia is essentially the name given to an undiagnosed, rampant inflammatory condition in the body. Clinically, we treat this problem at least five times a day with good results.
In Chinese medicine, we find two etiologies (causes) for fibromyalgia. The first is very poor blood circulation, almost always due to obesity. For every extra 10 pounds we have on our frames, the diameter of our blood vessels are cut in half. If the patient is overweight, then there is a systemic lack of nutrient and oxygen circulation to all the major muscle groups of the body and the sensory nerves that surround them. The result is constant, chronic pain.
Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine are successful in vasodilating the major longitudinal blood vessels of the body, thereby providing more oxygen and nutrients to the malnourished muscle groups. The result is a dramatic reduction of pain over a short period of time.
The second etiology is also malnourishment, but from a different cause. Some fibromyalgia suffers are simply anemic or borderline anemic. The anemia is a plasma anemia which Western Medicine fails to acknowledge. This type of patient is thin, frail, has dry skin, does not sleep well, is usually anxious and jumpy, and of course has a lot of pain, especially in the upper body. Chinese Herbal Medicine seeks to restore the fluid deficiency in the blood and body. The result is a sustainable reduction of pain and inflammation in the body, and the restoration of vitality.