Pain Management

If you are experiencing physical pain due to overuse, injury, strain, sprain, or arthritis remember that acupuncture is an excellent way to relieve pain and speed healing of injury.  Acupuncture can also help improve athletic performance and prevent injury by assisting in keeping your body and immune system strong and in balance.

Acupuncture for Pain Management: What You Need to Know

When it comes to pain, depending on the source, acupuncture will often facilitate and expedite permanent healing and relief. The goal of acupuncture is to treat the source/root of the pain and allow the body to heal itself. Occasionally, there is damage that is not reversible. Extensive and chronic arthritis is generally not going to reverse itself. However, regular acupuncture treatments can significantly reduce the pain and discomfort associated with arthritis and can slow the progression or prevent further development of arthritis in the joints.

Acupuncture can reduce or eliminate many kinds of physical pain, not just musculoskeletal pain.  Pain from headaches, migraines, fibromyalgia, surgery, and menstrual pain are all commonly treated with acupuncture.

Acupuncture will most often reduce pain in just 4-6 treatments. With each successive treatment, the intensity and frequency of the pain should be reduced further and further.  A course of treatment is complete when the pain no longer returns.  The number of treatments required varies based on the individual’s overall state of health as well as the degree and duration of the pain. For best and quickest results treatments at a frequency of twice a week, in the beginning, are encouraged.

Current Theories On The Mechanism Of Acupuncture:

1. Neurotransmitter Theory: Acupuncture affects higher brain areas, stimulating the secretion of beta-endorphins and enkephalins in the brain and spinal cord. The release of neurotransmitters influences the immune system and the antinociceptive system.
2. Autonomic Nervous System Theory: Acupuncture stimulates the release of norepinephrine, acetylcholine and several types of opioids, affecting changes in their turnover rate, normalizing the autonomic nervous system, and reducing pain.
3. Vascular-interstitial Theory: Acupuncture effects the electrical system of the body by creating or enhancing closed-circuit transport in tissues. This facilitates healing by allowing the transfer of material and electrical energy between normal and injured tissues.
4. Blood Chemistry Theory: Acupuncture affects the blood concentrations of triglycerides, cholesterol, and phospholipids, suggesting that acupuncture can both raise and diminish peripheral blood components, thereby regulating the body toward homeostasis.
5. Gate Control Theory: Acupuncture activates non-nociceptive receptors that inhibit the transmission of nociceptive signals in the dorsal horn, “gating out” painful stimuli.

Here are some other strategies for managing pain:

1. Prevention:  If you haven’t exercised in months, don’t just start in with a full work out or a 10-mile run.  Start slowly and build up gradually. Always incorporate a warm up and cool down with your workouts. If you have pre-exisiting injuries or health conditions, always consult your physician or qualified health care provider before starting something new.  Be certain that you are trained in proper stretching techniques appropriate for the activity you engage in.

2. Stay well hydrated. This is important for many different types of pain.

3. Heat or ice? You will get a variety of answers to this question, and it is generally best to get professional advice based on your particular pain. As a general rule, Chinese medicine favors heat. Heat opens up the channels and blood vessels and promotes movement of qi and blood, which is almost always the primary treatment principle in relieving pain. If there is redness, swelling and heat coming from the area of pain, this would be a case where ice is more appropriate at first to reduce inflammation (and also probably a sign to get checked out by a doctor).  If your pain is worse in cold weather, heat is usually most appropriate.

4. Consider using other complementary techniques. For chronic pain conditions seek out acupuncture, chiropractic care, massage, meditation, hypnosis, and related pain management techniques.

5. Watch what you eat. For arthritis, fibromyalgia, and other types of chronic pain conditions, diet can play an important role.  Seek the advice of your acupuncturist for advice that is appropriate for your particular condition and body type.