When I’m hurting I’m somewhat crabby. If I’m ornery, then I’m using a lot of effort not to be and I become tired and irritable. No doubt about it – pain, my little pains or someone’s major pain – is debilitating. When even my small pain is relieved, I feel a greater sense of well-being overall, physically and emotionally which leads, of course, to a more balanced health.
I’m convinced that acupuncture could be a more major player in my life when it comes to pain.
The debate about whether acupuncture can actually be used to treat aches and pains has been going on since Westerners started using this ancient Chinese medicine. Now this one-time alternative medicine procedure has finally made it. The major test came when insurance companies (not all but many) covered the cost of acupuncture treatment.
Ten years ago, maybe even 5 years ago, you paid upfront for any acupuncture sessions you received to treat your aches and pains. The debate about whether this ancient Chinese medicine worked bounced around in medical circles for decades.
Acupuncture is one of the most ancient of the healing arts and has been part of the Chinese healthcare system for 3000 years. It’s an ancient practice in which very fine needles are inserted into the skin at strategic points on the body to relieve pain and treat disease. Chinese medicine maintains that the more than 2,000 acupuncture points on the human body connect with 12 main and eight secondary ‘meridians’ or channels. Pain and disease are the result of these channels becoming blocked. By placing needles at one end of the channel or the other, healthy energy can be restored.
Western medicine’s view is that placing acupuncture needles at specific pain points releases endorphins and opioids, the body’s natural painkillers and it may also release immune system cells plus neurotransmitters in the brain. Research has shown that glucose and other bloodstream chemicals increase after acupuncture. The National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine explains there is evidences that stimulating acupuncture points enables electromagnetic signals to be relayed at a faster rate than normal which may increase the flow of healing or pain-killing natural chemicals to injured areas.
In keeping with the growing demand for alternative medicine, the FDA classified acupuncture needles as medical equipment in 1996, subject to the same strict standards as medical needles, syringes and surgical scalpels. In 1997 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reported that acupuncture is extensively practiced by medical physicians, dentists, non-MD acupuncturists, and other practitioners because the incidence of adverse effects is lower with acupuncture than with many drugs and other commonly accepted medical procedures for the same conditions.
Scientists have discovered that deep-needle acupuncture can combat pain. It is also routinely offered to treat allergies and a growing list of other conditions including fertility, chemotherapy related nausea and vomiting, dental pain, addiction, stroke, and headache to name a few.
A study in 2006 at Hull York Medical School (UK) found that the technique can turn off parts of the brain involved in pain which explains how acupuncture is sometimes used as an anesthetic. Brain scanning images found a measurable deactivation in the brain’s limbic system when the acupuncturist used deep needles which were rotated as part of an acupunctural effect called de chi. People who experienced deep-needle acupuncture said they felt a tingling sensation but not pain.
A second study of 298 people with chronic low back pain who received 12 sessions of acupuncture over eight weeks also showed greater improvements in pain than those who did not receive the treatment.
A 2006 Mayo Clinic study also suggests that acupuncture reduces the symptoms of fibromyalgia, a disabling condition for many.
Mayo’s study involved 50 fibromyalgia patients enrolled in a randomized, controlled trial. Patients who received acupuncture improved significantly compared to the control group which received none. The study lends credence to patients’ belief that nontraditional methods may improve their health.
Increasingly, acupuncture is being used to supplement other forms of treatment which is one reason patients often turn to a physician who has training in both Western medicine and acupuncture.
To find an acupuncturist check out the website of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture at www.medicalacupunture.org
If you’ve had experience with acupuncture – good or bad – we’d also like to hear from you. Scroll down to comment, Click, and tell us about your acupuncture experience – good or bad.
Cheers Ruthan
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Posted by: Acupuncture Services | January 05, 2010 at 06:36 AM