ACUPUNCTURE FOR PAIN
In an acupuncture clinic setting, pain is quite a common symptom, but it is sometimes very difficult to evaluate. Headache is found in and associated with many acute and chronic diseases. Pain can occur at every part of the body. Pain can also be caused by many different factors. When a person visits the acupuncture clinic, the practitioner normally will ask the nature of pain, its onset, and duration, circumstances of its occurrence, location and radiation, severity, and any other related symptoms.
Various etiological and pathological factors may cause different natures and characters of pain during the clinical interview. The following types of pains are frequently seen in the acupuncture clinic.
Distending Pain
The pain results in a bloated feeling. It indicates Qi stagnation. The up flaming of liver fire or hyperactivity of liver yang can cause the distending pain at the head and eyes. Distending pain in the chest and hypochondrium is due to the syndrome of stagnant Qi at the lungs, liver, stomach and intestines.
Stabbing Pain
The pain is sharp like the feeling of a pinprick. It indicates the stasis of blood, specially appearing at the chest, hypochondrium, stomach, small abdomen, and junior abdomen.
Migrating Pain
The pain is unsteady and migrates to all places. If the pain happens at the chest, hypochondrium, stomach, small abdomen, and junior abdomen, it is commonly due to stagnation of liver Qi. If the migrating pain occurs from the joints to joints, it is called the migrating arthralgia. It is often seen in the Bi syndrome.
Fixed Pain
The pain is fixed and steady at one area. If the fixed pains happen at the chest, hypochondrium, stomach, small abdomen, and junior abdomen, it is due to blood stasis. If fixed pain happens at joints with steadiness, it is called fixed arthralgia.
Cold Pain
The pain is accompanied with a cold feeling and can be relieved by warmth. This cold syndrome frequently occurs at the loin, abdomen, vertex of the head, and joints of the four limbs, it indicates the cold syndrome. Syndrome of excessive cold results from the cold evil, which attacks the Zang –Fu, meridians and collaterals. The syndrome of ‘deficiency-cold’ results from the deficiency of Yang Qi, which causes problems in the Zang-Fu and the body loses warmth.
Burning Pain
The pain is accompanied with a burning sensation and one prefers a cold application. It indicates the heat syndrome that frequently happens at the pharynx and throat, mouth, tongue, hypochondrium, abdomen, and joints. It is due to the fire heat disturbing the meridians and collaterals. Excessive fire due to deficient Yin burns the tissues.
Colic Pain
The pain is like a sharp knife twisting inside the body. It mainly lies in excessive evil blocking the Qi movement or the cold evil freezing the Qi movement.
Dull Pain
The pain is mild with a lingering feeling. It is often seen in the head, abdomen, hypochondrium, and lumbar area. It indicates a deficient syndrome. It is due to the depletion of essence and blood. Or because the Zang-Fu and body suffers from malnutrition, it results in yang deficiency and a cold feeling.
Heavy Pain
The pain is associated with a heavy sensation. It is felt in the head, four limbs, lower back and sometimes the whole body. It is due to obstruction of Qi movement and the damp pathogen staying in the tendons and muscles.
Aching Pain
The pain is accompanied with aches and a feeling of discomfort. It is often seen in the four limbs and the lower back. It can be from the invasion of wind dampness and poor circulation of Qi and blood. Sometimes it is also caused by malnutrition, causing deficiency of Qi, blood, and kidney energy.
Hollow Pain
The pain is accompanied with an empty sensation. It is seen in head, gastric, and junior abdomen areas. The pain usually corresponds to the relative organs. It indicates deficiency of Qi, blood, essence, and marrow.
Spastic Pain
The pain is due to the spasm at Zang-Fu or the body. It is seen in the head and lower back, shoulder, neck, and abdomen areas. It is due to the obstruction of Qi and blood at the meridians and collaterals. It is more related to the liver organ because the liver controls the tendon.
Lower Back Pain
Lower back pain is a group of pain syndrome located at one side or at both side of the lumbar region. It refers to the attack of the exopathogenic cold-dampness, exopathogenci damp-heat, trauma or kidney deficiency. Finally those pathogenic factors block the transportation of Qi and blood, spasm of the meridians and their collaterals lead to disnourishment of the lumbar region and causes the lower back pain.
Acupuncture for Neck Pain
The causes of neck pain are varied, especially for chronic pain is more complicated, but generally speaking the most common causes are included:
1. Muscle strain, muscle stiffness, muscle tension,
2. Whiplash form a car accident,
3. Poor posture, limited movement of neck,
4. Wrong or sudden movement,
5. Arthritis in cervical joints,
6. Stress, emotional change, anxiety, depression,
7. Disc problem: degenerative disc or herniated disc, bulging disc,
8. Physical disorders: swelling, tumors, inflammation, disease, etc.
Except for neck pain, in many cases the numbness and tingling sensation of arms, pinched nerve, muscle weakness, headache, migraine, ear pain are also the common complains.
Acupuncture has been proven a natural and effective method to relieve acute and chronic pain. Researches suggest acupuncture offers a great result in degenerative disorders such as spondylosis and cervical spondylosis, especially for people do not response well for the traditional western medicines.
Through the adjustment of the flow of Qi and blood, acupuncture and Chinese medicine naturally improve the circulation, remove the stagnation, reduce the inflammation, rejuvenate and muscle and disc and free and pain.
Acupuncture for Sports Injuries
The following are the most common seen sports injuries that can be helped successfully by acupuncture and Chinese medicine:
Muscle Pain: back pain, lower back pain, upper back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, fibromyalgia.
Nerve pain: pinched nerve pain, sciatica pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, scoliosis, herniated disc, bulging disc, shingles, gout degenerated disc, cervical nerve pain, tingling, numbness.
Arthritis pain: rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, arthritis keen pain, arthritis hand pain, arthritis joint pain, hip pain, ankle pain, foot pain,wrist pain, psoriatic arthritis, septic arthritis, gouty arthritis.
Pain from injury: whiplash, fracture, stress fracture, torn ligament, torn tendon, pulled muscle, joint dislocation, torn cartilage.
Tendenitis: rotator cup pain, frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, trigger finger, bursitis, inflammation of tendon, Achilles tendenitis.
Bone spurs: Plantar fasciitis, heel spurs (heel pain), foot spurs (foot pain), back spurs, bunions, hammer toes, flat feet (fallen arches) callus or corns, plantar warts.
Acupuncture is being widely adopted to treat sports injuries. It is also recognized as an effective method for sports injury. Instead of using pain medicine, acupuncture naturally increases the body healing power to relieve the pain and reduce the inflammation instantly. In ancient Chinese medicine, acupuncture simply can increase the circulation to open the channels.
Bruises, sprains, strains, or some stress fractures are commonly seen in sports injuries. With acupuncture and Chinese medicine, a variety of sports injuries can help professional athletes, ballerinas, dancers, trainers, performers, martial artists, and amateur athletes.
The results of acupuncture use in treating sports injuries is highly successful for pain relief, decrease of inflammation, reducing bruising, stiffness, and for speeding up the recover. More and more professional sports teams are offering acupuncture for both injury treatment and prevention of injury. Some teams even hire acupuncturists on board to maintain the performance at the peak level. All type injuries, and pain from sports, working, overuse, trauma and arthritis can benefit tremendously from acupuncture and Chinese medicine.
Acupuncture can regulate the disruption of Qi and blood in the injured areas especially for the pulled or torn muscles, acupuncture sometimes plus electrical stimulation can quickly restore the majority of muscle tone and functions. Acupuncture treatments can instantly increase the body flow such as Qi, blood, mist to nourish the strained areas which would eliminate the further deterioration. Finally, acupuncture is a wonder for the old injuries. Mostly old injuries involved Qi and blood stagnation or even stasis, besides increasing the body flows to break through the stagnation, at the same time acupuncture could replenish the tissues for the repair and restoration.
It is not strange that most of sports injury patients could receive an immediate improvement during the acupuncture treatment.