The Top 10 Reasons People Visit The Acupuncturist: 1. Something Hurts

Pain is by far the top reason that people seek care from an acupuncturist.

This discomfort could be an old knee injury from high school that gets creaky in the cold weather, a repetitive stress injury from computer use,  low back pain due to heavy lifting, a stiff neck due to a job that requires a lot of sitting, or a sports injury that strains the musculoskeletal  system.  Fibromyalgia and chronic pain are also common.

So how does acupuncture address these types of pain?

First of all, acupuncture treatments increase the amount of endorphins in the body. These are the chemicals that make the body feel good during exercise, pain, feelings of love, and during sex.  Endorphins chemically resemble the opiate morphine which explains its analgesic effect, and ability to promote a feeling of well-being.

But how strong could a painkilling chemical be if it just comes from your own body?  

Well, I can remember when I was a kid I went to the emergency room with my parents because my little brother needed a couple stitches.  When we arrived we saw a little hyper boy running around the waiting room, dashing up and down the little slide, and happily playing with all the toys. 

That boy went in to see the doctor right ahead of my brother, and when he came out we were shocked to see his arm in a full cast!  He’d broken his arm in two places!

How had he been able to run around and play like a healthy child when in just a few minutes x-rays would show he’d suffered a major trauma?  He was experiencing an endorphin rush that commonly follows traumas such as broken bones.  That story has always reminded me of the power of endorphins -  our body's natural pain killers.  

Another avenue of pain relief is through the nervous system;  acupuncture has a profound calming effect on the nervous system, and in this way can regulate nerve impulses transmitting pain.  

Acupuncture also reduces inflammation, which is often a component of pain.  For instance, we all know that there will be inflammation in a newly sprained ankle.  But there can also be inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract that causes discomfort, such as in the stomach lining.  Acupuncture’s strong effect on reducing inflammation is very helpful in this situation!

Lastly, in situations where an increase in circulation will help an injury heal faster, acupuncture is very helpful.  By increasing blood flow and thus oxygen and nutrient delivery patients often find that they heal faster and can comfortably return to activities faster.

So that is the short story of pain relief from a western perspective.  But what about pain relief from the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine?

When a patient comes in for help with pain we ask them some questions about the pain so that we can devise an individually tailored treatment.

• Where is the pain located? 
• Does this location stay fixed, or does the pain move around?
• Can the quality of pain be described as dull, sharp, heavy, cramping and/or burning?
• When pressure is applied is the pain alleviated or aggravated?
• Does applying heat alleviate the pain? What about applying cold?
• Was the onset of the pain slow and gradual, or sudden?
• Does the pain feel better with movement or rest?
• Is the client feeling any melancholy, depression or anxiety related to this pain?

Through these questions, as well as by doing a complete initial intake, we can find out if the pain is caused by stagnation, channel obstruction, cold, heat or a deficiency within the body. We can also find out which particular acupuncture channels are being effected.


Then we might put needles on the acupuncture points near the site of the pain (a local point), or we might treat points on that channel in an area of your body that is not currently in pain (a distal point).

An example is someone who reports sharp, fixed headaches on their forehead, that are aggravated by applying pressure, and relieved when doing exercise. The location of this headache indicates that the Yangming channels are being affected with blood stasis. For treatment we would needle yangming points on the lower legs and forearm, as well as a few points to increase circulation.  Herbs to treat the blood stasis could also be prescribed.

Lastly, while most people think of acupuncture as something you do after you get hurt, it is also a tool to optimize athletic performance and help prevent injury. More about that in a later post....

Also, as this post is getting quite long, I'll save my sampling of research articles for my next post.