Pain is a holistic issue because it affects us emotionally and physically.
When we’re in pain, our energy, sleep and enjoyment of life can be impacted.
Why do we feel pain?
Any time there is pain, there are sensory nerves firing or there are structural problems causing a sensory dysfunction.
When the brain registers pain, there are two types of signals arriving at the brain around the same time. The first are from sensory nerves and the second is from proprioceptive nerves.
The proprioceptive nerves communicate to the brain where the site of pain is and the brain normally releases enkephalins (natural painkillers) that stop pain and allow the body to return to a pain free state.
The issue is this mechanism isn’t working with patients with long term, chronic pain. This can be due to many reasons but the most common is weak signal strength in proprioceptive neural tissue.
If the signal isn’t strong enough, the brain won’t know where to release enkephalins and the pain lingers.
Acupuncture raises this signal strength on the proprioceptive pathway and results in a sudden pain relief when correct acupuncture techniques are used.
When pain results from a structural problem, more invasive options, such as surgery can sometimes be considered.
Headaches
Headaches can be frustrating and are due to the activation of pain sensitive structures in or around the skull, face, sinus or teeth.
They can occur as a primary disorder such as migraine, cluster headache and tension type headache or manifest as a secondary symptom to another disorder.
Once diagnosed, acupuncture and herbal medicine can support a wide variety of headaches.
The Cochrane review published a paper titled “Acupuncture for the prevention of tension-type headaches”. The review concluded that evidence suggests that acupuncture is effective for treating frequent episodic or chronic tension headaches.
The evidence suggested that a course of acupuncture of at least six treatments can be a valuable option for people with frequent tension-type headache.
Shoulder Pain
Shoulder pain is a common complaint David sees in his office each week.
Acupuncture is can be effective for shoulder pain and pain relief is often instant.
If cartilage has been worn or complete muscle or tendon tears, surgery is often an option. In this scenario Acupuncture can help keep pain down while patients wait for surgery and aid in post-surgical recovery.
Low back pain
There are ways to relieve back pain without medication including physiotherapy and an exercise program.
If back pain isn’t relieved by physiotherapy, acupuncture is an option.
Strengthening the core through exercise is one way to increase back strength and improve the function of the low back over the long term.
Arthritis
Arthritis can be widespread in major joints such as the knees, low back, shoulders or concentrated in small joints.
Chronic pain from arthritis can lead to decreased exercise and a lack of- vitality because the pain can become too much to cope with.
As a multi-factor condition, Chinese Medicine supports these concerns quite well, leading to pain relief, reduction of inflammation and emotional support.
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