No More Poking Fun at Acupuncture!

No More Poking Fun at Acupuncture!

Chronic pain affects over 100 million adults in the U.S., according to the Institute of Medicine (IOM). This number is significantly more than the numbers of people with diabetes, heart disease and cancer all together!  According to the institute, costs of chronic pain treatment and job loss hours are estimated at 635 billion annually. Incredible!

Unfortunately, pain is undertreated in the United States.  Many patients never receive acceptable pain relief even in a country which has the most sophisticated medical care. Therefore, is up to the medical provider and patient to develop a treatment plan that works best to manage pain to tolerable levels. Sometimes conventional medicine is not enough. That is where acupuncture may offer an additional level of improved pain management.

Used as a technique for pain management, acupuncture is linked to traditional Chinese medicine. It’s roots date back 2000-4000 years (which should indicate some level of treatment success!).  In a brief (but humble) oversimplified description, acupuncture is the insertion of very fine needles into the skin at specific body points. Sometimes an electrical stimulus or heat is applied to the needles once they are placed in any of the 365 “acupoints”.  The choice of application sites depends on the professional’s observation of “looking, smelling, touching and listening”.  Many years ago, I personally experienced acupuncture for chronic neck pain.  I found it fascinating to watch the professional in action while he proudly described specifications of this complex treatment remedy. I was surprised that it was not very painful to have multiple needles stuck all over my body. While it was not successful for my discomfort, I discovered that acupuncture worked well for a selective proportion of patients referred for chronic pain treatment. It is important to appreciate that acupuncture truly is an art and most acupuncturists will train for up to 15 years before beginning their practice.

However, due to lack of mainstream medicine education in proper technique and our profession’s lack of understanding of treatment’s biological actions, there is less than a favorable response among most members of the traditional medical community.

Recently, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a meta-analysis (comprehensive review of multiple studies) that demonstrated acupuncture could be an effective treatment of chronic pain.  People analyzed in the studies suffered 1 of the 4 chronic maladies: spine (back or neck) pain, shoulder pain, chronic headache, or osteoarthritis (age-related arthritis) pain.

To me, this comprehensive study demonstrates that medical providers should use multi-arsenal treatment when it comes to managing our patients’ pain. Perhaps acupuncture along with physical therapy, careful muscle –release, in addition to other natural modalities (yoga or massage) could certainly benefit sufferers who have failed conventional treatment or prefer alternative medicine. In more recent years, physical therapists have combined gentle chiropractic maneuvers with a very condensed or alternative form of acupuncture (“dry-needling”) and commonly practiced stretching/strengthening techniques to better manage clients’ pain. Overall, we are all growing closer to more integrated forms of natural therapies with (hopefully) improved long-term pain control for our patients.

Source of the story is here.