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How To Incorporate Acupuncture For Pain Management

Posted Wednesday, April 27th, 2016 by

acupuncture, pain management, pain

If you are consistently dealing with pain as a result of a chronic or medical condition, it’s very important that you seek out all of the options possible when it comes to pain management. Acupuncture has been one of the most trusted sources for managing pain alongside medication for many years. Acupuncture really began to take off in the United States in the year 1970, and since the year 2002 it has become one of the most popular natural and alternative treatments for pain management.

In a national health survey across the United States, from 2002 roughly 8.2 million adults used acupuncture, which was an increase on a reported 2.1 million the year before. With ongoing trends, today millions more people are using acupuncture as a means to treat pain and other symptoms. Athletes use acupuncture for treating sports injuries, while individuals use acupuncture for improving their emotional wellness, and treating insomnia, digestion trouble and more.

Pain relief in acupuncture:

Acupuncture is used for managing pain in a variety of conditions ranging from arthritis to sports injuries and so on. One of the main advantages of this type of treatment is that there are very few side effects and it can be used in conjunction with other types of medical treatment, such as pharmaceuticals. If the patient is experiencing any helpful pain management from pharmaceutical methods, acupuncture can actually be used to improve the overall pain management process and generate better responses from patients.

In an osteoporosis study conducted by Peter Wayne, who is the director of the New England School of Acupuncture, patients that suffered from osteoporosis of the knee were able to see improvements in overall function, pain management and movement with regular acupuncture treatments. In severe conditions like osteoporosis and arthritis, having access to acupuncture can help you to maintain your independence as well as manage day-to-day pain symptoms.

Medical acupuncture can be used to improve your flexibility and movement, improve the performance of your muscles and organs, as well as relieve pain overall. In conditions where movement is restricted and nerves can make it difficult to move fluidly, it is possible that medical acupuncture can improve these symptoms dramatically.

What is involved in a typical treatment?

In order to improve overall pain symptoms it’s possible to receive a few intensive acupuncture treatments followed by a series of regular maintenance treatments to manage your pain and continue functioning at a higher level. In most cases with acute conditions up to 20 needles are used over specific areas in the body for around a 10 to 30 min. treatment, depending on the condition or the type of pain that’s experienced.

Won’t the treatment cause more pain?

Most people get nervous about the idea of acupuncture because it involves the use of needles. The truth is, acupuncture is a practice that doesn’t hurt at all. Rather than worrying about needles, you can take comfort in the fact that in most cases an acupuncture needle feels like nothing more than a mosquito bite. These are needles that are considerably thinner than any other type of syringe needle that you might have had in the past. With the help of a skilled practitioner it’s possible that you won’t even feel the needle at all. Usually after patients have come in for a few pain management appointments, they no longer feel the needles when they go in.

What types of pain can be treated?

When it comes to managing pain symptoms there are a number of different conditions that can see benefits from treatment with acupuncture. In most cases your acupuncture physician will help you to come up with a treatment plan based on your symptoms and the type of condition that you may have. Some of the main conditions that most acupuncturists can treat include the following, and there are a whole host of others:

  • Arthritis
  • Knee Pain
  • Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
  • Headaches
  • Nerve Pain
  • Facial Pain
  • Sinusitis
  • Tennis Elbow
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Shin Splints
  • And more

Keep these in mind if you are considering seeing an acupuncturist for the pain management of these conditions.

The goal of pain management with acupuncture:

The goal of pain management with acupuncture is to provide a clinical improvement to the sense of well-being a patient has as well as the function they have as a result of their condition. Rather than taking a diagnostic treatment model, a professional acupuncturist works to reduce symptoms and improve overall wellness.

How does it work for pain management?

Acupuncture has a scientific basis for stimulating various aspects of the body through the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. This can produce a number of different alterations to the body in a way that it transmits pain-like symptoms. After regular acupuncture treatments a patient can often feel that their symptoms of pain are reduced, that they have better movement, and their wellness overall has increased as a result of the balance completed in acupuncture.

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