VSI Blog

ACUPUNCTURE FOR BACK PAIN?

Back pain is one of the most prevalent reasons people seek health care. Millions of work days and recreation hours are lost each year because of back pain. Back pain comes in many forms: new or chronic , acute or long standing, constant or intermittent throughout the day. It also arises from various sources, including strains and sprains from muscles and ligaments, painful swelling in bursa and joints, herniated discs, and pinched nerves.  Back pain is caused by overuse, injury and degeneration.

BENEFITS OF ACUPUNCTURE FOR BACK PAIN.
In addition to medications, physical therapy, chiropractics, and injections, acupuncture is one of many conservative treatment options available to patients with back pain.  Benefits of acupuncture include:

1)      The art of natural healing, which uses the body’s own resources to treat the pain.

2)      Patients do not want to take pills or cannot take pain medications due to side effects such as drowsiness, nausea, and constipation.

3)      Helps patients not to become dependent or addicted to pain medications.

4)      Eliminates the need to tolerate painful injections.

IS ACUPUNCTURE EFFECTIVE IN TREATING BACK PAIN?
When performed properly by trained practitioners, acupuncture has proved to be an effective therapy for back pain as well as post surgical treatment. Several studies have found that acupuncture can help reduce chronic back pain and improve daily function. Acupuncture has been studied and is endorsed as a safe treatment by many academic centers including the Mayo Clinic and the NIH.

It is believed that acupuncture can cause the body to release its natural pain killers as well as cause a change a patient’s perception of the pain, thereby relieving their symptoms. Possible side effects and complications can occur, which include soreness, bleeding, infection, or bruising at the needle sites.

Everyone responds differently to acupuncture for their specific back pain, so every patient has an individualized treatment plan that may be modified through their course of treatment.

IS ACUPUNCTURE GOING MAINSTREAM?
Acupuncture is making its way into mainstream medicine as it becomes more recognized as an effective treatment for pain.  Some interesting examples of successful acupuncture treatment include:

1)      Mickael Pietrus (NBA player for the Phoenix Suns) sought treatment at the Shaolin Temple in China. Many current and former players on the Phoenix Suns including Grant Hill, Steve Nash and Charles Barkley have also experienced the benefits of acupuncture.

2)      Ted Lilly (Los Angeles Dodgers player) increased his range of motion after surgery through acupuncture treatments and was able to return to baseball more quickly.

3)      As a professional dancer, Paula Abdul has had a long history with pain and has undergone acupuncture treatment for pain relief.

4)      A few years back, after Matt Damon was spotted with acupuncture ear needles, his representative admitted that, “Matt had a terrible spasm in his neck/back and he had to have acupuncture” for treatment.

Have you tried acupuncture for back pain relief? What was the outcome?

If you have further questions regarding acupuncture, check out the detailed acupuncture section on our site.

 

 

 

 

 

If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Home | About Us | Our Physicians | For Patients | Conditions & Diagnoses | Non-Operative Treatments | Operative Treatments |
Contact Us

The Virginia Spine Institute, 1831 Wiehle Avenue, Reston, Virginia 20190 - Office (703) 709.1114 - Fax (703) 709.1117
Copyright 2012 :: Privacy Policy :: Terms Of Use