Acupuncture and Pain Relief by Brian B. Carter, MS, LAc

Actually, Chinese medicine is well-suited to treat that. And people with pain of a psychological origin may find their Western physician less sympathetic, because they always have to look out for addicts. Acupuncture, conversely, can treat addiction.

These are not the only causes of pain. It is important to know the cause, and not just blindly attempt to relieve the symptoms. Otherwise, ineffective treatments could be due to a missed diagnosis. Also, we may approach pain from a vertebral problem differently than we do pain of unknown origin.

Rating the Pain & Measuring Progress

For each pain location, I have patients rate the severity on a scale of 1-10. A "10" would be the worst pain possible, like giving birth or a kidney stone. Once we know the degree of pain for each site, we can assess how much the acupuncture treatment changed it. It's nice when there's an immediate improvement of 20-30%, or even 100%, which happens in some cases.

Sometimes, the patient can't reproduce the pain on the table because of posture, so we have to wait until the treatment is over. If possible, we can needle so that measuring progress is easier. For example, if your pain is worse when walking, we can needle your hand (this is distal needling- needling away from the site of pain- another topic entirely) while you walk around. Then we can tell immediately if we're on the right track or not.

Complementary Pain Management

At the same time, you may do other therapies. You might be looking into surgery, or other solutions- for example, than is a synthetic knee injection for people with very little knee cartilage. The synthetic fluid lasts for several months.

Interestingly, researchers have found that back pain does not always correlate to changes in the spine. They've found many people with vertebral problems that have no pain at all, and that some people with constant pain have no obvious structural changes.

To me, this underlines the primacy of the nervous system. Your brain interprets and creates nerve signals. Sometimes pain has to be "unlearned." This process may be accomplished with acupuncture alone, or in combination with counseling, meditation, or hypnosis.

In some situations, physical rehabilitation is indicated. Specific exercises prescribed by a trained physical therapist may help you regain strength and function in the affected part of the body. You may also avail yourself of the slow, demanding, and healing movements of Taichi.

The Process of Pain Control

For some people, pain goes away immediately, and they are otherwise healthy. In that case, their partnership with the acupuncturist may come to an end.

But, others are stuck with chronic pain, and need continual treatment to experience a better quality of life. In these cases, it may be better to see the acupuncturist every other day for concentrated therapy- we're more likely to shift the body's neurological patterns that way. If that doesn't work, the acupuncturist may help you purchase a microcurrent or tens unit- these are electrical stimulator pads that you can use at home (or, in fact, anywhere) to keep the pain at bay. The pads are applied to specific points according to the theories of Chinese medicine.

For those whose pain is cause or greatly influenced by emotional and mental factors, Chinese medicine can recommend dietary changes and new emotional habits. Taichi and meditation can have a normalizing effect on the nervous and immune systems as well.

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BIO:

Acupuncturist, herbalist, and medical professor Brian B. Carter founded the alternative health megasite The Pulse of Oriental Medicine (http://www.PulseMed.org/). He is the author of the book "Powerful Body, Peaceful Mind: How to Heal Yourself with Foods, Herbs, and Acupressure" (November, 2004). Brian speaks on radio across the country, and has been quoted and interviewed by Real Simple, Glamour, and ESPN magazines.

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