Archive for the 'Accupuncture' Category

Pinpointing a Natural Pain Relief Option

Pain comes in many different shapes and sizes. Pain can rear its ugly head as mild discomfort that “comes and goes” or severe, excruciating agony that takes our breath away. Pain may be completely debilitating, interfering with exercise, work, sleep, and countless other activities or it may be a minor nuisance that doesn’t slow us down at all. It can be the result of a specific incident or it can seemingly come from nowhere. Pain is even described with a wide range of terms, including soreness, aching, tenderness, burning, tightness, or throbbing.

We have all experienced some type of physical pain at one time or another. Yet, even though we all know what pain is, it can still be difficult to actually define. It is usually described as an unpleasant sensory experience and it is incredibly common in our society. Half of all Americans seek medical care for pain each year and it is the most common reason for visiting a doctor.

Despite our disdain for pain, it actually serves a purpose, and a valuable one at that. Pain is part of our body’s defense system and its purpose is to help us avoid harmful behavior. In other words, it’s your body’s way of telling you that it doesn’t like what you are doing and it would prefer that you stop doing it. Sometimes we choose not to listen to that message and other times we have no choice but to hear it and comply.

What are the common approaches for relieving pain? Drugs are very popular for pain relief and they can be very effective. Unfortunately, the adverse effects of numerous drugs have become known in recent years and many of us find the information troubling. Pain relief medications can lead to gastrointestinal complications, liver damage, or kidney reactions. In addition, some pain relief drugs have already been taken off the market because of an increased risk of heart attack or stroke.

Increasingly, people are looking for more natural approaches to help relieve painful conditions. Acupuncture is one natural approach that continues to grow in popularity in the United States. Acupuncture can be helpful for all types of pain, regardless of what is causing the pain or where the pain is located. The theory behind acupuncture and Chinese medicine states that there is an energy that flows through the human body. This energy can become obstructed for a variety of different reasons. When this occurs, the obstruction results in pain or discomfort. This is summed up by the well-known Chinese saying: “If there is pain, there is no free flow; if there is free flow, there is no pain.” The goal with treatment is to clear the obstructions by inserting extremely thin, sterile needles into certain specific points on the body.

From a more scientific point of view, acupuncture has been shown to trigger the release of endorphins and enkephalins, chemicals with pain relieving properties. Other theories propose that acupuncture needles jam the neuronal pathways and prevent pain signals from reaching the brain. The World Health Organization (WHO), in its 2002 report entitled Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinic Trials, stated that acupuncture “can be regarded as the method of choice for treating many chronically painful conditions.” This is not to say that acupuncture is a miracle cure for everyone. It is not. But it would be wise for all of us to become educated about available pain relief options, including non-drug options. Armed with this information, we can make informed decisions which are most suitable for our own unique situations.

Try Acupuncture for Your Depression

In the continuing search for alternates to antidepressants those who suffer from depression are looking to acupuncture as one option. Acupuncture has its origins in Chinese medicines: it is the process by which a qualified therapist inserts thin needles into the skin at particular points with the intention of treating illnesses. This ancient art has been used for over three thousand years in China and many hundreds of years in other nearby Asian countries. It was carried to Europe by early physicians and by missionaries in the sixteen hundreds. But it was not until the 1970s before it had begun to be used and later accepted here.

One of the reasons that it is hard for Westerners to accept that acupuncture works is that the there is as much philosophy behind it as medical proof. The Chinese believe that the way to heal the body is to help it find a balance. They believe that if the body and the mind are not in balance that this is when illness can succeed. They include illnesses of the body and emotional illness like depression.

Studies have shown that acupuncture seems to work for dispelling depression or at least diminishing it. Some physicians will recommend it for their patients who suffer only mild to moderate depression, while others think that acupuncture works well for those who can trace their depressive episodes directly to stress. Still other health care providers will cautiously suggest its use but only if the patient continues on whatever medications they have been using.

So many people wonder how the acupuncturist knows where to put the tiny needles. The acupuncturist targets twelve main nerve pathways, called meridians. There are also eight lesser important pathways. Along these major and minor pathways are some two thousand of these pressure points that can be used depending on where the patient has pain or depression. All of these points are believed to channel energy, (called “chi” or “qi”) between different parts of the body.

Some people in the medical community have a difficult time believing that sticking a bunch of needles into someone at places that seem unrelated to the medical issue could possibly do the patient any good. Ongoing studies are show that acupuncture does help. A recent study involving a small test group of around forty adult women individualized the acupuncture for each woman and continued for a period of two months. It began with the patient attending two times a week for the first month and then once a week for the second month. When the trial period was over, seventy percent of the patients had a minimum of fifty percent improvement in their symptoms of depression. This is considered at least as good, if not better, then the average results with therapy or perception pills.

There seems to still be much for Westerners to learn about the art of acupuncture but this should not discount its healing elements, especially with something as devastating as living with depression.