What kind of pain can be treated effectively by acupuncture?
The
most popular application of acupuncture is to treat pains, though
acupuncture is also extremely useful for treating many other
conditions. According to the report presented by WHO (World Health Organisation),
acupuncture has well been demonstrated to be very effective and useful
for all the following pains or the conditions which cause pain:
Abdominal pain
Back pain
Cancer pain
Craniocerebral injury
Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection
Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
Headache
Knee pain
Labour pain
Low back pain
Neck pain
Osteoarthritis
Pain due to endoscopic examination
Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)
Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans
Periarthritis of shoulder
Postoperative pain
Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
Rheumatoid arthritis
Sciatica
Spine pain, acute
Sports injuries
Stiff neck
Tennis elbow
How does acupuncture work on pains?
There are many therapies that attempt to stop pain. Most of them
mask the pain while hoping the body is able to heal itself or push the
body to heal faster while offering limited pain relief. Acupuncture is
an extremely powerful and effective approach to treat pain because it
decreases pain levels as it stimulates the body's healing response.
Acupuncture resolves pain by affecting several pain pathways and
healing responses at the same time:
- raise endorphin levels and diminish the nervous system's pain response
- decrease inflammation and swelling
- relax muscles and stop spasms
- increase circulation to the local area
Why better effects can usually be achieved when acupuncture is combined with Chinese Massage or Chinese Herbal Therapy ?
The
body is a highly complicated system linked by a network of meridian
channels. From the holistic point of view, the problem of an organ may
influence other organs, and the status of other organs will influence
the recovery process of the problematic organ. Therefore, pain is far
from being an isolated and limited local problem of the site where pain
is felt. This is why Chinese Medicine always use the combination of
acupuncture, herbal therapy and massage to treat pains: acupuncture
reaches the meridian channel system (network), herbal therapy approached
the internal deepth of the body whilst massage is un-replaceable on
enhancing local recovery processes.
Further reading sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-483772/Acupuncture-provides-twice-pain-relief-standard-medicine.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4631930.stm
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