Acupuncture Question

[bobcarp]

I was wondering if anyone on the forum had had any success with acupuncture? I am a skeptic, but my back has been going out every 6 months or so and several people at work say they have had good success with acupuncture.

I understand the psychology of people who may go in believing that acupuncture will work so for them it does work. Being a naturally skeptical person I have a feeling it is just another gimmick, so I won’t be going in believing that it will work. But I wanted to see if there were any other skeptics that have tried acupuncture with good success. Thanks.

 

[SquishyDave]

I aint not no scientition or nothing.

Too many negatives?

Anyway, based on what I know of it, it can help with pain management, as you are sticking needles into your nerves, and sometimes applying electricity (depending on the practitioner). This can cause endorphin release in the brain. Provided the ancupunturist hits the right place. A lot of the places ancupunturists go for won't help, but a lot will.

So if the underlying problem in your back is completely incurable and you are looking at having to just treat the pain, then ancupuncture MAY help. But seeing as it has never been properly refined for this it will be very hit and miss.

If you are looking to figure out the underlying cause of the pain and fix that, maybe no one can help you. Modern medicine doesn't know everything I'm afraid, and alternative medicine refuses to believe it doesn't know everything.

 

[wilks]

I used acupuncture about 15 years ago. At that point I was probably a bit sceptical but hadn't given complementary medicine much thought. I'm not sure what you mean by your back 'going out' but I had hurt mine by heavy lifting, was in a lot of pain and had three small children to look after. My GP (very sensibly) recommended painkillers and gentle exercise but my husband was working with someone who practiced acupuncture as a sideline and suggested I try it.

The chap who did it was a medical doctor (in fact a consultant haematologist). There was no waffle about energy meridians, the needles were placed only in my back where it hurt and he promised only that he could reduce the pain for a few hours and at least enable me to get a good nights sleep.

He used a technique that I have since found out is called moxibustion in which the ends of the needles are heated so that the heat travels down into the damaged tissue making this a form of deep heat treatment rather than some unexplainable woo. It worked just as he said it would although the pain returned the next day. I had another treatment a few days later which was equally helpful. However as my back healed a later treatment had little effect on lesser pain and I didn't go again.

So I found the treatment very helpful but easily explainable in terms of it being a deep heat treatment. If someone had been sticking needles in my ear lobes to heal my back I would have been a lot less happy.

 

[CaveDave]

IMHO, the risk of harm is small, (because they seldom actually pierce nerves) and, it may have some psychological benefit. Keep a journal and let us know if you think it helps.

Of course, this will only amount to subjective, anecdotal testimony, so don't expect anyone here to take it as REAL evidence.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Zep]

Bobcarp, send a PM to Truthseeker about your situation and pain management. She is highly learned on the subject of pain, and pain management.

 

[Mosquito]

Hi, I hope you get some good treatment for your pain.

From what I've seen (on these forums, so you could do a search, which I haven't) acupuncture does and does not work. To make it short, the theories of acupuncture are no good, but getting stung by needles does trigger a pain reduction response.

Appearantly it does not matter *where* they put the needles, as long as they *do* put the needles (to get the effect they need to break skin). Not breaking the skin does not provide a (full) response, even if the patient *thinks* he's getting the full treatment. Or so my memory tells me.

Personally I think it works in much the same way as a slap to the face combined with the message "Get a grip on yourself" or similar, but I do not think there has ever been any studies that can back this up. In other words: my opinion, based on my personal dislike of all alternatives to medicine.

Mosquito - taking homeopathic CureAll for a beginning cold

 

[TonyL]

I was wondering if anyone on the forum had had any success with acupuncture? I am a skeptic, but my back has been going out every 6 months or so and several people at work say they have had good success with acupuncture.

Before trying accupuncture, why don't you try going to a physical therapist to find out if you can determine/treat the underlying cause of the pain. When I developed a herniated disk, I was sent to a physical therapist who gave me a series of stretches and excercizes (plus a little traction and some sort of electrical or sonic stimulation) that worked wonders.

 

[LostSoul]

Before trying accupuncture, why don't you try going to a physical therapist to find out if you can determine/treat the underlying cause of the pain. When I developed a herniated disk, I was sent to a physical therapist who gave me a series of stretches and excercizes (plus a little traction and some sort of electrical or sonic stimulation) that worked wonders.

Good advice. I also had a herniated disk, S1-L5. Was in PT for about a month and it was helping allot. I ended up having surgery though, because of bone spurs around the site of the herniation, but the PT before surgery really helped my recovery time. I was back to work in 2 1/2 weeks.

 

[Eos of the Eons]

Um, I'm not helpful, but the best pain relief I ever got was 600 mg ibuprofens from a doc! That, and figuring out why I was in so much pain. Then the problem could get fixed. It's still not fixed, but there is no way I could manage with just accupuncture.

I love what wilks described. I could go for that just for relaxation! Otherwise, try...
http://www.dentalplans.com/Dental-Health-Articles/Needling-Away-Headaches.asp

Curiously, however, this traditional method of applying long needles to specific pressure points was no more effective than sticking fewer and smaller needles at random sites around the body.

Just don't pay a lot for it, whatever you do. There are some relaxation techniques that are cheaper and might be even more effective. And what TonyL and LostSoul said too.