Acupuncture is an Eastern, homeopathic, alternative method of pain management. It requires the placement of specially designed needles that are inserted into pressure points that correlate to the pain center, and its surrounding, distressed areas. It is believed that everyone has a unique flow of energy coursing through their bodies, that must flow freely and unblocked in order to maximize one’s health. When the flow is disrupted or somehow inhibited from moving fluently, pain results.
This process of pain and the ways in which it manifests is markedly different from the more direct cause and effect explanation Western medicine readily embraces. Acupuncture seeks to pinpoint the exact source of pain and treat it by improving the flow of one’s energy. This treatment method does not produce immediate results, but rather, begins the process of redesigning and uninhibiting the proper circulation of energy.
While many go to the doctor with back pain seeking pills and on-the-spot or at least guaranteed pain relief, those who engage in the practice of acupuncture have to be open and willing to realign and reconfigure the way their energy flows. Before that though, they have to be open to the idea that they have an energy flow that was blocked in the first place.
How Does Acupuncture Help The Treatment Of Back Pain?
There are a myriad of back pains, ailments, and conditions that a significant number of people live with every day. Whether the pain is caused by obesity, poor body mechanics, congenital defects, age-related conditions, or trauma, the pain can be excruciating, debilitating, and interfere with activities of daily living.
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Back pain is no laughing matter, particularly because of the nerve endings that connect and affect so many bodily functions. The slightest movement in one part of your body can sometimes be felt in your back and spine, causing a level of pain that can cause depression and helplessness. And while traditional medications such as opioids, narcotics, transdermal pain patches, and injected nerve blocks are what are most often used to treat the physical pain, they do not and cannot address the emotional distress that chronic back pain can cause.
Enter acupuncture. Through the use of carefully placed needles in specific pressure points, it is believed that both mind and body can be healed. Acupuncture works hand in hand with acupressure, a practice that requires exact placement of the fingers over meridians, or pressure points connected to the source of pain. Both of these practices share the belief that each pressure point and meridian correlates to a body system and the organs it is comprised of. This is, in part, what makes acupuncture seem ethereal and unscientific, when in fact, you simply cannot measure the results of Eastern medicine by the research methods used in Western practice.
Benefits of Acupuncture For Back Pain
Back pain is the leading source of physical discomfort that leads individuals to consider acupuncture. It is often introduced as part of the treatment plan when conventional procedures are ineffective. It may seem contradictory to seek out the placement of needles, typically an uncomfortable endeavor, to alleviate pain, but for many people, it works.
The needles are placed delicately and carefully so as not to only address your back pain but the pathways and meridians connected to it. Lumbar back pain for example, may not only be caused by sitting for too long, but may also be connected to depression, trauma, and other emotional disturbances that are now, quite literally, settling into your body.
Acupuncture seeks to make these kinds of connections by encouraging the release of endorphins, our body’s natural painkillers. This process then stimulates the body’s pain centers to heal themselves.
Can East Meet West Treat Back Pain With Acupuncture?
No matter what kind of treatment you choose, the goal is to enable you to be pain-free. Under the watchful eye of your health care practitioner, you can use both acupuncture and allopathic treatments to collaboratively bring about pain relief.
What we sometimes forget is that we are far more than a compilation of body parts, in the same way that our backs are far more than the muscles and vertebrae it contains. A holistic approach to pain relief and symptom management goes a long way towards allowing each patient to feel alive and well once again.
