More and more patients are inquiring their doctors about acupuncture for the treatment of their back injury and pain. However, many people still erroneously think that the idea of an acupuncture needle stuck into their body would only add to their body pain. The truth is acupuncture is a very effective and safe way of relieving body pain. Back pain sufferers who have tried it found acupuncture especially effective in the management and treatment of their acute or chronic back pain, and spasms and aches, after injuring their lower back.
What is Acupuncture?
A component of traditional Chinese Medicine in Edina, acupuncture is generally viewed by western society as merely simply a needling medical process. It has many forms and is often combined with Chinese herbal medicine and yin/yang breathing techniques both of which also are components of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Acupuncture is a quite old form of healing art practiced in china for over 5,000 years.
Acupuncture is not only used to help pain and it was already being utilized to treat conditions even before steel was invented. This implies that the acupuncture needles used thousands of years ago before steel was invented were made of wood, particularly bamboo wood. The Chinese were already using needling techniques and acupuncture to successfully treat each other of their maladies long before they were aware of the power (energy) existing in the body that they were stimulating to help treat their condition.
The traditional way of way of performing acupuncture is based on the notion of vessels of energy known as meridian points running throughout the body. Acupuncturists believe that the meridians are where qi or vital energy flows to energize the entire body. The meridian points are associated with the body’s various organ systems like the heart, large intestine, liver, etc. Acupuncturists also believe that acupuncture and TCM for the relief of pain needs to utilize needles to stimulate the meridian to help the body get rid of all types of pain like back spasms, buttock pain, back aches as well as chronic and acute pain. Since the meridians do not usually lay on the organs systems it is associated with, the needles are often not inserted in the area where the pain actually is located.
For back injury and lower back pain, traditional acupuncture has proven to effectively treat pain for back spasms, back aches and both chronic and acute pain. It can help in alleviating chronic pain and back spasm, as well as aid in the decrease of the long term modifications in the brain’s processing of pain.
These past few years, acupuncture has become more widely accepted in the United States as an effective and safe way to relieve all kinds of pain, from mild headaches, neck and back pain to pregnancy and delivery pains. A new and westernized form of acupuncture known as Dry Needling acupuncture is widely used by both western doctors and acupuncturists to relieve body pain. This type of acupuncture is very effective in relieving muscle spasm, providing immediate relief from muscle spasm caused by back injury, buttock pains, back spasms, and back aches.
Muscle spasm as a result of back injury is a natural body reaction to help protect the site of the injury. This causes affected people to suffer from back spasms and back ache. Several muscles surrounding the pelvis can spasm after a back injury and this causes pain in the buttock that may be combined with lower back pain and back aches that will not be evident on an MRI or an x-ray.
The increase of muscle spasm can cause trigger points to develop in the muscles. The points are primarily what cause the back spasm, buttock pain and back pain as well as the back aches. The dry needling procedure effectively rids the body of these trigger points helping relieve the back spasms, back aches and lower back pain.
The Dry Needling technique is applied to effectively and safely destroy the trigger points via a fast needling procedure of the affected site. It is different from Acupuncture because the needling process is done for only 5 to 10 seconds whereas in acupuncture, the needles are left inserted in the skin for about 20 minute or more. Acupuncturists have discovered the Dry Needling technique to be extremely effective in treating spine pain, buttocks pain, back spasms, lower back pain and back aches. When the trigger points are removed after a back injury, relief from pain can be almost instantaneously felt.