Acupuncture Back Pain Treatment

Acupuncture assumes that in modern society, most of us are not using(i.e. stretching and contracting) all of our muscles properly and that as a direct result of this disuse, many of our muscles have contracted and tightened. As a result, acupuncture back pain treatment could be effective to relieve your back pain.

This contraction and tightening means that Qi and blood are unable to flow through these muscles in the correct fashion, meaning that when we do try to use them, our muscles are simply not up to the task. Consequently, when an unusual strain is placed on the muscle in question (most commonly, the muscles of the lower back), that muscle will go into spasm even if this additional strain is relatively minor such as bending forward to pick something up from the floor or cleaning your teeth.

A course of acupuncture back pain treatment built on the basis of moving blood and Qi around your body with the use of needles could prove very effective pain relief. A trained acupuncturist knows that there are many different blood and Qi‘channels’ in your body, so their first task will be to palpitate various parts of your back to establish where the major centre points of pain are.

Points of back pain are places where Qi has become congested, and the more back pain there is, the more congestion there is assumed to be. As a result, the acupuncturist will insert needles in such a way that these channels are opened out so that the congestion and therefore the back pain is removed.

Your acupuncture practitioner will apply needles in both a local (i.e. at the point of pain) and distal (i.e. in other parts of the body) manner in order to open up your Qi channels. Although it may appear to be somewhat counterintuitive acupuncture back pain treatment, treating back pain using distal acupuncture points is very important, particularly in the treatment of acute back pain. Thus, needles placed in other parts of the body a considerable distance from the back can be extremely effective, although there are also many places in the back itself where acupuncture needles are likely to be extremely effective as well.

Alternatively, it is possible to enjoy acupuncture treatment where the practitioner uses an electric current rather than needles to stimulate the body and open the appropriate Qi channels. Given that many people have a fear or loathing of needles, this is often a more attractive alternative, although it may be more difficult to find a practitioner who will use electricity rather than needles.

The most important question is, does acupuncture back pain treatment work? The results of a study conducted by two leading Swedish doctors in 2002 tend to indicate that the answer to the question appears to be an unqualified ‘yes’.

According to the results published in ‘The Clinical Journal of Pain’ and reported on the Acupuncture Today website, the two doctors tested acupuncture as a back pain treatment on a group of people who had been suffering from chronic lower back pain for at least six months.

Every one of these people had tried various other back pain relief treatments or cures but to no avail.

The test group was split into three smaller groups. The members of one of these subgroups received acupuncture treatment once a week for eight weeks, the members of the second group received electroacupuncture, and the members of the third subgroup were given a placebo.

The final results of the test indicated that all of the patients who had received acupuncture reported ‘significant’ improvement in their condition one month, three months and six months after completion of the treatment. They also reported that they were able to sleep more soundly than previously, and that they were also able to achieve higher activity levels than previously as well.

In short, there seems to be little doubt that acupuncture back pain treatment can be extremely effective although the test did report that there were certain types of back pain and patients that responded to treatment better than others. Perhaps most interestingly, the study also indicated that both forms of acupuncture (using needles or electroacupuncture)were equally effective, indicating that even if you have a phobia about needles, acupuncture will still work for you if you are seeking relief from back pain.

Acupuncture Back Pain Treatment