Pain Management and Pain Relief Information

Acupuncture has a great reputation when it comes to being an all natural way to stay healthy, now a new study finds that using acupuncture for pain is effective because it changes the way the brain perceives and processes pain signals. What’s more, they have the MRI scans to prove it.

A recent survey found that a full one quarter of U.S. adults have experienced pain that lasted more than a day so clearly lots of us are hurting and hoping for relief.

As one of the oldest healing practices in the world, acupuncture stimulates specific points on the body to regulate the flow of vital energy along pathways called meridians. Balancing the energy is believed to restore or maintain health. Today many people turn to acupuncture for pain… back pain being the most common complaint followed by pain in joints, neck or headaches.

To conduct the current research on acupuncture, a German research team used functional MRI scans to examine brain activity on 18 subjects who received a painful electrical current from a device fitted to their ankle. Acupuncture needles were placed on the subjects’ right side. Without the acupuncture there was activation of the pain processing area of the brain, but when the acupuncture needles were in place the levels of activation was significantly reduced. The subjects also showed reduced activation in parts of the brain that controls the expectation of pain.

The practice of acupuncture in the U.S. was pretty rare until the 1972 visit of President Richard M. Nixon to China. Since then there has been a lot of interest in the application of this ancient technique to Western medicine.

Acupuncture needles are now regulated by the FDA, just like surgical scalpels and syringes, so that they are manufactured properly and are kept sterile. So long as you visit a properly trained practitioner who is practising proper hygiene and using sterile, single use needles, complications and side effects are rare.

In fact, there are fewer adverse effects associated with acupuncture than with a good number of the drug treatments you’d get from the doctor. When it comes to pain, anti-inflammatory medications and steroid injections can offer relief, but at a cost to the body in terms of side effects.

Here are a few of the conditions where acupuncture holds promise when used as part of an overall treatment plan…

• Nausea after an operation or due to chemotherapy or dental pain
• Addiction
• Stroke rehabilitation
• Headache
• Menstrual cramps
• Tennis elbow
• Fibromyalgia
• Myofascial pain
• Osteoarthritis
• Low back pain
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Asthma

Not everyone is a good candidate to use acupuncture for pain relief, so be sure to talk with your own doctor before you give it a try.

• If you’re pregnant, wait until after you deliver.
• Some people with bleeding disorders or who are taking a blood thinner should proceed with care as your chances of bleeding or bruising at the needle sites increases.
• If you have a pacemaker, avoid the types of acupuncture that involve applying mild electrical pulses to the needles as this can interfere with your device’s operation.

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