Acupuncture For Back Pain Relief

One of the most popular alternative treatments for back pain, and also one that has been proven to be effective, is the traditional Chinese practice of acupuncture.

In traditional Chinese medicine, back pain is not simply viewed as one type of pain but as individual pain which is classified and differentiated.

Therefore, the type of acupuncture you receive will vary depending on the type of pain you are suffering, where you are experiencing that pain and how long you have been suffering from it.

Some of the main types of back pain recognised by Chinese medicine include:

Deficiency Type Back Pain

This type of back pain tends to be associated with middle aged or elderly people. It can be described as a dull aching pain that usually gets better with rest.

Blood Stagnation Back Pain

This type of back pain is also referred to as Qi pain, and deals with the flow of energy around the body.

In Chinese medicine it is believed that muscles are able to move blood, energy (Qi) and other bodily fluids when they stretch and contract.

If you don’t use your muscles enough, your Qi will become congested and it is likely that you will suffer from pain as a result.

Cold Back Pain

This type of back pain tends to be felt most often in the morning, and is usually made worse by cold or damp weather. In western medical terms, we would usually associate this type of back pain with arthritis or sciatica.

Some of the symptoms that are commonly experienced from this type of back pain include swelling in the joints or back muscles and a feeling of numbness.

Acupuncture For Back Pain

The basic belief behind Chinese medicine is that whenever you feel any pain in your body, it is your body’s way of telling you that something is out of balance.

Therefore, in order to get rid of the pain you need to restore that balance in your body, and one way the Chinese do this is through acupuncture.

Since use of the muscles in the body allows the Qi to flow properly, if you do not use your muscles on a regular basis the flow of Qi will become impaired.

When this happens and you place an unusual strain on your muscle, that muscle can go into spasm and cause you pain.

Treating Back Pain With Acupuncture

An acupuncturist will attempt to get rid of your back pain by moving blood and Qi around your body with the use of needles via the different Qi channels in your body.

The points of pain you are experiencing on your back are where the Qi has become congested, and the more painful your back pain is, the more congested your Qi is assumed to be.

The acupuncturist, through the use of needles, will attempt to open up these Qi channels so that the congestion and pain can be relieved.

Acupuncture needles will be applied both at the site of your back pain, and also in other regions of your body in order to open up your Qi channels.

If you don’t like the idea of using needles for acupuncture, there are some practitioners who use an electric current rather than needles to open up your Qi channels.

However, you are more likely to find such methods being used by individuals of western decent, as needles still tend to be the favoured method for acupuncture for traditional Chinese people.

Does Acupuncture For Back Pain Work?

There have been several studies carried out on the effectiveness of acupuncture as a treatment for back pain, and most of these studies do indeed show that acupuncture works and works quickly.

What’s even more impressive is that some of these studies were carried out on people who had failed to experience any improvement in their back pain using traditional western methods, but were able to find relief using acupuncture.

So the studies are out there which back up the Chinese belief in acupuncture as a treatment for back pain, and many people have successfully used it to treat their back pain naturally without the use of drugs.

Furthermore, it has been shown that the use of needles or electro-acupuncture are equally as effective.

So if you don’t like the idea of having lots of needles placed into your body, you should still be able to experience the benefits of acupuncture via electro-stimulation.