Acupuncture And Pain Relief
By Brian B. Carter, MS, LAc, Thu Dec 8th

In my later years of medical school, I thought that paintreatment was below me. Even though acupuncture was best knownfor its effective pain relief, I thought that the Westernmedical world was simply behind as usual. We were amazed tolearned all the other diseases we could treat with acupuncture,like neurological problems, immune system dysfunction, anxiety,and depression, and I thought, "Anyone can treat pain. I'drather focus on something more interesting."

As I wrote about Chinese medicine on the Pulse website, Ithought, "It would be more beneficial for acupuncture's image ifI focused on something like psychology. And, people really needto understand the complexity and power of our herbal medicinesystem."

So talking about the treatment of pain wasn't really on my list.

Western vs. Eastern Pain Relief But, I couldn't help seeing thatWestern medicine didn't have great pain relief solutions. Theyalways have the side effects of some drugs, and the addictivepotential of the opiates (their most powerful pain killers).

My wonderfully well-read wife subscribes to a journal called ThePain Practitioner(www.aapainmanage.org/literature/PainPrac.php). After readingthat for a few months, I suddenly realized that they nevermentioned acupuncture. That's crazy, I thought. After all, itcompetes with drugs in terms of effectiveness and doesn't causeside effects. Plus, it's superior in permanently removingneurogenic pain, and preventing temporary pain from goingthrough the "grooved into the brain" process that leads tochronic pain syndromes.

When you think of acupuncture, the first thing that should cometo mind is "Superior for treating pain."

Higher Standards for Pain Relief with Acupuncture I've foundthat many acupuncturists do not enjoy treating pain. I thinkthis may be because they haven't learned a style of acupuncturethat treats pain effectively and quickly. In October 2002, Ibegan a mentorship with Robert Chu, who had learned a quick andpowerful pain-relieving acupuncture system from a student of thefamous Taiwanese acupuncturist, Master Tong.

Dr. Chu has taught me several acupuncture systems that are notcurrently taught in acupuncture schools. His goal is immediatepain relief, to some degree, and immediate relaxation or a senseof well being in other diseases.

This is a high standard - we can't always achieve total painrelief with one treatment. It may take ten treatments to make apermanent dent in some situations. But I like having big goals.I think I'm more likely to make progress that way.

Location and Cause of Pain In the clinic, first we find outwhere your pain is. If you've been in an accident, or there arenerve-related issues, we do a physical examination to discoverthe nature of the problem. For example, your pain may be due toa problem in the spine, messages from the brain, one of yourinternal organs, or because you've bruised a muscle, tendon, orligament.

Sometimes, we can't find an obvious cause, even with X-rays,MRI's, and lab tests. We have to assume then that the cause isneurogenic- from the brain, nervous system, or even the psyche.Pain can be a manifestation of emotion. There's nothing wrong,or less valid about that kind of pain.

Actually, Chinese medicine is well-suited to treat that. Andpeople with pain of a psychological origin may find theirWestern physician less sympathetic, because they always have tolook out for addicts. Acupuncture, conversely, can treataddiction.

These are not the only causes of pain. It is important to knowthe cause, and not just blindly attempt to relieve the symptoms.Otherwise, ineffective treatments could be due to a misseddiagnosis. Also, we may approach pain from a vertebral problemdifferently than we do pain of unknown origin.

Rating the Pain & Measuring Progress For each pain location, Ihave patients rate the severity on a scale of 1-10. A "10" wouldbe the worst pain possible, like giving birth or a kidney stone.Once we know the degree of pain for each site, we can assess howmuch the acupuncture treatment changed it. It's nice whenthere's an immediate improvement of 20-30%, or even 100%, whichhappens in some cases.

Sometimes, the patient can't reproduce the pain on the tablebecause of posture, so we have to wait until the treatment isover. If possible, we can needle so that measuring progress iseasier. For example, if your pain is worse when walking, we canneedle your hand (this is distal needling- needling away fromthe site of pain- another topic entirely) while you walk around.Then we can tell immediately if we're on the right track or not.

Complementary Pain Management At the same time, you may do othertherapies. You might be looking into surgery, or othersolutions- for example, than is a synthetic knee injection forpeople with very little knee cartilage. The synthetic fluidlasts for several months.

Interestingly, researchers have found that back pain does notalways correlate to changes in the spine. They've found manypeople with vertebral problems that have no pain at all, andthat some people with constant pain have no obvious structuralchanges.

To me, this underlines the primacy of the nervous system. Yourbrain interprets and creates nerve signals. Sometimes pain hasto be "unlearned." This process may be accomplished withacupuncture alone, or in combination with counseling,meditation, or hypnosis.

In some situations, physical rehabilitation is indicated.Specific exercises prescribed by a trained physical therapistmay help you regain strength and function in the affected partof the body. You may also avail yourself of the slow, demanding,and healing movements of Taichi.

The Process of Pain Control For some people, pain goes awayimmediately, and they are otherwise healthy. In that case, theirpartnership with the acupuncturist may come to an end.

But, others are stuck with chronic pain, and need continualtreatment to experience a better quality of life. In thesecases, it may be better to see the acupuncturist every other dayfor concentrated therapy- we're more likely to shift the body'sneurological patterns that way. If that doesn't work, theacupuncturist may help you purchase a microcurrent or tens unit-these are electrical stimulator pads that you can use at home(or, in fact, anywhere) to keep the pain at bay. The pads areapplied to specific points according to the theories of Chinesemedicine.

For those whose pain is cause or greatly influenced by emotionaland mental factors, Chinese medicine can recommend dietarychanges and new emotional habits. Taichi and meditation can havea normalizing effect on the nervous and immune systems as well.

About the author:Acupuncturist, herbalist, and medical professor Brian B. Carterfounded the alternative health megasite The Pulse of OrientalMedicine (http://www.PulseMed.org/). He is the author of thebook "Powerful Body, Peaceful Mind: How to Heal Yourself withFoods, Herbs, and Acupressure" (November, 2004). Brian speaks onradio across the country, and has been quoted and interviewed byReal Simple, Glamour, and ESPN magazines.