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Acupuncture Treatment For Pain
Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage. It can also be seen as an uncomfortable sensation or distressing feeling, suggesting to someone that something is not working properly or just out of balance. It can be steady, throbbing, stabbing, aching, pinching, or described in many other ways. Sometimes, it’s just a nuisance, like a mild headache. Other times it can be quite debilitating. Furthermore, pain can bring about other physical symptoms, like nausea, dizziness, weakness or drowsiness.1
Pain motivates the individual to withdraw from a damaging situation, to protect a damaged body part while it heals, and to avoid similar experiences in the future. Most pain resolves once the noxious stimulus is removed and the body has healed, but it may persist despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body. Sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus, damage or disease. In addition, pain can cause emotional effects like anger, depression, mood swings or irritability.2
Perhaps most significantly, pain can change a personal lifestyle and impact on work performance, relationships and independence. Pain is classified as either acute or chronic. Acute pain is usually severe and short-lived, and is often a signal of physical injury. On the other hand, chronic pain can range from mild to severe, is present for long periods of time, and may require ongoing treatment.3
CONTENTS
SYMPTOMS
CAUSES
TREATMENTS
SYMPTOMS
The symptoms of pain can be; burning, aching, discomfort, soreness, tightness, and stiffness. Neglected pain can lead to other symptoms such as fatigue, sleeplessness, a weakened immune system, depression, mood changes, and disability.4
CAUSES
Pain, especially chronic pain is caused by many different factors. Some conditions that accompany the normal ageing process may affect bones and joints in ways to cause chronic pain. Other causes are nerve damage and injuries that fail to heal properly. Some chronic pain has numerous causes. e.g.Back pain, may be caused by a single factor, or a combination of factors.5
Years of poor posture, improper lifting and carrying of heavy objects, being overweight, which puts excess strain on the back and knees, a congenital condition such as curvature of the spine, traumatic injury, prolonged wearing of high heels, sleeping on a poor mattress, degenerative changes, etc. Disease can also be the underlying cause of chronic pain. Rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia are well-known culprits, but persistent pain may also be due to ailments such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, stomach ulcers and gallbladder disease.6
In many cases, however, the source of chronic pain can be difficult to find. Although it may begin with an injury or illness, ongoing pain can develop a psychological dimension after the physical problem has healed. This fact alone makes pinning down a single course of treatment difficult, and that is the reason why, health care providers often find they have to try a number of different types of treatment.7
TREATMENTS
Pain is regarded as the most common symptom of disease.. Pain is also the most noticeable symptom, because if there is pain then there is something out of balance. In this sense, auricular acupuncture is proven to be effective. After inserting the needles to the respective acupoints, stimulation is carried out using electro stimulation which is believed to be superior compared to manual acupuncture stimulation (by hand) for the treatment of pain. The most common electro-auricular acupuncture points to alleviate pain are: Shenmen, Zero, Thalamus, Endocrine, Sympathetic and Dermatome point (for radiating or neuropathic pain).
Meridian Points (for deep pain) can also be stimulated. Determining which principal meridian runs through the painful body area is the first step. Next, comes treatment to the ear point named after it. For example, if the pain is clearly along the Large Intestine meridian of the shoulder, the Large Intestine point of the ear should be treated. It is also possible to choose these points based on underlying energetic imbalances, if those imbalances are properly understood.8
It is known that allopathic medicines such as tablets, syrup or injections cannot relieve pain long term. Moreover, these medicines have many side effects. In this regard, acupressure points can heal body aches and pains without further harm. With the help of pain killers, it is possible to stop the flow of pain/ache in a particular part of the body on a temporary basis only, but, finding a permanent solution is always the best way.
By stimulating specific acupoints it is possible to control, to some extent, common body pain. For instance, the most common aches and pains are as follows: Headache, eye fatigue and eye strain, earache, toothache, neck pain, shoulder pain and back pain. Headache being the most common problem nowadays in all age groups. However, most do not consider headaches to be a serious problem and so often ignore it initially . However, when the ache is chronic and it interrupts working function, then help needs to be sought. There are several acupuncture points to treat headache which are presented below.
The acupuncture point known as Large Intestine 4 (LI-4) is one of the most common points for relief of headaches. The LI-4 is located in the valley between the thumb and the index finger. Other acupoints useful here are the third eye point also known as Governor Vessel 24.5 (GV-24.5) and the Liver 3 point (LV-3) known as Big Rushing point. The third eye point is situated in between the two eyebrows, whereas, LV-3 is located in between the big toe and first toe on both feet.9
Eye Strain, pain or fatigue is also a very common problem. Mainly because some people work at night time. As a result, the eyes get red, strained and fatigued. The acupuncture points B-1, B-2 and the one known as First Toe Point are the most common points to get relief from any eye pain. Another common problem is ear ache or ear pain specially in children. However, it can occur in adults too. The causes of ear pain are sinus infection, cold, fluid in the ears, etc. The acupuncture points in the outer/inner part of the earlobe as well as in the ear gate point are the most common points to get relief from this type of pain.
Toothache can occur in a person of any age group and is usually due to a cavities, a cracked tooth, infection, eating or drinking something extremely cold or hot, etc. The acupuncture point ST-36 is the most common point to get relief from toothache.
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Footnotes
- Pain Management Health Center – webmd.com – 2017, http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/default.htm
- Pain – wikipedia.org – 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain
- Pain – medlineplus.gov – 2017, https://medlineplus.gov/pain.html
- What is pain – hopkinsmedicine.org – 2017, http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/pain/blaustein_pain_center/patient_care/what_is_pain.html
- Pain Management Health Center – webmd.com – 2017, http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/default.htm
- What is pain – hopkinsmedicine.org – 2017, http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/pain/blaustein_pain_center/patient_care/what_is_pain.html
- Causes of Chronic Pain – healthline.com – 2017, http://www.healthline.com/health/chronic-pain#Causes2
- The Magic Auricular Pain Treatment Protocol – acupuncturetoday.com – 2009, http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=31945
- Most Effective Acupressure Point for Body Pain – acupressurepointsguide.com – 2017, http://acupressurepointsguide.com/acupressure-points-for-body-pain/?id=31945