Acupuncture for Pain 

Pain can come from physical or emotional injury and trauma, including sports injuries and car accidents. It can also be generated by repetitive strain, misalignment in posture, old injuries, etc. Sitting in front of the computer for eight hours a day is a common cause of repetitive strain. There are also pains like menstrual cramps, headaches, abdominal pain, where the root of the pain is from an internal disharmony. Eastern medicine is effective in understanding your unique ecosystem including the strengths and weakness in the body, to support your overall health as well as addressing pain and lack of mobility. 

Acupuncture for Sport Medicine 

For professional and recreational athletes, pain and tightness in the muscles could be from repetitive strain, acute injury, past injury or misaligned holding patterns where certain muscle groups are overused and others under activated. These patterns when left untreated can lead to persistent pain, even further injury.

What is Trigger Point?

Active myofascial trigger point is described as “ … that causes a clinical pain complaint. It is always tender, prevents full lengthening of the muscle, weakens the muscle,…, when compressed,…,causes tenderness in the pain reference zone.”(Simons et al., 1999, p. 1) This describes specific pain patterns and restricted range of motion with active trigger points in the muscles. Myofascial trigger point release/Acupuncture physical medicine (APM)  uses acupuncture needles to release these trigger points, thus releasing the pain referral patterns. This supports muscles to become healthier, improve structural alignment, endurance and flexibility.

What’s the difference between dry needling and acupuncture?

Orthopedic medicine has a long history in Eastern Martial Arts of using acupuncture and internal/external herbal medicine. Myofascial Trigger Point Therapy/Dry needling is a modern approach of activating the muscles to release tightness and pain. In short, Myofascial Trigger Point Therapy/dry needling can be considered the muscular level treatment, while acupuncture addresses personal constitution, underlying pattern, and the muscular-skeletal level. In my practice, both methods are integrated in order to tailor treatment to specific individual needs. The human body needs a balance of stillness and movement to ensure health. I’m committed to support my patients to be active without pain, to achieve sustainability, longevity and balance in life.

What to Expect?

During your first treatment we will go over medical history, signs and symptoms of your chief complaint, evaluate activity level, your expectations and intentions. With this information and clinical findings, I will formulate a treatment plan that’s customized to your conditions and constitution and if needed make dietary, nutritional, and exercise recommendations.  In my clinical practice, I intend to incorporate traditional acupuncture approaches to address constitutional well-being with modern understanding of muscular-skeletal function and fascia.

In subsequent treatments, we track the improvement of symptoms, this could be reduced pain, reduced frequency of pain, improved mobility or increase activity levels without pain. For acute issues, often changes in symptoms can be felt within 1-4 treatments, for more chronic issues, you may see significant changes within 6-12 treatments. Especially for athletic oriented patients, I would like to keep track of your personal goals for activity levels, races, game schedules, so I can better support your health and sport performance. 

Healing from pain can be a collaborative effort of acupuncture, chiropractic care and physical therapy. If needed, we will provide referrals to other healing modalities.

Reference

Travell, J. G., Simons, D. G., & Simons, L. S. (1999). Myofascial pain and dysfunction: The trigger point manual: Vol. 1:upper half of body. Williams & Wilkins.