Pain Management

What is more motivating in seeking medical attention than pain relief? Acupuncture for pain is now being promoted as a first course of treatment by many health organizations, including the FDA! Acupuncture is an incredible modality to help reduce or eliminate the pain you are suffering from without the use of drugs or invasive surgeries. Acupuncture can be used for all types of pain including: headaches, menstrual cramps, abdominal pain, structural pain (low back, neck, knee, hip, elbow, etc.), pain post-surgery, and neurological pain. Let's use some imagery to describe how acupuncture treats pain. Imagine water that is flowing unobstructed down a river. This is how we want Qi (your life force) to be flowing throughout your body. Our bodies have many meridians through which qi flows, some starting in the hands and ending in the chest, others in the feet and ending at the head. Now imagine a river that is blocked by a beaver dam full of branches, rocks, and foliage. The water is no longer flowing smoothly, nor can it irrigate areas downstream. This is similar to what happens when there is an obstruction to the Qi flow in our bodies. The Qi gets blocked from injury, lack of use, surgery, scar tissue, or organ dysfunction. This can cause pain, inflammation, lack of motility, and also not allow areas "downstream" to be nourished from the Qi flow, leading to atrophy, neuropathy, and weakness. Acupuncture works on moving that blockage (removing the beaver dam) to allow a smooth, unobstructed flow of our life force.