Millions of Americans suffer from pain that is chronic, severe, and not easily managed. Pain is debilitating, interfering with the ability to sleep, work, and enjoy life. If you are included with the millions of Americans who suffer from long term chronic pain, look no further. You deserve to be healthy and pain free.
Chronic pain is an exceedingly common condition impacting an estimated 76.5 million Americans, one-third of whom describe their pain as severe and “disabling.” Pain from arthritis, back pain, sciatica, musculoskeletal conditions, and headaches costs U.S. businesses more than $61 billion a year in lost worker productivity. Most often, chronic pain does not respond well to painkillers, and or can cause many unwanted side effects. In conclusion, many Americans are not getting the pain relief that they really need.
Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine has long been used throughout Asia to treat chronic pain, musculoskeletal pain, nerve pain, pain caused by arthritis, and phantom limb pain. In a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers led by Andrew Vickers, an epidemiologist and biostatistician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, report that acupuncture is effective in reducing people’s chronic pain — more so than standard pain treatment and slightly better than using sham needles, suggesting that the benefits of real acupuncture are due to something more than just a placebo effect.
On a scale of 0 to 100, participants who started out with a pain rating of 60 experienced an average 30 point drop (a 50 percent reduction) in response to the real acupuncture treatments (using needles); a 25 point drop when receiving sham acupuncture; and a mere 17 point drop when receiving “standard pain care” that did not include acupuncture. The authors then concluded that “real” Acupuncture provided tremendous pain relief for those who suffer from back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, osteoarthritis, and headaches.
This is because Acupuncture has a unique and keen ability to address the patient as a whole who is experiencing pain. Licensed, trained Acupuncturists take a tremendous amount of time assembling a complex puzzle may be contributing to the pain at large. Pain can be felt locally, but it can also manifest elsewhere and be caused by something that is not in the area where the pain is felt. This is because Acupuncture helps “over-ride” the chronic pain response, by teaching the brain to release its own “opioids.”
It is not uncommon for those who seek Acupuncture for pain relief who also experience an overall improvement in their quality of life as well. Improvement in sleep, mood, mental clarity, and energy are common side benefits to those who seek care.
Acupuncture can treat a wide variety of pain related problems such as: Arthritis and joint pain, back pain, facial (Bell’s) palsy (first 3-6 mo), neck pain, peripheral neuropathy, sciatica, sports injuries, TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint Disorder), trigeminal neuralgia, headaches and migraines.
Sources and References:
Vickers, Andrew J. “Acupuncture for Chronic Pain.” Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(19):1444-1453. www.jamanetwork.com 8 Jan 2014.
Mercola, Dr. “Acupuncture Confirmed Helpful for Chronic Pain.” www.articles.mercola.com 29 Sept 2012. Web. 8 Jan 2014.
Park, Alice. “Acupuncture May Offer Real Relief For Chronic Pain.” Time Healthland. 11 Sept 2012. Web. 8 Jan 2014.
Mozes, Alan. “More Evidence Acupuncture Can Ease Chronic Pain: Ancient technique outperformed ‘sham’ acupuncture in large review.” Healthday News. 10 Sept 2012. Web. 8 Jan 2014.
