Amongst other things.....
Not to blow my own trumpet, but I would say that in roughly 90% of cases I can improve symptoms of pain. That is if you can put up with the needles, but those who come to me in ‘proper’ pain are usually more than happy to tolerate the miniature stabbings that I inflict on them in the name of getting their blood moving. And if you read my last post, you will know that I think a lot about blood.
But pain. Now there’s a big topic, a can of worms, a pandora’s box. What is pain? Why is pain? Physical, emotional, spiritual….. our human form encounters all types of discomfort, and one person’s ouch can be another’s agony. So many factors play into what we feel, when we feel it, and how much or little of that feeling we can tolerate. I can’t go into all of them here (future posts will try) but I can try to explain how needles can help.
Back to blood for a moment. In Chinese medicine pain is basically a lack of flow - anytime that blood, or Qi, become obstructed, this is usually interpreted and perceived by our human brains as discomfort - which, depending on the severity, could manifest as numbness, heaviness and ache all the way to stabbing, gnawing, off the scale childbirth (or kidney stones, apparently) pain.
Now I have also mentioned Qi, and that’s another worm box. Anyone familiar with Mandarin (or Cantonese) will know that for every single Chinese character there are more often than not at least 3-20 applicable English translations, possibly more, depending on the context in which that character is used, and Qi is no exception. It may be one of the most nuanced words in that language (my teacher Andrew Nugent-Head famously lectures on over 50 different possible translations) which is a long-winded way of saying that to translate ‘Qi’ as energy, as is so often done, is to do the concept a massive dis-service and is, in effect, a massive understatement.
So what is Qi, if not just energy? Well, it depends. I won’t give Andrew’s list of 50, but I will say the following: metabolism, force, electrical potential, vibration, warmth, movement, fizz, sparkle, momentum, possibility, responsiveness, magic. A cop-out, maybe, but it really is a hard concept to encapsulate in one measly English word.
In Chinese medicine we see blood and Qi as two ends of a physiological continuum. You can’t really have one without the other; the former being the more physical, material and tangible end of said spectrum and the latter the more ephemeral, energetic, intangible (you can see it but you can feel it) end. While it is not really our nervous system, it is also kind of our nervous system. Fight and flight states are erratic, over-active Qi, parasympathetic rest & digest is calm and orderly Qi, mania is Qi leaving its anchor of the blood, depression is a lack of Qi to adequately move that blood.
And back to pain - a headache can be too much Qi (loud, pounding disliking of pressure) or too little (empty ache that wants the head to be held). Period pain can be Qi stasis causing a low grade ache that feels better with a hot water bottle (cold causes Qi and blood to stagnate) or a more severe blood stagnation that causes stabbing pains intense enough to trigger nausea and vomiting (rebellious stomach Qi forcing a violent upwards motion).
Why are needles so effective at alleviating this? There are a number of reasons. Western medicine approved RCTs will tell you that the body produces endogenous opiods in response to needling that act as biological pain killers. That is one explanation. But really what needles are excellent at is moving blood, and Qi, and re-establishing the flow of both when this has been impeded. A few more examples.
Someone has sciatic nerve pain from a spasm in their glute (butt) muscle which is compressing the nerve. Needling the muscle to elicit a twitch response (or fasciculation) will release that muscle, taking the pressure off the nerve and easing the sciatica.
Someone has a headache - as above, from too much Qi ascending into the head. Needling a distal point in the leg or foot will cause the nervous system a) to register the leg instead of the head (slightly cheating, a distraction technique) but also b) skilled manipulation of this needle will ‘pull’ excess Qi down from the head and relieve the pressure of the headache.
(Last one!) Someone has a frozen shoulder. Any joint problem is almost always a muscle problem (muscles attach to, and move, bones). If range of motion is decreased or painful, the associated muscles will inevitably contain ‘ahshi’ or trigger points, areas of fibrotic, stuck, and inflamed fascia and muscle fibres that are pulling on the bones and torquing the joint out of alignment (hence pain and restriction). Using the correct technique, these areas can be needled to quickly and effectively break up the adhesions and reestablish function (lengthening fibres that are stuck short, shortening fibres that are stuck long).
I could go on (I haven't even touched on the physical effects of emotional pain) but I hope that gives you an idea. You could also keep taking Nurofen…. and needless to say movement, stretching and exercise can all help move the Qi and the blood, although people rarely train in a balanced and symmetrical way so inevitably training ends up also being a cause of pain as muscles get fed up of being over or under used. You may well be a bit sore (and tired) after an acupuncture treatment for a musculo-skeletal problem, but once that soreness eases you generally re-discover movement you forgot you had. And the pain is less.
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