Tag: qi

Treatment focus: Acupuncture and Back Pain

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Most of us will know someone with back pain. It may have affected you personally, or someone you know – and I can tell you that it’s certainly affected me. Depressingly, if you haven’t experienced it yet, the chances are that you will at some point.

The condition affects more than 1.1 million people in the UK, with 95% of patients suffering from problems affecting the lower back. And it costs the NHS and care providers in the over £1b a year.*

There’s no surprise why that is – we spend too long lounging about in front of the telly, work in sedentary jobs and don’t exercise enough. Having said that, my dad had a slight dowagers hump, worked in an office, never exercised and loved watching telly – never had as much as a twinge…

Acupuncture is well known anecdotally as a treatment for back pain. But there’s also a great deal of evidence to support its efficacy. *Research has shown that acupuncture is significantly better than no treatment and at least as good as (if not better than) standard medical care for back pain (Witt 2006; Haake 2007; Cherkin 2009; Sherman 2009a). It appears to be particularly useful as an adjunct to conventional care, for patients with more severe symptoms and for those wishing to avoid analgesic drugs (Sherman 2009a, 2009b; Lewis 2010).

This encouraged NICE to recommend its use within the NHS. Your doctor can refer you for 8-10 acupuncture treatments as a first line treatment for persistent, non-specific low back pain. And that’s got to be a good thing.

It works in numerous ways: *providing pain relief, reducing inflammation, improving muscle stiffness and joint mobility, reducing the need for medication, complementing rehabilitation exercises and over the long-term, and is more cost effective than other treatments.

That’s the ‘science bit’, but it only tells part of the story, because studies will only have used specific acupuncture points in order to standardize their research. Traditional Chinese Medicine doesn’t really work in this way and your acupuncturist may feel that the reason for your back pain may be related to something else – and use other acupuncture points in their treatment.

It’s personalized, and that’s why individual experience will be based on the reason you have lower back pain. Which takes me back to my dad. There are people who are more prone to back pain, in the same way that others may be pre-disposed to stomach problems. What the acupuncturist offers is a genuinely holistic look at you. Not just your back.

  • Source: NICE
  • Source: BACC
  • Sources: Pomeranz 1987; Zhao2008
  • Kim 2008, Kavoussi 2007;Zijlstra 2003
  • Thomas 2006
  • Radcliffe 2006;Witt 2006
  • Ammendolia 2008; Yuan 2008

What can acupuncture do for me?

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Ever wondered what effect your lifestyle has on your health?

A survey of American acupuncturists discovered that 95% of practitioners treated the same kind of healthcare problems among their clients.* They were defined by what are known as ‘syndromes’: a series of symptoms that indicate certain pathologies. These became known as the American Syndrome. But actually this could apply to much of the developing world. It isn’t hard to guess what lifestyle issues were common to those seeking help. Stress, overwork, poor diet, worry, lack of exercise, chronic conditions. Familiar?

Along with lifestyle, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) equally recognises the impact of negative emotions. Anger, worry, sadness, fear and grief have a profound effect on health and this is treated with the same importance as physical symptoms.

Often people live with a combination of ‘niggles’ – complaining of feeling tired all the time, or constipated, stressed out, frustrated with people around them, demotivated or just running on empty – not anything you think you could go to your doctor for – but enough to affect your quality of life. Sometimes these issues lead to more serious health problems such as insomnia, diabetes, migraines or chronic pain.

Acupuncture aims to treat the root cause of the problem and getting your body to start working more effectively again. It may take a few sessions, usually four or five, to see real change, but acupuncture is cumulative so each session builds on the previous one. Patients report improved sleep (even when that isn’t their complaint), better mood, more energy, less pain, lower dependence on medication – and those are just the collateral benefits. Acupuncture supports your entire well being – it’s a genuinely holistic healthcare system.

Don’t be put off by ‘the needle’. It’s the width of a strand of hair and most of the time you won’t feel it anyway. Often people fall asleep on the treatment couch and leave calmer and more energised.

Try it. You’ll never look back.

Source: The American Syndrome. E. Douglas Kihn, OMD, L.Ac