Acupuncture to the rescue
You may recall that I hurt my knee about two weeks ago. It was progressing, but in the wrong direction—day by day getting worse instead of better.
Medicine didn’t offer me much (actually, it didn’t offer me anything), and there was a delay in approval for an MRI. So I decided to go to a nearby acupuncturist, and spend eighty-plus out-of-pocket dollars for a treatment.
I have a history with acupuncture. When conventional medicine has failed me in the past, especially with injuries (and unfortunately I’ve had quite a few), I’ve turned reluctantly to the unconventional treatments. I wager that I’ve dumped tens of thousands of dollars into various “alternative” (read: sketchy) approaches over the last two decades, mostly to no avail.
You name it, I tried it; I was that desperate. Despite my basic skepticism, and repeated vows to quit chasing and dumping money after the illusory cure, I kept hearing of something new. A really good chiropractor who fixed my friend’s back, for example. And this one (she claimed) had a whole different approach, so my previous chiropractic horror stories were irrelevant. Or a Reiki practitioner miracle worker. Or expensive magnets that had eliminated the chronic back pain of another friend’s brother—and oh, by the way, he was selling them now and would be happy to have me as a client. Or that woman up in the boonies north of Vermont who charged eight hundred dollars for a several-hour consultation and then sold you expensive nutritional supplements and a filter for your kitchen sink. Or…
Well, you get the picture. I once made a list of every fringey practice I tried, and I think it was close to one hundred. Ninety-eight of them helped not one little bit.
But two were different. The first was massage, which helped somewhat but only temporarily. The second was acupuncture.
Acupuncture was expensive, and (contrary to the hype) it sometimes did hurt when those needles went in. It only helped my back problems and my arm injuries a little bit, although at the time I figured that a little bit was better than nothing.
But I discovered that when acupuncture worked, it really worked. For example, somewhere in the mid-90s I hurt my tailbone, and tried what medical science had to offer for eight long months, to no avail. I decided to give acupuncture a go, and after the first treatment I was astonished to discover the pain reduced by half. And, since this was a pain that hadn’t budged for eight previous months no matter what conventional medicine or physical therapy had thrown at it, that fact certainly got my attention.
I went for about six treatments after that. Each time the pain was reduced by about half, until I was pain free. This has remained by far my most successful acupuncture story—till now, that is. It’s the reason I thought of acupuncture at all for my sudden knee malady.
I can’t say I had any expectations, however. When I lay down on that table to let that woman stick a bunch of needles in each leg it was because I didn’t know what else to do. I’d been hobbling around in great pain for many days, and I was starting to wonder how long I’d be able to walk at all.
When I got up about forty minutes later I was stunned. The pain wasn’t gone, but it was about 85% reduced. This was pretty much in miracle territory as far as I was concerned. I didn’t limp, although I certainly walked slowly and tentatively, waiting for the sharp ache to return full force.
The acupuncturist gave me some weird-smelling liniment patches to put on my knee, from a box that had pictures of dragons on it. At this point if she’d told me to swallow the patches I might have done so. During the next couple of days the pain pretty much disappeared—and (knock wood, knock wood!) it’s remained disappeared.
I have no scientific explanation, but I guess I don’t need one. My qi seems to be happy and my meridians merry, so I’m happy and merry.
Hurray! I rejoice with you. Be well!
Well, I for one, am not going to needle you about this descent into quackery.
I mercilessly mock and ridicule all practitioners and consumers of medical quackery.
I don’t laugh at accupuncture. I would do it.
I’m glad you’ve found some relief and I hope it continues.
Thank goodness!
My dad swears by massage– enough so that my sister, who but for a phobia of other folks’ blood would’ve been a nurse, went into therapeutic massage.
I’ve got a thing about needles, but I’ll be sure to pass on the recomendation– treatments done at different places, right?
Naloxone- the same opioid blocker they use to stop a narcotics overdose- also prevents acupuncture from working. It’s doing something, and while I highly doubt it’s manipulating life force, it’s something real.
Pain is a very complex and cryptic beast, neurologically speaking. You’d think it would be the most straightforward of sensations, but quite the opposite turns out to be true.
If it works, it works. Good for you.
My only experience with alternate therapy is biofeedback, which twenty years ago permanently cured me of a bad habit: excessive blinking.
The brain, desperate to be rid of the additional burden of relaying pain signals, notes that something different is being tried.
And the signals diminish.
Maybe it’s an expansion of the placebo effect. But the fact is, we don’t understand that any better than we understand acupuncture.
I’m going with “Whatever works.”
Acupuncture sounds like a lot of hoo-hah, but somehow it works some times.
I have a friend who does cranial-sacral massage which also lacks scientific support, but dang it, she can put me out like a light in a matter of minutes with only the slightest of pressure on the back of my head.
You missed this recent story, neo
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/08/27/imaging-sheds-light-on-how-acupuncture-works.html
“Using positron emission tomography scans of the brain” researchers found “…(acupuncture) increases the binding availability of mu-opioid receptors in regions of the brain that process and weaken pain signals — specifically the cingulate, insula, caudate, thalamus and amygdala. By directly stimulating these chemicals, acupuncture can affect the brain’s long-term ability to regulate pain, the study found.
Neo,
I used to get sharp back pain, and learned to alleviate it by steady breathing and relaxing my back. It was like sending waves down my spine while lying down. I believe acupuncture maybe helps that, and while it doesn’t fix the problem, it lessens the pain and gives the damaged tissue a chance to heal.
That was 15 years ago, now I have to get to work on the stone wall I’m building in my garden!
Good luck with your knee-o…
Good to hear you have a method for relief!
Now will you please quit playing tackle football? Sheesh!
😉
Glad you found a cure for your pain. Myself, I never tried acupuncture, but had met a few really good massage therapists. Few is the operating word. But those few were really a miracle workers.
Hi Neo,
If you would like to see an alternative practitioner who is a little closer to mainstream medicine, you might try getting a consultation from someone who does “Prolotherapy”.
This therapy only does one thing, but it seems to do it pretty well. It fixes broken/stretched ligaments and tendons. The practitioner is always (by law) an MD or DO who has learned a new skill.
Of course, if you don’t have an injured tendon or ligament, then this won’t help.
I had one in Denver fix a torn shoulder ligament for me one time. It was also a 10 year old injury. I can’t recommend it enough.
James
I’m so glad to hear you’re back in action.
James, thank you for the prolotherapy idea. I have tennis elbow and chronic foot pain from a broken leg. Physical therapy is helping, but after researching the prolotherapy I think I will give it a try.
Neo (and other fellow chronic pain sufferers): I found the description of this device today. I never knew the ultrasound devices are available for home use; physical therapists in NY never use it, and it seems never heard of them. Back in Russia (20 yrs ago) it was a common method of alleviating pain that therapists prescribed – but only applied by professionals in medical clinic.
Apparently, they are selling in US like hot cakes since the 90s!
The first time I had acupuncture it wasn’t for anything specific. I had a good friend who had played drums on a lot of my recording session when he lived in Denver. In California he was a macrobiotic practitioner and his wife was a certified acupuncturist. She offered a treatment and being wiling to try anything once I took her up on it. The thing that amazed me was how relaxing it was (though that wasn’t anticipated when she said the first needle was going into my forehead). From that point on I was really open to it and have since become a true believer.
James,
I’ve done multiple prolo visits for my knees with only so-so results. But the newer Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) sounds promising. Even if it’s more (alot more) expensive. I’ve done PRP on my back (after months of physical therapy with only slight improvement) and there was a noticeable difference on the positive side.
You might be interested in this Wired article:
http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect?currentPage=1#
Good to hear Neo.
Donna B-
cool, it seems to boil down to: “the mind works, but we have no idea exactly why– some PLACES, the drug works better, other places it doesn’t, some people get bennies from both and there’s some judging issues involved, too.”
I do love that they ID’ed the anti version, the nocebo– which I’ve seen in action. (“This is going to hurt” and it is hugely painful…before you’re touched.)
acupuncture seems to be a good alternative medicine ,;: