Acupuncture for Low Back Pain and Chronic Pain

Acupuncturist, Judy Bowen-Jones explains: how acupuncture can help relieve pain, what happens when you come for an acupuncture treatment for low back pain, what happens in the body in chronic pain and gives advice on what else you can do to help relieve your pain.

Whilst acupuncture is used to treat a wide range of conditions, it is most commonly used to treat musculoskeletal conditions – such as, low back pain, neck and shoulder pain, osteoarthritis of the knee, and tennis elbow.
In Chinese Medicine, muscle and joint pain is due to the stagnation of energy/qi and blood. This may be due to trauma – back pain caused by heavy lifting, repetitive strain injury – often seen in elbows and wrists, caused by sports, or working long hours at a computer, or the invasion of external WIND, COLD or DAMP into the body, which often presents as osteoarthritis of the knees or hands.
From a Western medicine point of view, Musculo-skeletal pain, such as back pain and sciatica may be attributed to muscle strain, nerve impingement, joint inflammation or disc problems.
It’s interesting, in low back pain, research has shown the amount of disc and nerve damage generally does not relate to the amount of pain experienced. The majority of older people have some spinal degeneration, but they don’t all have pain. So what’s going on?
Our pain response is highly sophisticated and very useful. It is designed to protect us and help us to heal.
Simply speaking, pain occurs when your body’s alarm system alerts your brain to tissue damage. Subconsciously, the brain decides whether or not the damage is a threat and decides whether or not you will feel pain. This decision by the brain is based on a wide range of sensory and physiological factors – including your stress levels, how dehydrated you are and what else is happening inside and outside of your body.
How can acupuncture help relieve pain?
According to Chinese Medical theory, acupuncture helps to relieve pain by moving stagnant energy and blood in the body and thereby promoting healing.
In conventional medicine, there is substantial evidence to show that acupuncture is at least as good, if not better than standard medical care for treating back pain. That’s why acupuncture is used in medical pain clinics and recommended by healthcare services around the world.
Research tells us that acupuncture works in a number of ways:
Acupuncture changes how pain is processed by the brain and spinal cord. The nerve pathways from acupuncture point stimulation via the spinal cord to the deactivation of pain centres in the brain have been mapped.
Acupuncture stimulates the production of endorphins, the body’s natural pain killers. Acupuncture helps increase blood flow, and reduce inflammation and muscle tension. Acupuncture enhances nerve repair in sciatica.
Acupuncture does not fix you, acupuncture stimulates change in your body which allows your body to heal itself.
What can I expect in my acupuncture treatment for back pain?
After taking your detailed medical history and details of your back pain, I will examine your back. If it’s appropriate, I may do some therapeutic massage.
Typically, I would put some acupuncture needles in your back. I may also needle some specific points in your hands and feet - points for general pain relief, to improve body wide circulation and to relax your body generally. There are also some really useful acupuncture points for treating all kinds of pain on your outer ear.
I may also use moxibustion – a process which involves warming the needles to help promote circulation, relax the muscles and expel cold from the body.
In cases of chronic pain, pain continues after the injury has healed. For some reason, nerve signals that were active during the acute injury phase, continue to send messages saying that the damage is still present. This chronic pain may come from a malfunction in the way the brain interprets the sensory messages it receives. We don’t fully understand how, but acupuncture appears to help ‘reboot’ the messaging system and help provide relief from chronic pain.
In a 2007 study of 450,000 chronic pain patients, including patients with low back pain, headaches and osteoarthritis, the doctors running the study rated the effectiveness of acupuncture as ‘marked’ or ‘moderate’ in 76% of cases. In a US study (2016) of 89,000 patients, 93% of patients said that their acupuncturist had been successful in treating their musculoskeletal pain.
There are other things you can do to help reduce your pain. Drink plenty of water and keep well hydrated – being even 1 or 2 % dehydrated can increase your sensitivity to pain. Caffeine and other stimulants will increase your pain levels. Try to reduce your stress and find ways to relax …listen to music or take a warm bath. If you have any questions, please get in touch.