Jessica
Tatieze, LAc
Anyone
who is in, or who has ever been in, chronic pain knows it’s no laughing matter.
In fact, most of us don’t really prefer to be in any kind of pain at all! As an
acupuncturist, I never have a work day that I don’t have a patient sitting in
front of me with some kind of pain. I can tell you first hand from talking with
these people that pain is annoying and it’s not fair when it keeps people from
doing the things they love. Interestingly, no matter what type of pain patients
have, the complaint I hear from every patient with chronic pain is “it wears on
me mentally.” This isn’t surprising and in school this was emphasized to us as
something to expect from patients dealing with pain. So while I’m not surprised
to hear it, it never gets easier to see it. To be in constant pain is
exhausting and can be depressing to people. Plus, adding to that is the fact
that they are usually pretty frustrated from trying many other modalities of
treatment with no relief. I am always so excited for these patients that they
have chosen to get acupuncture treatments because I know it works and I see
people get relief of chronic pain every day, not to mention to boost it gives
people’s mood.
A
new study about the treatment of chronic pain with acupuncture has been all the
buzz in the media and online lately. This study showed that patients got relief
from acupuncture, and it also succeeded in showing that patients receiving ‘real’
acupuncture got better results than those receiving ‘sham’ acupuncture. This is
important because acupuncture is most affective when treatment is given by a
person trained and licensed in Oriental Medicine.
The
one thing I do find unfortunate is that most patients with chronic pain wait to
try acupuncture until they have tried EVERYTHING else! Often these patients
tell me they are out of options in the world of Western medicine. Many of them
have already tried the medication options with either no relief or nasty side
effects, some have already had surgeries that didn’t help, and others have been
told after multiple tests that they simply don’t know what is wrong. Can I guarantee
a patient that they will get relief of pain with acupuncture? No. But based on
the number of patients that do get relief from acupuncture every day I would
say they have a great chance, and quite possibly a better success rate than
most of the other modalities they have tried. While a patient with chronic pain
may need more treatments than a patient with an acute injury, there is relief
to be had! If you or someone you know are suffering with chronic pain, check
out the new study and try acupuncture treatments sooner rather than waiting for
it to be a last resort!
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