Acupressure
Why the Acupuncture Needle?
Why acupuncture? How does it work? And why should it often be considered one of the first steps in addressing pain, stress, and many common health conditions?”
“Acupuncture needling is one of the most effective ways to help release tense muscles and fascial restrictions, improve circulation, regulate inflammatory responses, calm the nervous system, and support the body’s natural healing processes.”
~ Michele Arnold, D.A.C.M., L.Ac.
Overview of why acupuncture Works
- Normalization of autonomic nervous system
- Control of pain/Analgesia and its effect on endorphins and neurotransmitters
- Anti-inflammatory and Restorative function
- Surgical analgesia
- Control addictions
- Regeneration of tissue
Acupuncture is an ideal therapeutic modality that can achieve all of these goals.
We still need effective treatment of pain without deleterious side effects of many Western allopathic methods of pain control.
Western medicine areas of pain control
- Surgical
- Anesthetic management
- Chemical management through medications and opioids, OTC, Corticosteroids
- Physical therapies
- Psychological management
What is Acupuncture:
Acupuncture filiform needle + Human Body=Therapeutic Effect. It is a physical stimulus. It is different because it is a more invasive technique.
- The needle creates a tiny, controlled micro‑injury.”
A sterile stainless-steel needle is a foreign object. When it enters the skin, even gently, your body says:
“Something touched me—let me respond.”
This triggers a cascade of natural healing reactions:
- Increased blood flow
- Release of growth factors
- Local immune activation
- Nervous system signaling
- Tissue remodeling
- The needle deforms the tissue around the nerve that controls the muscle.”
This is the motor point explanation.
A motor point is where the nerve enters the muscle. When a needle touches that spot, it gives the nerve a tiny mechanical stimulus.
“It’s like tapping the reset button on a muscle that forgot how to fire.”
The science behind it:
- The needle mechanically stimulates the sensory and motor nerve endings.
- This triggers a spinal reflex (local twitch response).
- The reflex reactivates inhibited muscle fibers.
- Electrical noise at the motor endplate normalizes.
This is why acupuncture helps physical therapy or manual therapies work better afterward.
- The needle increases blood flow to the area, called “profusion.”
Patients often ask: Why does blood flow increase?
Here’s the simple version:
“Tight, painful muscles have poor circulation. The needle relaxes the muscle and signals the body to bring fresh blood to repair the area.”
The physiology:
- Needling reduces sustained contracture.
- Contracture squeezes blood vessels → ischemia (poor oxygenation and nutrition).
- When the muscle relaxes, perfusion increases.
- The micro-injury signals the body to send healing factors.
This is supported by multiple studies showing improved microcirculation after needling.
- The needle sends a message to your brain.
This is where acupuncture goes beyond dry needling.
“Your skin, fascia, and muscles are full of sensory nerves. When the needle touches them, they send signals to your spinal cord and brain. Your brain responds by calming pain, relaxing tension, and balancing your nervous system.”
The science:
- Needling activates A-delta and C fibers.
- These fibers modulate pain processing in the spinal cord.
- The brain responds by releasing endorphins, serotonin, and other neurochemicals.
- Functional MRI studies show acupuncture changes activity in pain, mood, and stress networks.
This explains why acupuncture helps:
- Pain
- Sleep
- Mood
- Stress
- Emotional release
- The needle creates a negative electrical healing charge?
“Your fascia is like a web of connective tissue that carries tension and electrical signals. Acupuncture points sit along natural fascial planes. When the needle gently stretches or vibrates the fascia, it creates a tiny electrical signal that helps tissues communicate and reset.”
The science:
- Fascia is piezoelectric.
- Mechanical deformation creates electrical potentials.
- These influence cellular signaling and tissue repair.
- Acupuncture points correlate with fascial planes and nerve bundles.
This is why acupuncture feels like it “opens” or “releases” something.
- The needle shifts your nervous system out of fight or flight?
“The needle stimulates nerves that talk to your brain’s stress centers. Your brain responds by shifting you into rest-and-digest mode. That’s why you feel calm, clear, and grounded after treatment.”
the science:
- Acupuncture modulates the vagus nerve.
- It reduces sympathetic overdrive.
- It increases parasympathetic tone.
- It regulates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.
This explains emotional release, better sleep, and improved mood.
- The needle boosts the immune system:
“The micro-injury wakes up your local immune cells. They come in to clean up inflammation and repair tissue. This helps your body resolve old injuries that were stuck.”
The science:
- Needling activates mast cells, macrophages, and fibroblasts.
- Leukocytosis and eosinophil increase.
- It increases local cytokine signaling.
- It promotes tissue remodeling.
- It reduces chronic inflammatory stagnation.
This is why chronic pain areas often feel “warm,” “loose,” or “alive” after treatment.
All of it in one sentence:
“The needle gives your body a tiny, precise nudge that wakes up your nerves, improves blood flow, calms your brain, and helps your muscles and tissues heal the way they’re supposed to.”
“Your body is full of sensors. When something touches them — even gently — they respond. The needle is like tapping a reset switch. It wakes things up, reorganizes the area, and tells your body to fix what’s been stuck.”
Don’t wait until the problem becomes chronic. Schedule an appointment today to discover your unique pattern diagnosis, address the root causes of imbalance, relieve pain, release tension, calm the mind, and feel better in your body, your mind, and your life. Call today or book online.
Call or text Dr. Michele Arnold at (858) 613-0792. Book online go to:
Looking Beyond the Diagnosis: A Whole-Body Approach to Arthritis and Joint Pain
Many people come to my office after being told they have arthritis, degeneration, bone-on-bone changes, tendonitis, bursitis, stenosis, or other structural findings.
While these diagnoses can be important, they do not always tell the whole story.
Two people with the same X-ray can experience very different amounts of pain, mobility, stiffness, and limitation.
That’s because pain is influenced by more than a single joint.
Muscle tension, circulation, inflammation, breathing patterns, stress, digestive health, movement habits, tissue mobility, and nervous system regulation can all play a role.
Rather than treating only the diagnosis, I look for the patterns contributing to your symptoms and create an individualized treatment plan designed to help you move better, hurt less, and return to the activities you enjoy.
Restorative Acupuncture & Integrative Bodywork
Based on your unique pattern and presentation.
We restore function, reduce pain, and improve resilience through whole-person, pattern-based care.
Schedule your appointment today
https://acusimple.com/access/627
Clear and Energize the Lungs and Colon a tutorial
Meridian Tapping with AromaTune
The Lungs and Colon are paired organs in the Acupuncture Channel System. They are also part of the Throat Chakra energy center.
Keeping the Qi-energy flowing smoothly within these meridian-organ systems will help keep you healthy and energized.
You can stimulate your own ability to heal, and open any blockages along these pathways using tapping, acupressure, or the sound healing frequencies of a tuning fork. Plus, applying essential oils boosts the effectiveness of your therapy.
The essential oils you can try are eucalyptus, rosemary, black pepper, peppermint, fennel, ginger, or marjoram. Apply diluted with fractionated coconut oil, or olive oil. Just use the coconut or olive oil if you don’t have the essential oils yet.
About AromaTune
It is a combination of acupressure/acupuncture and mind/body medicine using nothing more than your fingers. AromaTune is the option to add the magic of essential oils and tuning forks. This utilizes meridians on the skin (or acupressure points) to decrease or resolve negative emotions and/or emotionally based physical issues. Frequencies of essential oils, sound vibrations of tuning forks, and energy fields of acupuncture points are used to turn off the stress signal and heal the physical responses our body makes in reaction to painful experiences (both physical and/or emotional).
A new class is available each month to purchase for a one-time fee.
It is Included for paid subscribers of the monthly “Gold Plan Community”. Subscribers have access to all AromaTune classes, plus other exclusive content.
Dr. Michele A.
How Do I Know if Acupuncture Treatments are Helping Me or Not?
If you have had acupuncture, you may have felt that deep relaxing mediative feeling during the treatment. Your body seems to adjust to just what it needs because sometimes you need a little energy boost, and you leave feeling more alive and vibrant. Other times you are on overdrive, your mind goes a mile a minute, and then you leave feeling relaxed, and calm. The treatment forces you to conserve the energy you need.
When your stomach makes a noise or quiets down when I insert a needle on the stomach channel this is a clue it is working. If you feel an itch on your nose when I insert a needle on the liver channel it is working. If you feel a needle in your shoulder, but is in your hand, it is working. If you yawn, let out a deep breath, breath deeper, let your shoulders drop, fall asleep, feel a deep ache at the points, that feeling dissipates, then a feeling of heaviness comes over you. It is working.
These are signs that the treatment is working. There is a certain sensation with acupuncture a kind of heaviness, like water flowing, or a small tug like a fish biting a hook.
Because you feel good after acupuncture, and it seems to last a few days you are wondering whether the results are permanent or temporary.
They are cumulative. Perhaps you have less pain afterwards, and then it seems to creep back in, or come and go. There might be counteractive forces interfering with the therapeutic effect such as you are doing something that is continuing to irritate the painful area.
Sometimes we are just not sure because we have become so used to the pain that we don’t recognize it when it is changing. Others may notice that you don’t complain as much, and that you can do more before getting tired.
Here are some objective ways you can measure your progress.
The efficacy of acupuncture is measured by the number treatments needed for maximum pain relief, and the duration of pain relief. It depends on the interaction between a patient’s self-healing potential, the severity and nature of the symptoms, or whether the symptoms or disease is healable. (1).
Track your progress: This is how you will know that you are improving. A few people like to say that it is not helping at all. They feel the same. It is usually not true. When you know what positive results to look for you can stop focusing on the negative, and you will decide to see the positive. It becomes a snowball effect in the right direction from there.
- Before you begin treatment. Rate your pain on a scale, and problem occurrence frequency (how often you experience it). Rate yourself again after a series of treatments.
- Rate your ability to recover after an aggravation, set-back, or activity that usually causes problems. Does it usually take you 3-5 days to recover? After a series of treatments are you noticing you bounce back quicker?
- Note what activities you are not able to do, and which ones cause you pain, before beginning treatment? After a series of treatments, are you able to do things that you weren’t before treatment? Like tie your shoes, take your jacket on and off, walk to the back of the grocery store, get in and out of your chair, get in and out of bed, brush your teeth, your hair? This in and of itself tracks mobility, range of motion, and muscle strength. The things the doctor objectively rates while you are in the office. You might still experience pain, but you are able to do more, longer, and better. The pain will gradually dissipate as you heal, and as you get back into normal daily life.
- Check other health problems. Are they improving? Things like sleep, mood, bowel movements, appetite, energy levels, strength, breathing, abdominal bloating, gas, pain, discomfort? How’s your skin, complexion? Has it become smoother, better color, temperature? How do you feel within yourself after acupuncture? Are you complaining less?
- Your basic labs. Have you seen improvement in blood work, cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure after treatment versus before treatments?
- Are you taking less medication, or less pain relievers?
Rate your pain or problem on a scale of 0 no symptoms to 10 worst possible debilitating pain, or emotional affect.
- Severe is subjectively scored at 8, 9, or 10 worst possible pain or symptoms. This is debilitating pain. You can’t take care of yourself. You need help. You can’t drive. If it is a 10, You may be experiencing an emergency or urgent care. You are typically not in an acupuncturist’s office or other doctor’s office. The problem is constant.
- Less Severe is scored at 7, 8. You might wear a brace, crutch, not use the body part. Your gait is changing. Perhaps you are limping. You feel the need to take stronger pain relievers. It affects your sleep. It affects some or all your daily activities. The pain or discomfort is frequent or constant.
- Moderate is subjectively scored at 4, 5 or 6. It’s on top of your mind. You might need to change position, move, favor the body part, change how you do something, compensate using the other good side too much, take an over the counter or analgesic remedy. The problem is frequent, intermittent, or occasional.
- Mild is subjectively scored at 1, 2, or 3. The problem is mildly annoying, but it doesn’t interfere with your life. Usually, mild pain is felt only intermittently, or occasional. You don’t need to take any pain relievers for it. If you do take any pain relievers they work effectively, quickly, and you don’t need to take very often.
*Knowing that your problem is not severe, nor is it less severe should help you feel better about the outlook of your condition, and the heal ability. This often reduces the pain by reducing the emotional component. If you are hypersensitive to pain, and your subjective pain score of 8, 10, or “My pain is off the charts a 15!”, and it doesn’t match the definition of pain severity scale consider the possibility that your pain is coming from the memory-emotional part of your brain. You might be attached to your disease or pain. You may have some depression or anxiety.
Defining how often you have the symptoms or pain occurrence:
Occurrence of pain, symptoms or emotional affect are determined by how often you experience them.
Constant symptoms occur without relief up to 100% of the time.
Frequent symptoms occur up to 75% of the time.
Intermittent symptoms occur around 50% of the time.
Occasional symptoms occur 25% or less of the time.
How Long Should It Take to Heal Your Condition?
This can depend upon normal body Tissue Healing Timelines, your individual factors mentioned earlier. This is that it depends on the interaction between a patient’s self-healing potential, the severity and nature of the symptoms, or whether the symptoms or disease is healable. Understanding this can help you have reasonable expectations for how many treatments, and for how long it will take to reach your therapeutic goals.
The right expectations will help you stay on track with your treatment plan to heal your pain, and to reach your health goals. Number one rule is don’t be too impatient!
However, this doesn’t mean keep doing therapy, and continue with tons of acupuncture without having any benefit. That is why I posted some ideas on how to track your progress. Also, the treatment plan formula will give you a pretty good idea of how many visits you might need, and when to know that it isn’t working for you at this time for this problem.
Healing is a process. Even if there is instant pain relief your body is still recovering. I often like to point out that when you are doing good things for your body good things are happening behind the scenes that you may not see yet. Don’t give up if results aren’t immediate. It is just same as when bad things are happening behind the scenes that you don’t know about until you feel or see the disease. The disease may have been building up over time. If you can catch it in time, you may be able to reverse the damage. Reversing the damage is all about cellular renewal. Your body heals by making new healthy cells while dissolving and excreting the old defective cells.
Different body tissues have different healing times. Tissue regeneration can vary. This is very important to understand so that you can have the right expectations, and not become too impatient when you think your body isn’t healing quick enough.
Keep in mind that a red blood corpuscle (RBC) has a life cycle of 120 days that is 4 months. This is also a general timeline that it takes people on average to develop and stick to a new healthy habit. We don’t get rid of the old unhealthy habit. We start a new one instead! This is from, “The Power of Habit”, by Charles Duhigg. So, think about if you started a new exercise routine then naturally you begin to eat healthier foods. After four months these have become good habits that are now part of your regular routine. Your blood has recycled, and it is cleaner, healthier as are you! To change your health will take time at least 4 months. The results will begin to show. It is not overnight. Four months is not that long either. Some people that are in worse shape, it may take one year, some two years to experience significant long-lasting results.
Let’s look at this tissue healing timeline below and here we can see an average of somewhere between 3-4 weeks and 3-6 months to heal.
| Tissue Healing Timeline with respect to Musculoskeletal injuries | ||||||||
| 0-3 days | 4-14 days | 3-4 weeks | 5-7 weeks | 2-3 months | 3-6 months | 6 mo.-1 year | 2 years | |
| Tendon | ||||||||
| Tenonitis
Rupture/full tear |
TTTTTT | TTTTTT | ||||||
| RRRRR | RRRRR | RRRRR | ||||||
| Muscle strain | Exercise Induced | |||||||
| Grade I
Grade II Grade III |
I | I | I | |||||
| II | II | II | ||||||
| III | III | III | ||||||
| Ligament | ||||||||
| Grade I
Grade II Grade III |
L-I | L-I | ||||||
| L-II | L-II | L-II | L-II | |||||
| L-III | L-III | L-III | L-III | |||||
| Ligament
graft |
Graft | Graft | Graft | Graft | ||||
| Bone | Bone | Bone | ||||||
| Nerve 6-12wks | N | N | ||||||
| Disc 8-12wks | D | D | D | Full rupture 1-year | ||||
| Meniscus | M | M | ||||||
Have the right expectations to treatment.
Having the right expectations can help you heal. I hate to break it to you, but healing doesn’t always mean 100% pain free. Most people really do hate pain. We don’t like anything that hurts. So, if you go into any kind of therapy, and expect to be 100% pain free within an unreasonable amount of time you will be dissatisfied. You will think it is not working and stop short of reaping any benefits. Then you move on to a different therapy. You might be doing too many things at the same time. You don’t stick to one thing to let it work for you. Eventually you move on to more drastic measures. All without any positive results. Let’s manage those expectations because if you expect too much too soon then you worry and worry and constantly focus on the problem. You think about it all the time. You worry, worry, worry that something is really WRONG! You lose trust in your own body’s healing capabilities. Any attention paid to these brain circuits reinforces them, “Where the mind goes the Qi goes”!
In his book, “Do You Really Need Spine Surgery? Take Control with a Surgeon’s Advice”, David Hanscom, an orthopedic surgeon, writes, “Most pain arises from irritation and inflammation of soft tissue surrounding and supporting your skeletal system. Since there are over a million pain receptors per square foot of soft tissue, the discomfort is often quite severe.” The source of pain usually cannot be found on an imaging test. He explains how pain from structural sources can only be identified for sure 5-15% of the time that match the symptoms. He states, “Your surgeon is guessing 85% of the time.” Even with structural sources of pain that are amenable to surgery, they may be resolvable by non-surgical means. If an anatomical abnormality shows up on an imaging study, it does not mean that it is the source of your pain. Quite often they are not. (4.)
Alas, this knowledge doesn’t often make you feel better. We often hope for a definitive answer where there is a quick fix like a medication, procedure, or surgery. You get discouraged that there is not a real definitive structural abnormality that will respond favorably to surgery. That it will be worth the recovery time, and the rehabilitation time. Change your perspective to see this as good news! Nothing is structurally wrong with you. You are not injuring yourself by following dynamic moving exercises, heat therapy, gentle stretches, meditation, acupuncture, or whatever your condition calls for. You can take control of your healthcare. Perhaps it will help bring awareness of what it is in your life that is the cause of your pain or discomfort.
Types of Pain Relief to Expect from Acupuncture
- Immediate Relief. This can be expected in young, healthy individuals with a simple acute problem.
- Cumulative Effects and Relief. Most patients feel some relief after each treatment, but the majority see major lasting effects after a series of treatments.
- Delayed Relief. No relief for the first few visits. Then, may suddenly experience relief 2-3 weeks after the initial visits, or series of treatments.
- No Relief. When this happens a break between treatments can trigger a reaction in the right direction. For healthy individuals if there is no change after 4-6 visits take a break for 1-3 weeks then resume. For elderly people, or those with multiple health problems after 5-8 visits without a change take a break for 1-3 weeks, then resume. The break in between may help the patient to conserve the necessary energy for healing the tiny holed micro-traumas created by the needling.
In a nutshell, to measure your progress start by rating at the beginning of treatment against measurements taken after six visits. The measurements include rating your pain on a pain scale, determining how frequently you feel it, your range of motion, mobility, sleep, mood, digestion, appetite, recovery, and pain medications.
With the treatment plan, and good mindset, I expect you to be feeling better in no time!
To schedule your appointment today give us a call now!
Office call: (858) 613-0792. I love texts too. Text (858) 613-0793. I won’t receive the text if you text the office number!
Best in Health,
Dr. Michele Arnold
REFERENCES
- Ma, Yun-tao; Cho, Zang Hee. Biomedical Acupuncture for Pain Management – E-Book. 2005. Elsevier Health Sciences. Kindle Edition.
- Dharmananda, Subhuti, “Restructuring American Acupuncture Practices”, May 2003. http://www.itmonline.org/arts/restructure.htm
- Duhigg, Charles. The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. Random House. 2012. NY.
- Hanscom, David. Do You Really Need Spine Surgery? Take Control with a Surgeon’s Advice. 2019. Vertus Press: Oakland, CA.
- Bernard, Rick. Orthopedic Electroacupuncture. eBook edition.
- Wong, Joseph Y. A Manual of Neuro-Anatomical Acupuncture, Vol I: Musculo-Skeletal Disorders. 1999. The Toronto Pain and Stress Clinic, Inc. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Shu Hongwen, Clinical observation on acupuncture treatment of piriformis syndrome, Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2003; 23(1): 38-39.
- Zhao Jianping, Acupuncture treatment of facial paralysis caused by craniocerebral trauma in 50 cases, Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2003; 23(1): 47-48.
- Wang Caiyun, Ma Jinghua, Xiao Li, Treatment of 50 cases of sciatica by needling zanzhu and fengchi, Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2003; 23(1): 51-52.
- Yang Tao, Liu Zhishun, and Liu Yuanshi, Electroacupuncture at ciliao and huiyang for treating neuropathic incontinence of defecation and urination in 30 cases, Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2003; 23(1): 53-54.
- Zhang Hong, Zeng Zheng, and Deng Hong, Acupuncture treatment of 157 cases of anxiety neurosis, Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2003; 23(1): 55-56.
- Cui Rui and Zhou Dean, Treatment of phlegm- and heat-induced insomnia by acupuncture in 120 cases, Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2003; 23(1): 57-58.
- Wang Hairong, Acupuncture treatment of depressive syndrome after cerebral vascular accidents, Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2002; 22(4): 274-275.
- Sun Jianhua, Warm needling and bloodletting for treatment of gonitis, Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2002; 22(4): 278-279.
- Xiang Dongfang, et al., Ear acupuncture therapy for 37 cases of dysmenorrhea due to endometriosis, Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2002; 22(4): 282-285.
- Wang Hongyu, Observation on the therapeutic effects of acupuncture for 60 cases of simple obesity, Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2002; 22(3): 187-189.
- Tang Wenzhong, Clinical observation of scalp acupuncture treatment in 50 cases of headache, Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2002; 22(3): 190-192.
- Lu Zeqiang, Scalp and body acupuncture for treatment of senile insomnia, Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2002; 22(3): 193-194.
- Li Baomin, Chai Fuming, and Gao Hongming, Cervical spondylopathy involving the vertebral arteries treated by body acupuncture combined with scalp acupuncture in 72 cases, Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2002; 22(3): 197-199.
- Song Jianqiao, Ischemic apoplexy-induced sequelae treated by penetrating puncture with long needles, Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2002; 22(3): 200-202.
References for tissue Healing Timelines
Lifecare Kingsway Physiotherapy. “How Long Will This Take? Timeframes of Tissue Healing”. Dec. 22, 2017. https://www.lifecare.com.au/blog/how-long-will-this-take-time-frames-of-tissue-healing/
References from the article, “Tissue Healing Times, and What it Means for You”, Evolve Flagstaff. Brian Kinslow. Feb. 08, 2018. https://www.evolveflg.com/articles/tissue-healing
Muscle Strains:
- MR observations of long-term musculotendon remodeling following a hamstring strain injury https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00256-008-0546-0
- Clinical Orthopaedic Rehabilitation, 2nd Edition by Brotzman and Wilk http://a.co/d0Zkzhp
Ligament Sprains:
- Ligament Injury and Healing: An Overview of Current Clinical Concepts http://journalofprolotherapy.com/ligament-injury-and-healing-an-overview-of-current-clinical-concepts/
- Ligament Healing: A Review of Some Current Clinical and Experimental Concepts https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2328751/pdf/iowaorthj00022-0022.pdf
- Ankle Ligament Healing After an Acute Ankle Sprain: An Evidence-Based Approach https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2547872/
- Nonoperative treatment of Grade II and III sprains of the lateral ligament compartment of the knee http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/036354658901700114
Tendons:
- Painful, overuse tendon conditions have a non-inflammatory pathology http://www.bmj.com/content/324/7338/626.full
- Tendinopathy: Why the Difference Between Tendinitis and Tendinosis Matter https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3312643/
- Clinical Orthopaedic Rehabilitation, 2nd Edition by Brotzman and WilkArticular Cartilage, Meniscus, and Labrum. http://a.co/d0Zkzhp
- New perspectives for articular cartilage repair treatment through tissue engineering: A contemporary review https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4017310/
- The meniscal healing process https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3666493/
- Labral reconstruction with tendon allograft: histological findings show revascularization at 8 weeks from implantation https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5467408/
How many acupuncture treatments will I need to get rid of my pain or health problems?
Part 3 of How to Get the Best & Quickest Results out of your acupuncture treatments?
“Acupuncture needling is the most powerful and direct method that releases tense, constricted muscles and fascia, improves blood flow, stops release of inflammatory chemicals, and relaxes the mind at the same time.”, Michele Arnold, D.A.C.M., L.Ac.
Acupuncture should be the first line of care to reduce pain because pain reduction is necessary to improve mobility and strength. It is a therapy that gives a cumulative effect to the body, and the best results are obtained by having a schedule of treatments.
Acupuncture enhances outcomes of other therapies like physical therapy, massage, and chiropractic.
So, how do you know how many acupuncture treatments will it take to get rid of your pain or health problems?
The efficacy of acupuncture is measured by the number treatments needed for maximum pain relief, and the duration of pain relief.
- It depends on the interaction between a patient’s self-healing potential,
- the severity and nature of the symptoms, or
- whether the symptoms or disease is healable. (1).
The number of treatments will vary from person to person. Some people experience immediate relief; others may take months or even years to achieve results. Chronic conditions usually take longer to resolve than acute ones. Plan on a minimum of a month to see significant changes.
*Following the right treatment plan along with keeping reasonable expectations of results will push you in the right direction of healing. This is so important that I can’t say enough about it!
Developing A Treatment Plan
Treatment frequency, heal ability of the disease, and self-healing potential depends on a variety of factors:
• Your constitution, strong or weak.
• Current physical health status and emotional stress related issues,
- Health problems, and emotional stress related issues over the past year.
• Past surgeries, injuries, and illnesses that may alter neuroanatomical structures.
• Medications, in particular aspirin, blood thinners, statins, steroids, opioids, and Gabapentin/Neurontin that block the body’s natural healing abilities.
• Age.
• How long you’ve had the problem and the severity.
• Weather the problem is a mechanical, structural, or chronic systemic nervous system dysfunction.
An acupuncturist may suggest 1-3 treatments per week, daily visits for several days, or monthly visits for health maintenance and seasonal “tune ups”.
- One course of Acupuncture Therapy per one condition generally can be between 10-15 treatments for chronic conditions that are moderate, or severe in nature.
- Newer milder cases may need 6-8 treatments. After a 1–3-week break, this could be followed by another course of therapy if necessary.
- For more comprehensive and lasting effects follow a Corrective Care plan to address underlying organ-meridian imbalances over the course of months or a year. The corrective care plan usually includes dietary, herbal, exercise, and meditation practices as well as the acupuncture therapy.
- This treatment plan table below works for the average person, not considering nature of specific disease, or the patient’s general health and self-healing potential.
- This is also assuming that both the practitioner and the patient have availability to meet the timeframe. If not, try and get as close as possible so that the appointments are not spread too far apart. Otherwise, you are prolonging resolution of the problem. This treatment plan table works well.
- 1st Month 3-5x per week for chronic/severe
- 1st Month 2-3x per week for moderate problem
- 1st Month 1-2x per week for mild problem
- 2nd Month 2-3x per week for chronic/severe problem
- 2nd Month 1-2x per week for moderate problem
- 2nd Month 1x per week for mild problem
Or within a given total quantity needed per condition.
Mild 3-6 Tx; Moderate 6-12; Severe, long-standing 10+
Measuring Progress with reasonable expectations
- Consider problem resolved if No pain or symptoms return for at least 14 days.
- Considering whether or not there is something you are doing or not doing that is getting in the way of healing.
- Chronic problems, and those with nervous system dysfunction the symptoms may return,
- Then another course visits will be needed to keep the pain under control for another 4 to 6 months.
- To understand why healthy management of daily life stressors, mental outlook, belief systems, and lifestyle contribute to health or disease see Part 1-“What is the Real Source of My Pain or Disease?”
- Healing is a process, and different tissues have different healing timelines. This is very important to understand so that you can have the right expectations, and not become too impatient when you think your body isn’t healing quick enough. This will be explained in an upcoming blog post, “How Do I Know Whether the Acupuncture Treatments are Helping Me or Not?”
Why Frequent Acupuncture?
With a treatment plan at twice weekly for 3-5 weeks versus once per week or every other week, the resolution of the disorder is accomplished in 10-20 days, rather than 10-15 weeks or months.
Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Traditional Medicine, Portland, Oregon, writes in his article, “Restructuring American Acupuncture Practices”, “The ideal frequency for acupuncture therapy depends on one’s concept of the function of acupuncture therapy (1).” I have loosely paraphrased his ideas with a few of my own modifications.
This is assuming both patients and practitioners have the availability for scheduling appointments. Both parties need to be available to commit to the benefits of optimal care.
If you were to begin a new exercise regime you would do it at a minimum of three times weekly.
If you were to begin any other therapy like physical therapy, or chiropractic, you would follow a treatment plan very similar to acupuncture.
In all cases, it doesn’t work if you don’t do it just as medicine won’t work if you don’t take it.
Consider a few examples of other therapies. Would it be recommended that a patient:
- Take nutritional supplements (such as a vitamin/mineral) once per week or once per day?
- Take a course of antibiotics, one dose per week for ten weeks or one dose per day for ten days?
- Take a decongestant once per week during allergy season, or every day during allergy season?
- Exercise, 20-30 minutes once per week, or 20-30 minutes at least three to five days per week?
- Take an herbal tea or other herb preparation once per week, or every day?
- Sleep well once per week, or every night?
- Eat a healthy diet once per week or every day (or most days)?
Once per week doesn’t cut it for any of these things. Diet, exercise, sleep, herbs, vitamins, and common drug therapies are more like acupuncture treatments in their regulatory and recuperative effects, and a person should be doing them daily or almost every day. (1).
Now that you understand some general guidelines around acupuncture care, consider whether your pain is acute or chronic, and its severity.
Together we can come up with a treatment plan to help give you the best possible results in the shortest amount of time.
Give us a call today at (858) 613-0702 or Text preferred (858) 613-0793 to set up your appointments.
Best in Health,
Dr. Michele Arnold
REFERENCES
- Ma, Yun-tao; Cho, Zang Hee. Biomedical Acupuncture for Pain Management – E-Book. 2005. Elsevier Health Sciences. Kindle Edition.
- Dharmananda, Subhuti, “Restructuring American Acupuncture Practices”, May 2003. http://www.itmonline.org/arts/restructure.htm
- Duhigg, Charles. The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. Random House. 2012. NY.
- Hanscom, David. Do You Really Need Spine Surgery? Take Control with a Surgeon’s Advice. 2019. Vertus Press: Oakland, CA.
- Bernard, Rick. Orthopedic Electroacupuncture. eBook edition.
- Wong, Joseph Y. A Manual of Neuro-Anatomical Acupuncture, Vol I: Musculo-Skeletal Disorders. 1999. The Toronto Pain and Stress Clinic, Inc. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
