Whether it’s from an injury or disease, inserting needles into your body may not be your ideal treatment for managing your pain. Although it may look like it will exacerbate your condition, acupuncture is a painless method of healing your body.
If you’re still not convinced that acupuncture might be the right treatment for managing your pain, maybe the five benefits below will help you reconsider.
What Is Acupuncture?
Acupuncture is a type of Traditional Chinese Medicine that aims to facilitate the movement of energy or “Qi” to achieve life balance. It believes that your energy flows through different pathways or meridians in your body. Once any of these pathways gets blocked, pain or disease manifests.
To remedy this, it inserts thin needles into specific points of your body to release the blockages. Although it’s often used for managing pain, acupuncture can treat several acute and chronic diseases and help manage the symptoms of a few mental conditions.
Benefits Of Acupuncture For Pain Management
1. Noninvasive And Painless
Acupuncture is a safe and non-invasive treatment for managing pain because it doesn’t involve surgery or injecting medication into your system. So you can use it alone or alongside other medical procedures to treat your symptoms.
Contrary to popular belief, inserting the needles is meant to be painless. But it also depends on your pain tolerance and sensitivity since some may experience slight pressure or a tingling sensation in their target areas, while others don’t feel anything.
It can also depend on the severity of your pain since you might feel slight pain in your first session because your energy point may not be activated at the moment.
2. Treats Several Conditions
Aside from pain relief, acupuncture can also help manage the symptoms of various acute and chronic diseases. So if you have underlying conditions that you’d like to address, let your acupuncturist know so they can create a personalized treatment plan that can treat your health concerns.
A few musculoskeletal conditions that acupuncture can be beneficial for include:
- Muscle knots
- Fibromyalgia
- Osteoarthritis
- Sciatica
- Tennis elbow
- Tendonitis
- Neck pain
- Back pain
- Migraines and headaches
- Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder
Aside from physical conditions, acupuncture can also help minimize respiratory conditions like asthma and allergic bronchitis. It’s also shown positive results in managing mental illness symptoms, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
3. Safe For Your Body
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates acupuncture, so it’s considered safe if you get your treatments from a licensed acupuncturist and in a reputable clinic. If you have acute or chronic illnesses, make sure to talk to your doctor before booking your session to make sure acupuncture is beneficial for your condition.
When done properly, some won’t experience any side effects after their treatments, while others may feel bruising, soreness, and bleeding in their treated areas. These result from inserting the needles into your acupoints and should disappear after a few days. Others may also feel dizzy or faint after sessions – in this case, rest and drink plenty of water for a few days.
But if you’re experiencing seizures or internal bleeding, seek medical attention immediately.
4. Speeds Up Recovery
Another great thing about acupuncture for treating pain is that it helps speed up your recovery.
It stimulates your central nervous system, releasing chemicals, like endorphins, to trigger your body’s natural healing abilities. This can be beneficial if your pain stems from an injury since it cuts the time for your recovery.
If you want to minimize pain from chronic illness, you will need consistent acupuncture treatments to get the benefits of its long-term effects. But if you don’t feel any changes after a few sessions, talk to your acupuncturist so they can adjust your treatments or determine whether acupuncture is right for your condition.
5. Reduces Stress
Considering being in constant pain can be emotionally and physically stressful, acupuncture can help you de-stress by releasing feel-good hormones like serotonin.
It also improves your blood circulation, which oxygenates your tissues and cycles cortisol and other toxins out of your system.
If you’re having trouble sleeping due to the pain, the relaxing effects of acupuncture can also improve your sleep quality. It increases the natural production of melatonin in your body, which helps you wind down and result in a deeper sleep.
Ready To Book An Acupuncture Treatment?
If you’re ready to try acupuncture to manage pain from your condition, book your sessions at Integrative Healing Arts. They have a team of licensed acupuncturists who are experts in Chinese medicine and massage therapy to help you achieve your health goals. They also offer acupuncture treatments for fertility and pregnancy, anti-aging and rejuvenation, and stress management to address your health concerns. For questions or inquiries, contact them now to schedule your first appointment.