Acupuncture and Pain Scottsdale

People often ask me, "how does acupuncture work?" With pain, it is common for the qi (energy of the body) and circulation to be stagnant. Acupuncture helps by moving both the qi and the circulation.

There are also some mechanisms at play that also contribute to the healing. From a Western perspective when somebody is in the deep relaxation of acupuncture, endorphins, our natural pain relieving chemicals, get released. People sometimes think there is a medicine on the tips of the needles because they get so much relief and relaxation but there is not! In the body, there can be a pain tension pain cycle where when we feel pain, we tense up and then we have more pain. By inducing a parasympathetic deep state of relaxation, that cycle of tension and pain can be broken.

If you have had a recent injury or disease process that invokes pain, I recommend starting treatment as soon as possible. It is my experience that the longer a pattern gets engrained into the body, the longer it can take to break and may be more challenging to treat.

My Taiwanese acupuncture teacher, the late Dr. Richard Tan who developed the Balance method, found non-local acupuncture points to be very effective at pain relief by opening up the energy flow elsewhere. In his words, "When people ask me why the needles aren't at the site of pain, I tell them, when you turn on the light bulb in a room, is the switch next to the bulb?"

If you have been experiencing pain and are open to having acupuncture treat it, please feel free to call Scottsdale Holistic Medicine to make an appointment.