Thoughts on, and Experiences with - Acupuncture

[fatgirl_lover]

How mainstream is acupuncture nowadays for people that get injured? What is all of your impressions of it (no need to have received it to respond to that)? And finally what are your experiences with it?

Me basically I don't know what to think of it. I got injured and the thought of getting acupuncture for it didn't even occur to me until someone told me today. The philosophy behind chinese medicine is great I think, acupuncture is about activating the bodies already there healing powers (as explained to me by the acupuncturist) which strikes me as quite smart, especially in comparison to what the last doctor did which was give me a lot of anti inflamatory medicine.

As far as experiences with it goes, cannot report on that yet. I will say the acupuncturist was super confident in what she did and I got the feeling it was well placed.

[fatgirl_lover]

It actually reminded me of the acupuncturist from Larry David becuase he had lower back pain, a big chronic deal and the acu. was sure he could cure david. I've been injured for a while and it has been depressingly slow in healing but she was absolutely confident that I'd start improving soon, which surprised me that she could be about such a condition - and by means of sticking needles in me which is so different from western medicine, she made me believe in it too.

[TiK]

This actually reminded me of something I read yesterday. Here 's the link. According to the article,

[ QUOTE ]
Fake acupuncture works nearly as well as the real thing for low back pain, and either kind performs much better than usual care, German researchers have found.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Jamougha]

Various studies have been done on it and they have failed to demonstrated that it works better than a placebo. The theory behind it has no apparent basis in fact.

Having said that placebos are pretty effective in dealing with pain, since pain is - after all - just in your head. It's improbable that it will accelerate your healing significantly; some things don't respond well to placebos. Chances are that you will get better soon anyway given that you have been injured for some time, so the therapist was pretty smart there. Still it won't do you any harm, except to your wallet.

DO NOT stop whatever treatment your doctor has prescribed. Anti-inflammatories are important in healing.

[Lottery Larry]

We used acupuncture during a pregnancy, because the stubborn kid kept flipping around. It was kinda spooky how well it worked.

[anduril]

I went for a year to help my lower back pain, no dice. It did, however, get rid of the huge latent trigger point in my upper trap.

[scott1]

I've had back pain for years - mostly related to a pinched disk between my shoulders. It comes and goes but my back is sore to some degree pretty much every day. I've tried regular doctors and chiropractors but neither have done much. I'm going to try acupuncture next time it flares up.

[MissT74]

My mom delivered all 4 of her babies with acupuncture, and that was back in the 70's.

I worked for a GI doc that wanted to move into holistic medicine and started doing acupuncture. I was responsible for getting the patient ready, assisting her by handing her the needles, etc. It seemed to work for most of the patients that we treated, fwiw.

T

[That Foreign Guy]

I had it on my knee when rehabbing a serious injury. It did about as much good as the electric shock machine, ultrasound, and all the other voodoo equipment.

Plus it hurt like hell when I sneezed.

[swingdoc]

OP - what kind of injury did you suffer? Acupuncture is absolutely great for all sorts of stuff with a large psychological component, i.e. quitting smoking, irritable bowel, all sorts of vague pains. Presumably that's due to the placebo effect. Have you tried a chiropractor already?