We are all familiar with lower back pain. At some point in life everyone experiences it. And if you have a back injury or other condition, you know that anything can trigger it from the changing weather patterns to bending over to tie your shoe laces. Lower back pain, in fact, is one of the top reasons people seek medical treatment. And it’s not surprising, because if you had it, you know how debilitating it can be.
Painkillers and frequent chiropractor visits do help, but they cost you both financially and physically. Being dependent on painkillers is not a real fix and a fast way to damage your vital organs, such as a liver. Thankfully, as several studies have shown, acupuncture can be of great help for chronic lower back pain. In fact, Guidelines from the American Pain Society and American College of Physicians actually advise physicians to consider acupuncture for back pain as an alternative therapy and recommend it to patients.
How Acupuncture Helps Lower Back Pain
Acupuncture works by inserting very thin needles at specific points on your body. These points may be nowhere close to your source of pain—they represent the flow of energy in your body. When energy gets stuck at one point, it may manifest itself as pain somewhere else in the body. Insertion of needles helps re-establish the smooth energy flow and relieve your pain as a result.
This is the point of view of the traditional Chinese medicine. If you are looking for a scientific explanation, Western researchers say that acupuncture stimulates the central nervous system, changing the brain chemistry and prompting the release of certain chemicals that lessen the pain. If this was truly the case, we would have to ask ourselves, why wouldn’t the pain return after the chemical release dissipated?
Why You Should Try It
Acupuncture does have different effect on different people. You might experience partial pain relief or a complete gradual disappearance of your symptoms. Acupuncture can help you reduce the amount of medications you are taking or it may help you stop your occasional pain from becoming chronic. In the hands of a professional, licensed acupuncturist you have nothing to lose and a lot to gain.
Take a look at this acupuncture session with Michele, one of our clients who came to our Towson acupuncture center with debilitating lower back pain.
Not sure if acupuncture will help your lower back pain? Request a free consultation with Cara-Michele to talk about your pain points.
