Acupuncture for Lower Back Pain
Back pain is a frustrating condition, limiting your ability to perform daily tasks, and maybe participate in some of the things you enjoy most, like leaning down to pick up your children or grandchildren. Few realize that acupuncture is proven to relieve back pain and should be considered if you’re not responding to conventional treatments, or don’t want them.
How Acupuncture Helps
A meta-review of over 22 scientific studies has shown that acupuncture can provide much needed short-term relief for back pain sufferers. While acupuncture is a very old treatment, modern medicine has a few theories about why it works.
It may be that acupuncture stimulates your nervous system to help reduce pain. The nervous system may release endorphins, a natural pain-relieving hormone, to reduce the pain. Other theories suggest that acupuncture releases the body’s natural opioids. It may also change our experience of pain instead of actually reducing it.
How Often Will I Need Acupuncture?
It depends. If you have acute lower back pain from an injury, you may only need a few sessions of acupuncture in order to fully recover.
If you have chronic lower back pain, or pain that doesn’t go away, the pain relief you feel from acupuncture will fade after some time. You may want to get regular acupuncture treatments to deal with your pain for the long term. Perhaps weekly or monthly, or fewer treatments will work for you.
Remember, most back-pain treatments are long-term, such as taking daily pain medicine. In comparison, acupuncture has fewer side effects and does not restrict your life. If you’re on pain medication, you may be unable to work or drive. Also, unlike surgeries, acupuncture does not involve incisions or additional pain.
What Does Acupuncture Feel Like?
Many people are concerned that acupuncture itself will be painful. This is very rarely the case. The acupuncture needles are incredibly thin, to the point that you may not feel them at all. Most often, people report feeling a warm spot where they are getting acupuncture treatment.
However, there are a few things you should be aware of when getting acupuncture treatment. The first thing is that pain is not the major risk of this treatment. Instead, infections from re-used or improperly stored needles should be your main concern. At Meadowlands, we follow proper safety standards with our needles, so you won’t get an infection. We are also one of the few clinics in the Ancaster/Hamilton area that is registered with the Acupuncture Foundation of Canada Institute.
Second, not all acupuncture practitioners understand where needles should be placed for various types of pain. At Meadowlands Physiotherapy we have the necessary training to fully understand how to treat lower back pain and plenty of other types of pain.
Acupuncture from Meadowlands
Meadowlands Physiotherapy offers qualified, safe acupuncture to help you with your back pain. Trust us to take every step necessary to make you comfortable and relieve your lower back pain. Reach out to us today to schedule an appointment.