back pain Archives - Acupuncture in the Park

Five Things to Know About Back Pain

Like a lightning bolt out of the blue, back pain seems to strike at the most unlikely of times. It can be set off by some seemingly harmless activity like reaching for soap in the shower, trying to grab something from under the bed, or simply by putting on your shoes. When it happens, the pain is sudden and sharp and can’t be ignored. When my back goes out, the episodes of pain are intense, short-lived, and muscular in nature. I realize that I am lucky when it comes to the health of my back. There are millions of people with back issues, who struggle with chronic back pain on a daily basis, often for years at a time.

If you suffer from back pain, here are a few things you might not know:

-In many cases, stretching can not only help with the pain, but it can help prevent injuries in the first place. Stretches to flex and extend your back, open up your sacrum, low back, and hip flexors can be invaluable in keeping back pain away.

-Most people believe that there is only one single cause of their back pain, when in reality, there may be a number of things going on. Like a perfect storm, issues like tight muscles, inflammation, trauma, muscle imbalances, misalignment, and inactivity may all be contributing to your pain. We have found that many patients come to us with a diagnosis of disk problems who have found a great deal of relief from our work on soft tissue (muscles).

-Similarly, while many people look for the one answer to their back pain, it may actually take a combination of therapies to get the job done. I have seen patients who have stopped all therapies except one, so they could see which was working for them. The reality is that a

combination of physical therapy, acupuncture, massage, stretching, and heat may work better to relieve back pain than any single one therapy one its own.

-Diet may also be a player in back pain. While what you eat and the condition of your back may seem to be unrelated, the reality is that your diet plays a role in back health on a couple of levels. First, when you blow out your back, either from a muscle pull, bulging or ruptured disk, or any other injury, inflammation is involved. Eating a diet geared toward reducing inflammation can help reduce the pain and the time it takes to heal. In addition, your spine needs a good supply of blood to bring vital oxygen and nutrients to the area. Unfortunately for many people as they age, the arteries to their spine are blocked with atherosclerotic plaques (blocked arteries) that inhibit blood flow. The end result is that vertebrae and disks that need nourishment to heal are increasingly cut off from an adequate blood supply.

-In Chinese medicine, low back pain is associated with your Kidney organ system. Your Chinese Kidneys are responsible for your body constitution—things like how healthy you will be, how you will mature, fertility, and how you will age. A chronically achy lower back is a sign that your Kidney system is depleted. A trip to your acupuncturist or practitioner of Chinese medicine can help with acupuncture, food therapy, and lifestyle tweaks to get you back on track.

-Finally, even though acupuncture can’t change the structural causes of your back pain, it can help with pain relief in a couple of ways. First, acupuncture alters your brain chemistry by increasing the circulation of feel-good endorphins, up-regulating your body’s own opioid system, and limiting pain signals to your brain. Acupuncture also has the effect of increasing circulation, and that increase brings inflammation-reducing white blood cells to the area to support healing and reduce pain.

The bottom line is that even though you may have a diagnosis of a structural problem in your back, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be pain-free. Often, increasing the circulation to the area, relaxing the surrounding muscles, and calming down the inflammation can effectively help to relieve your back pain.

Does Acupuncture Work?

Score one for acupuncture! In a newly published review of over two dozen studies on the effectiveness of acupuncture, researchers concluded that acupuncture worked better than usual pain treatments for chronic headaches, back pain, and arthritis.

This analysis of previous research involved almost 18,000 people who rated their pain on a scale of 1 to 100. Patients’ average pain value prior to treatment was 60. The average score after treatment for patients receiving acupuncture was 30, compared to 35 after fake acupuncture, and 43 after usual treatments which include medication and physical therapy.

Acupuncture and Chinese medicine is being incorporated into a variety of traditional settings. The military is currently using acupuncture to treat patients’ pain conditions as well as post traumatic stress, and more and more hospitals across the country are offering acupuncture as a treatment option to their patients. While Western medical doctors are unsure as to exactly why acupuncture works, this study suggests that acupuncture can be an effective treatment for a variety of pain conditions.

Find the abstract here and an article about this study in the Minneapolis Star Tribune here.

Ten Things to Know About Butt Pain

That agony in your butt–it’s not just any pain; it can be sharp, electric, and stabbing, and it can be accompanied by numbness and tingling. If you’ve ever experienced sciatic pain, you’re on first name terms with the kind of pain that starts in your butt and travels down the back or side of your leg. It may keep you up nights, bench you completely, and make you feel like yuo’re 100 years old.

My brush with butt pain happened about three days into a week long kayaking trip in the middle of nowhere. I woke up one morning and tried to walk down to the beach to wash my face, but my leg, or more accurately, my butt wouldn’t cooperate. I could walk, but just barely, because a nagging pain on the right side of my low back and butt was causing my leg to fold up like a card table.

I managed to get through the kayaking trip—surprisingly; I was able to paddle without much pain, but once I got out of my kayak, I was pretty well hobbled. It wasn’t until a week or two later that I learned that I had something called Piriformis syndrome.

Since then, I have made it my business to know as much as possible about sciatic nerve pain. If you suffer from this kind of pain, here are some things you should know:

Not all pain that begins in your butt and radiates down your leg is sciatica. True sciatica is due pressure on your sciatic nerve from compressed lumbar disks, trauma, or degeneration in your lower back.
Piriformis syndrome often feels just like sciatica, but the cause is from a spasm in the Piriformis muscle. Your Piriformis is a core stabilizing muscle that runs deep from your sacrum (at the base of your spine) to your hip (the bone on the outside top of your thigh.) Your sciatic nerve runs under, and for some people, through the Piriformis muscle. When your Piriformis is injured, it can compress the sciatic nerve where it passes through the pelvis. Beyond pain deep in your butt, Piriformis syndrome usually causes pain that radiates down the back or side of your leg, and can travel through your knee and into your foot. The pain can be achy and dull, sharp, nagging, and even cause numbness and tingling.
It can be tough to tell the difference between true sciatica and Piriformis syndrome, because the symptoms tend to mimic each other, but there are a few clues. With sciatica, you will usually have pain radiating all the way into your lower leg and foot, but with Piriformis syndrome, the pain often radiates only as far as your knee. Areas of complete numbness along the pathway of the nerve indicate sciatica. Also, Piriformis syndrome is associated with some very tender trigger points in your butt. For a definitive diagnosis, your doc will need to rule in or out disk problems as the source of your pain.
Overuse is a common cause of Piriformis syndrome, and it can be a common injury that sidelines athletes. Prolonged sitting and trauma can also aggravate the Piriformis muscle, causing it to swell or go into spasms, which causes the sciatic nerve to be pinched.
I have found in my acupuncture practice that Piriformis syndrome is frequently caused by cold. It seems to be more prevalent in the winter or after a patient has been outdoors in the cold. I believe that my kayaking debacle was caused by sitting in a cold, wet kayak for hours on end. (No pun intended.)
In my experience, Piriformis syndrome is far more common than true sciatica. The good news is that I find that my patients with Piriformis syndrome respond far more quickly to treatment than those with sciatica.
Treatment for butt pain in Chinese medicine would include acupuncture, heat, body work, stretching, and at home care. Acupuncture speeds healing by promoting circulation to the area of injury. In addition, research has documented that acupuncture works by increasing the release of pain-relieving chemicals in the brain.
I have found that electro acupuncture, in which the inserted needles are hooked up to a small machine that painlessly contracts or “vibrates” the muscle is especially effective in relieving pain and speeds up the healing process. Electro acupuncture works by relaxing the muscles that are tight or in spasm.
Western treatments for butt pain may include rest, physical therapy, injections of local anesthetics or steroids, and prescription medications for pain or to relax the muscles. For difficult or chronic cases, your doctor may recommend surgery.
At home treatments include heating the painful area, rolling on a tennis ball to release trigger points (points that are especially tender), and gentle stretching. A simple stretch for the Piriformis muscle: Sit in a chair with both feet on the floor. To stretch the right side, place your right ankle across the top of your left knee. Then gently lean forward until you feel the stretch in your butt. Repeat on the other side by reversing the action.

As for my own butt injury, once I was out of the wilderness, I enlisted the help of an acupuncturist to relieve my pain. I was lucky; it took about a week before I stopped limping, and a few more before I was completely pain-free. Combined with some daily stretching and strengthening exercises from a physical therapist, I haven’t had a recurrence. My butt’s just fine, thank you.

Eight Ways to Ease That Pain in Your Neck

We’ve all heard the figurative term that something is a pain in the neck, but the reality of neck pain can cause sleepless nights, limited range of motion, and make your life miserable in general. There are a number of causes of neck pain, including trauma, turning and reaching at the same time, drafts, and bad ergonomics.

The most common cause of neck pain, however, is stress. Most people who are overwhelmed and under a lot of stress will tell you that they physically carry that stress in their neck. This has been the case since caveman times, when our furry ancestors raised the hackles on their neck in threatening situations. While a cranky boss, looming deadline, or a failing relationship isn’t the same as the threat of being eaten, your body still reacts in the same way, resulting in a tight, stiff neck.

In Chinese medicine, your stiff neck is a classic case of stagnation. The tightness in your upper back and neck create a slowdown in the circulation (stagnation) of blood and energy in the area. In addition, as that area becomes tight, it can move upward causing headaches, tooth grinding, and jaw pain; or move downward and cause back pain and tightness.

The antidote to neck pain in Chinese medicine is acupuncture, which works on two levels. It can help relieve the pain and tightness in your neck, and it can also help relieve stress.

You should check with your Western doc if your neck pain is accompanied by confusion, fever, or drowsiness. Also, if your neck pain radiates into your arms or hands, or if you feel numbness or tingling, it may be the sign of disk involvement and should also be checked out.

Some things you can do on your own to relieve neck pain include:

-Get some heat on it. Take a warm shower, use a heating pad, warm rice bag, or a towel soaked in hot water. By putting heat on your neck, you are increasing the circulation, loosening tight muscles, and enhancing your range of motion.

-Increase your flexibility. After you have warmed up your stiff neck, move your head up and down as if you were nodding yes. Then slowly move your head from side to side as if you were saying no. Tilt your head, moving your ear toward your shoulder on each side. These stretches will help increase your range of motion, but remember, don’t do anything that is intensely painful.

-Sleep on it. Sleep on your back with a pillow under your knees. This helps you maintain the natural curvature of your spine, and will help you avoid sleeping on your side, which can aggravate a stiff neck.

-Hold the phone. Keep the phone off of your shoulder. If you’re on the phone a lot at work, get a headset or hold the phone with your hand.

-Take a break. If you’re on your computer all day, make sure you take regular breaks to get up, stretch, and walk around.

-Eyes forward. Make sure that your work station is ergonomically correct. This means that you shouldn’t have to look sideways to see your computer screen, look downward all day long, or be sitting in an uncomfortable position.

-Stay away from drafts. Cold air blowing on your neck can be an underlying cause of a stiff neck. Avoid sleeping in a draft, and be sure to wear a scarf on cool, cold and windy days.

-Get some acupuncture. In most cases, your stiff neck will be gone in a few days. However, acupuncture can be extremely helpful in speeding up the healing process.

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