Acupuncture for Back Pain

Join me for a brief chat about acupuncture and Chinese Medicine for people dealing with back pain. Click here to contact me with any questions, and click here to find out how to see me for a treatment.

A quick summary of what's in this video:

• In my practice (since 2012), patients with back pain have always felt improvement after their first treatment, in pain level, mobility, or both.
• The number of follow-up treatments and frequency of ongoing care varies.
  • for some, 1 treatment is enough
  • for many, 3-6 treatments are needed
  • often, we keep the pain away with regular tune-ups
• To get past the pain in a lasting way, we may need to address underlying causes of pain pain, such as:
  • an old injury
  • compensation patterns in other muscles
  • chronic physical stress (poor posture, demanding physical labor, weakness of certain muscles, etc.)
  • mental or emotional stress and physical tension related to the emotions
• The root cause(s) of back pain might also be at the root of other issues you'd like relief from.
• I address all of these through bodywork, CranioSacral Therapy, recommended exercises, herbal medicine, dialogue and dreamwork.
• I help you explore where in your life, your mind and your heart there's the possibility for healing and better balance.
• "Side effects" of acupuncture and these additional modalities? Feeling better overall, sleeping well, having a greater sense of well-being and vitality, and more mental/emotional ease.
• I didn't mention this in the video, but I want to bring it up here: I've had a few patients for whom pharmaceutical pain relievers and/or surgery were necessary for them to feel their best. When one or both of those is what the patient needs, I'm grateful that they have the opportunity to access that kind of care. Acupuncture and herbal medicine can work in complement to conventional biomedical treatments. It's especially valuable pre- and post-surgery, to support quick, complete recovery.

Let's get you feeling better! Click here to contact me, and click here to find out how to see me for a treatment.

Here's the research I promised:

Acupuncture in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial (published in JAMA Internal Medicine)

Acupuncture for Low Back Pain: An Overview of Systematic Reviews (published in Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine)

Evidence of efficacy of acupuncture in the management of low back pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised placebo- or sham-controlled trials (published in SAGE Journal)

Acupuncture and Neural Mechanism in the Management of Low Back Pain—An Update (a thorough article on low back pain, standard care, acupuncture, and mechanisms of action)

Neuroimaging Studies of Acupuncture on Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review  (a study exploring a possible mechanism of acupuncture's effectiveness in treating low back pain: improvement in brain structure and function)