Pain can be life altering, as any sufferer can tell you. It changes personalities, erodes relationships, impedes physical activity, and blocks a person’s enjoyment of life. It’s a huge societal drain, with countless work hours sacrificed. Pain management, in all its manifestations, is a multi-billion dollar industry.
It is no wonder that one of the most common reasons people seek acupuncture treatment is for the resolution of pain. Indeed, acupuncture typically is a very successful modality for pain relief. Even main stream medical doctors are beginning to recommend it when the prognosis of their patients falls beyond the boundaries of conventional medical care. Western medicine basically has only a few options in dealing with pain – namely surgery, drugs and physical therapy. These options can be very powerful and healing and I would highly recommend them where appropriate. My general philosophy about medical intervention, however, is that it is most wise to start with the least invasive methods first, saving the most invasive measures as the last resort. All too often this process gets Order Xanax Online reversed. In my fantasy world of truly integrative medical care, acupuncture would be considered as a viable treatment, whether primary or adjunctive, very early in the process. Determining at what point and to what extent acupuncture Buy Xanax Online should be part of a treatment strategy depends upon the nature of the source of the pain, as I will later detail more fully.
Beginning a discussion on how and why acupuncture gives relief beyond the Western approach requires a brief exploration of pain from a Chinese medical point of view. In Chinese medicine, we relate the functioning of the body to the role of the Qi. Qi is very difficult to translate, but generally is described as vital energy that flows throughout the body, much like the blood circulatory system. Freedom from pain requires the unimpeded flow of Qi in a continuous circuit. Think of a moving water system like a stream. If nothing obstructs the pathway, the water flows freely. If rocks, trees or a beaver dam are present, the water, to varying degrees, stops flowing. There is less water flowing downstream, a backup of water upstream, and increased water pressure at the point of obstruction. If we substitute the concept of Qi for the water, we can get less Qi flowing downstream (perhaps numbness or coldness), an excess stagnation of Qi upstream (perhaps edema or distention), and pain at the point of obstruction.
