Give me the needle every time (Acupuncture)

Member Name: dee778

Product:	Acupuncture
Date:	21/09/09 (59 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It works!

Disadvantages: Sometimes it can hurt

Although I like to believe that I have an open mind, I have always looked very suspiciously at some forms of alternative medicine. Until a couple of years ago I would have included acupuncture in this category, but after the dramatic changes brought about by this treatment, I am convinced that it makes a real difference in the relief of certain types of pain.

I have suffered from lower back pain since my first pregnancy, 19 years ago. Although when I was younger this pain was sporadic, as I grew older it became more and more severe, eventually leading to my back going into spasm every time I stood still for two minutes or more (very embarrassing when standing in the queue at the Post Office!). I tried physiotherapy and osteopathy, but there was no perceptible improvement - and eventually my GP told me that he could offer me acupuncture at the surgery on the NHS.

The fact that I was not paying for it made me decide to give it a go. The first hurdle I had to overcome was the physical position that I had to be in for the treatment of my lower back problem. If you can imagine lying on your tummy in the middle of the treatment room, your knickers pulled down, and several large needles sticking out of your bum - then you can visualise my humiliation! It always called to mind that scene from Carry on Doctor, with Sid James lying in the same position with a daffodil sticking out of his bum (some of you will remember this!)

Anyway - humiliation aside, the treatment was the important thing. My GP took out several sterile, vacuum packed needles. They were about 5cm long, and very fine. He asked me where the pain was, and inserted about 4 needles around the centre of the pain. In addition, he inserted one needle behind my knee and one into my ankle. There was a slight prick as the needles went in, but nothing painful - it was nothing like an injection. Once they were inserted, he then twiddled them a bit and left me to rest for about 10 minutes. I did get a strange tingling feeling from the needles, that went all down my leg - but apart from that there was no pain. After 10 minutes he plucked them out, and I went home.

My first treatment yielded no results, but I persevered, and about 7 treatments later I was amazed to find that my back pain had been completely cured. After 12 years of pain I could hardly believe it!
Since then I find that the pain starts to return after about a year - so I call my GP and he quickly books me in for a top up treatment. One treatment later, the pain is gone again, and I can carry on with my life. I have now been pain free for three years, and I can definitely say that acupuncture changed my life.

A year ago I developed a really painful tennis elbow, and initially had a cortisone injection to take the pain away. Unfortunately this only lasted for 6 months before the pain returned. Once again my GP suggested acupuncture rather than another cortisone injection - and ... once again it is working! I have to say that this time the treatment is very painful indeed. My GP tells me that he is using a technique called periosteal pecking, which entails him gently scratching the surface of the underlying bone. It is an indication of how painful the tennis elbow is, and how excruciating the cortisone injection was, that I am happy to go through the painful acupuncture to sort out my elbow. I feel that it is worth it, but some people may not be prepared to do this.

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Acupuncture has become an accepted way of treating pain, now used both by BUPA and the NHS - and in 2009 NICE accepted this, deciding that acupuncture should officially be made available throughout the NHS for chronic lower back pain. Many clinical trials have been carried out that confirm the efficacy of acupuncture, and an excellent article summarising the way in which the economy and the NHS can save money by using this treatment can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5345774.stm

There seems to be no definitive answer to the way in which acupuncture works. My GP has never tried to tell me that it is anything to do with the channelling of energies (or Qi), as traditional Chinese medicine believes. If anything, he has told me that it is the body's natural way of stimulating endorphins which relieve pain. He has put it to me that we are trying to trick the body into healing itself. I do not query the way in which acupuncture works - I am just very glad that it does work!

I have had friends who have tried acupuncture for everything from stopping smoking to encouraging conception. They have not found that acupuncture makes any difference in this respect. I would only use acupuncture for pain relief, and I would always seek the guidance of my GP before I used it. All of the medical websites advise that only certain types of pain have a successful outcome, and it is the role of the GP to sift out the patients who will not benefit from acupuncture.

Summary: Pain relief without drugs, without side effects and without the huge costs