This article is from the Orange County Register, and the writer Jane Glenn Haas has interviewed Edward Lamadrid, a Spanish-heritage doctor of acupuncture and founder of Integrative Health Studio in Chicago.

The writer talks about his positive experience with acupuncture, and has a Q & A session talking about acupuncture, and how it works.

If you have been wondering how does acupuncture work to relieve pain, then this article should give you a brief outline on how acupuncture works.

 How Does Acupuncture Work To Relieve Pain?

How Does Acupuncture Work To Relieve Pain Is A Question Many Back Pain Sufferers Ask

 

That seemingly strange treatment where a trained and licensed practitioner sticks needles about my body has been practiced for centuries in Asia. It is used to treat most pain conditions – including lower back pain, shingles and other nerve pain; hand and knee pain; headaches; fibromyalgia; and menstrual pain.

 

Official research on the effectiveness of acupuncture produces mixed results, according to the Harvard Healthbeat newsletter. But my experience has been positive, although I would caution that results might take as many as 12 treatments.

 

Traditional Chinese acupuncture involves the insertion of extremely fine needles into the skin at specific “acupoints” along the body’s meridians. This action can result in pain relief by releasing endorphins, the body’s natural painkilling chemicals, and might affect the part of the brain that governs serotonin levels, the brain transmitter involved with mood, the Harvard newsletter says.

 

Edward Lamadrid, a Spanish-heritage doctor of acupuncture and founder of Integrative Health Studio in Chicago, has spent three decades studying alternative and complementary medicine. He is more direct.

 

The first thing to know about acupuncture is that it is not painful, he says. “The needle is so fine and thin, it parts but does not puncture like a shot needle does,” he says. “Acupuncture can actually be very relaxing.”

 

Q. When I have a treatment, the practitioner attaches electrical stimulation to the needles and leaves me for half an hour. I usually sleep deeply. Why is that?

 

A. That indicates the treatment is working. The rationale behind acupuncture is that stagnation creates the pain – through a slowdown of the chi, or energy.

 

First the doctor overlays a meridian system on the body and primarily uses that system as the highway. There’s a light out, a traffic jam if you will, and you may be asked to point to where the pain exists. An acupuncturist typically inserts four to 10 needles and leaves them in place about 30 minutes. Chinese or Oriental medicine is known for pain relief, but there’s actually more to it. We are working on the core energy system. Western medicine just treats the physical system.

 

Q. Is Chinese medicine – the idea of focusing on the “core energy system” – generally accepted?

 

A. There are a lot of supporters of Chinese medicine in the Western medical community. It is probably more acceptable on the West Coast, where it is more common, than the Midwest.

 

Source article

 

So if you have been on the fence with regard to using acupuncture to relieve your back pain, we hope you can get a little insight into how does acupuncture work to relieve pain. There are many treatments available and sometimes it gets confusing as to what is best for each individual.

You can get many more tips and information on acupuncture and many other methods pf alleviating lower back pain by reading The 7 Day Back Pain Cure by fitness and back pain expert Jesse Cannone. The book is available on our website by signing up at the top right of our website.

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