How does acupuncture work?
How Does Acupuncture Work?
Acupuncture works by fooling your body into thinking that something bad has happened. Your body then unleashes a healing response that works on your original problem. It’s like lighting a match near a smoke detector to call out the whole Fire Department.
Let’s say for example that you have lower back pain. We insert some needles into your back. The needles stimulate nerve endings in the muscles that would normally only be touched if you had suffered a significant puncture wound. Your brain knows exactly where those nerve endings are located. They are in the muscle, not the skin. Your brain knows that nothing should be touching those nerve endings. Life didn’t evolve in a world with hair thin, sterile, stainless steel needles that could touch a nerve without causing damage to the overlying tissue. Your brain is wired to think you were bit in the back by a tiger.
In response to that stimulation, your brain releases endorphin and enkalphins (natural pain relievers 1,000 times stronger than morphine) that reduce pain. Blood flow and nutrients are also redirected to the low back.
A local effect of the needles is that they cause the release of Substance P, a signaling molecule that indicates trauma. Your immune system responds by directing white cells to the area to repair injured tissue and fight infection. Substance P is also a chemo-attractant, meaning that it attracts circulating anti inflammatory hormones like cortisol.
Lastly, Substance P causes the muscles in the area of the needle insertion to go completely limp. Imagine if the foreign object was a splinter. Substance P’s effect as a muscle relaxant would cause the splinter to fall out. This again is a natural defense to being penetrated by a foreign object.
So in summary, acupuncture reduces pain, inflammation and spasm while also speeding the repair process.
How you might ask, does acupuncture help such diverse non-conditions as irregular menstruation, sinus or urinary tract infections, asthma, colitis, etc? The answer lies in how the nervous system is organized. There are locations all over the body (acupoints) whose nerve signals overlap with nerve signals from internal organs and other bodily systems. Stimulating these points confuses the body to think that there is a problem in the related organ or tissue. Your brain then releases a cascade of neurotransmitters which in turn triggers the release of hormones and cytokines (immune cell signaling chemicals) that can affect every system in your body. Again, acupuncture is tricking your body to think that there is an even greater problem than what actually exists and this in turn triggers an even stronger healing response. There is no medicine on the needle, no magical metaphysics, just the healing response triggered by provoking your nervous system.
Laser Therapy
Laser therapy can be a powerful tool to accelerate healing, expand range of motion, improve circulation, and decrease pain. Though we having been using a laser for over ten years, we recently obtained and trained to use a new laser that is at least five times more powerful. With this new laser, we have been seeing amazing results and helping all kinds of people with a wide variety of ailments, especially those with pain, inflammation, muscle tension, fascia restrictions, and injuries.
My favorite moments in the day are when the patient gets up and smiles because their function is restored or their pain is reduced. Having one more powerful tool to help people get back to the things they love in life has made for even more of those, “Wow!” moments.
For example, a runner came in complaining of hip pain that limited her runs to a few miles, and she had to stop regularly because of the pain. Chiropractic adjusting, hip mobilization, and acupuncture provided some pain relief, but the pain came back when she ran again. Worried that she would never do another marathon, she was excited to be our first patient to try the laser when it arrived on January second.
After the first treatment she was able to run six miles without having to pause for pain, and after a week of treatment she was able to complete a 20 mile run. After a month she completed a 50 mile race and felt less sore afterwards than she had ever felt after a race.
Of course, not every patient will be able to run 50 miles, or return immediately to their favorite activities, but as part of a holistic treatment plan, laser therapy adds another powerful tool to help you feel and be your best.
How does it work?
According to an article in the National Library of Medicine, “The use of low level laser to reduce pain, inflammation and edema, to promote wound, deeper tissues and nerves healing, and to prevent tissue damage has been known for almost forty years since the invention of lasers.”
Scientists call the effect of a laser on living tissue, “Photobiomodulation”. It’s a long word, but quite simply, it means that certain wavelengths of of coherent light can change how things work in the body. Specifically, we are using laser light of particular wavelengths (810 and 980nm), the same color red as the hemoglobin in your blood cells. Laser light of this color stimulates the hemoglobin to carry more oxygen which in turn stimulates the mitochondria to make more ATP. You may remember the “Mighty Mitochondria” from high school biology. Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell. That is where ATP (Adenosine TriPhosphate) is produced. ATP is the fuel or “dollar bill” of the cell. It is the medium of energy exchange our cells use to accomplish all tasks. Having more ATP allows cells to massively improve the rate of tissue repair and better regulate ion channels in the nerves to regulate pain and reduce swelling.
Laser therapy also increases the production of Nitric Oxide. Nitric Oxide increases microcirculation of the blood, nourishing tissues and enhancing tissue repair. Nitric Oxide also protects blood vessels from developing atherosclerosis.
Scientists have found that laser stimulates wound healing, particularly during the repair phase of healing. This research also found a beneficial effect on adjacent tissues. We suspect that is due to the effect of Nitric Oxide.
Laser therapy increases the rate of bone repair. In the words of the researchers, “ Low level laser with low-energy density range appears to exert a biostimulatory effect on bone tissue, enhance osteoblastic proliferation and differentiation on cell lines used in in vitro studies and therefore may be a useful tool for bone regeneration therapy.” Many injuries we treat in our office such as sprains have traumatic effects like micro tearing of the surface of bone without showing up on an X-ray as a fracture. Laser therapy can help such injuries recover faster.
So in short, laser therapy can help reduce pain, inflammation, swelling and accelerate repair of soft tissue and bone. We are delighted to be able to offer this service.
