Many patients with chronic low back pain find that acupuncture
treatment will help not only break the pain cycle, but allow them to
reduce pain medications and participate more vigorously in physical
daily activities. Lower Back pain in Chinese medicine includes any pain,
aching, discomfort or weakness in one or both sides of the lower
thoracic, lumbar, sacral or buttock areas. Lower back ache effects up
to 80% of the population at one or more times of their lives. The
Chinese noticed that many disorders affecting the kidneys can easily
give rise to low back pain thus calling the lower back the "palace of
the kidney".
History of Chinese Medicine Treatment Of Low Back Pain – Lower Back Pain:
Traditional Chinese Medicine has been used to
successfully treat low back pain for thousands and thousands of years
with the use of acupuncture and herbal medicine. When looking at the
entire time line of Chinese medicine acupuncture has only been exposed
to other areas of medicine for a very short period of time.
Sir William Osler, often considered the
father of modern medicine said: "For lumbago (lower back pain)
acupuncture is, in acute cases, the most efficient treatment." (Lumbago
is an old-fashioned term for low back pain.) This is what Sir William
Osler counseled a century ago in his classic medical text.
How Acupuncture works for low back pain:
Ancient Chinese believe that there is an inner energy or vital force
that is more than synapsing neurotransmittors and vibrating molecules.
This vital force or inner energy, in Traditional Chinese Medicine, is
called "QI" (pronounced chee). Low Back Pain, or any physical
dysfunction, is considered in Traditional Chinese Medicine to be due to
stagnant Qi in that area. Back Pain can also be related to Kidney,
Liver or Spleen Dysfunction and stagnation. When using acupuncture, the
inserted needles will break up this stagnation allowing Qi to move
freely within the channels alleviating low back pain.
Acupuncture is very effective for low back pain and generally is the treatment of choice in acute cases.
Back Pain
