Acupuncture Relieves Pain. Any Kind of Pain.

This weekend my grandmother called and left me a message telling me that she read an article that said that acupuncture was good for arthritis, and she wanted to let me know. Of course I already knew, but I thanked her for the information and acted like she'd just told me something interesting. She's my grandmother for christssake.

My conservative Midwestern family never knew what the hell to think about acupuncture. I remember being at the Thanksgiving dinner table with 10 people, some friends and some family. My Uncle Michael asked me, "So, how's that acupuncture going?" "Great," I said. Then the subject quickly switched to movies people had seen and what they thought about them.

As I studied acupuncture, I was dubious about some of the claims that instructors, clinicians, and textbooks made, but one thing became crystal clear as soon as I started practicing in the student clinic: acupuncture reduces pain.

Sometimes acupuncture eliminates pain completely, sometimes it simply reduces it. In rare cases, acupuncture doesn't do anything. The only time I've seen this happen is when there is some sort of organic disruption - for example, a slipped disc pressing directly on a nerve.

(I had a case of this a week or two ago and it's still eating at me. It's always frustrating when someone doesn't get relief, and, this might surprise some of you, it doesn't happen that often.)

But for sensations of pain and stiffness from conditions like arthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic injuries and much more, acupuncture reduces and sometimes eliminates pain.

That's why people keep coming back for acupuncture. Not because they enjoy the sensation of tiny needles being rammed into their soft tissues, but because it eases their suffering, reduces their pain sensation, and makes life more bearable.