Here at Vitality Health and Wellness in Elm Grove, we can help reduce the pain and symptoms of many different types of sports and accidental injuries as well as speed the healing process to get you back on your feet and pain free faster.
Common Causes and Types of Injuries
Acute and chronic sports injuries, car accident injuries and workplace injuries can happen to anyone, including individuals who work at jobs that require a lot of head down postures, typing and standing, walking and heavy lifting. Common injuries include strains and sprains of the back and neck, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, runner’s knee, shoulder pain, ankle sprains and shin splints. These injuries often result in pain while participating in daily activities and a loss of range of motion due to tendon and ligament inflammation.
Initially, most of these injuries should be treated with heat, ice and rest, but after 48 hours, at-home treatments can become ineffective and pain can start to linger. This is when you should schedule an appointment for an evaluation and acupuncture treatment. Acupuncture contains very few side-effects and can be used with other holistic and traditional treatment options, including physical therapy, nutrition advice, supplements and laser therapy.
Sports Injury Pain Relief and Healing with Acupuncture
Acupuncture is very effective at reducing the pain and inflammation associated with sprains and strains, muscle soreness, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, knee pain and tendonitis, and the results are backed up by research studies conducted at John Hopkins. Recent studies have proven that individuals who receive 20 minutes of acupuncture each week experience a dramatic reduction in their overall pain, and that acupuncture is especially effective at treating repetitive motion injuries, ankle sprains, general muscle soreness and sprains and back pain.
Many athletes use acupuncture as a form of holistic preventative medicine to reduce muscle soreness after excessive exercising or physical exertion to reduce muscle pain and speed the recovery process. They also use acupuncture to treat sprains and sprains and respective motion injuries.
During the session, our acupuncturist will insert many needles into your skin. The long, slender needles will begin promoting healing almost immediately. This is because the soft tissues and muscles of the body grip into the needles, and when they are subtly manipulated, they help increase blood flow and oxygenation to injured areas and along the tissue plane where the needle is positioned. This helps facilitate healing and helps release endorphins, which reduces pain naturally.
Depending on the severity of your sports injury, you may need several acupuncture sessions a week for several weeks. Our acupuncturist will be able to give you an estimate of your specific treatment length after your initial evaluation and the first few sessions.
Chronic Pain Relief Without Painkillers or Opiate Medication
Some sports injuries and other types of injuries may resolve after the proper course acupuncture and other rehabilitation techniques -- and ideally, the acute pain that accompanies such injuries will disappear along with the damage. Unfortunately, however, this isn't the case with chronic pain. Plantar fasciitis, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, herniated discs and other chronic ailments may leave you with either unremitting pain or pain and comes and goes in unpredictable bouts. The good news is that we can effectively use acupuncture for pain relief in either acute or chronic conditions.
After thousands of years of demonstrated success in the world of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the pain-relieving mechanisms of acupuncture are finally being studied, observed and understood by Western scientists. One such mechanism is the production of endorphins. Endorphins are peptides that bind to opioid receptors in the brain, blocking chemicals that cause pain and promoting a sense of well-being. Essentially, they are the natural, non-addictive equivalent of morphine and other opioid drugs. This is a hugely important difference for anyone suffering from severe chronic pain, since the opioid painkilling medications so frequently prescribed by doctors are notorious for their potential to cause dangerous, expensive, life-wrecking dependencies. By making use of safe, non-addictive acupuncture sessions to control your chronic pain, you can experience greater quality of life without the many hazards presented by such drugs.
Recent research has concluded that acupuncture creates these endorphins from the instant the needle penetrates the skin. As we manipulate the needle into the place, the motions of the needle relay vibrations to muscles. The muscles respond by releasing calcium, which then cause leukocytes (white blood cells) to produce endorphins. This sequence of events occurs naturally when inflammation is present; acupuncture is merely a skillful, precise means of triggering and directing it.
Acupuncture can also affect how strongly you react to pain signals. It is well known that anxiety and pain can feed each other in an agonizing "feedback loop" that just makes you feel worse and worse. But it's also recognized by science that acupuncture can reduce the levels of stress hormones (such as cortisol) that boost anxiety. By administering acupuncture treatments that target anxiety, we can use this ancient technique in yet another remarkable way to relieve your pain.
As effective as acupuncture is at managing both acute and chronic pain, it's not the only tool in our belt here at Vitality Health & Wellness Center of WI. We use a blended approach that combines acupuncture with laser therapy and acu point treatments to help you win your pain battle on all fronts. Contact us to learn more about our evidence-based, non-addictive pain management options! To schedule an appointment with our Elm Grove acupuncturist, call our office at (262) 827-4000.