Creekside Acupuncture and Natural Medicine, Stephanie Ellis, L.Ac.

Only a small portion of people who could benefit from acupuncture try it - why? I think one reason is the unknown factor. Most of us in the US didn’t grow up with acupuncture as part of our health care. It seems really weird and it’s scary to try something new. After doing this for 20 years I can forget this. But I remember how strange is seemed the first time I tried it. SO many of my patients have never tried acupuncture before. I aim to make everyone feel welcome and comfortable, and to answer all your questions before, during and after your treatment. Try something new and weird if you’re curious!

Cancer Pain and Acupuncture Moderate to severe pain is experienced by 40% of individuals with early or intermediate stage cancer and 90% of individuals with advanced cancer. Up to 70% of all patients with cancer pain do not receive adequate pain relief, diminishing their quality of life in terms of both physical and psychological well-being. A Comparative Literature Review in 2017 found a potentially positive effect of acupuncture in treating cancer pain. The review included... two systematic reviews, the older of which was unable to draw firm conclusions due to small sample sizes and clinical differences in the patients being treated. The more recent review included 36 trials and over 2200 randomised patients. They found a moderate effect size of acupuncture on cancer-related pain, and concluded that acupuncture is effective in relieving cancer-related pain, particularly malignancy-related and surgery-induced pain. Although this review did not report on risks arising from treatment with acupuncture, elsewhere studies have indicated that acupuncture is a feasible and safe treatment and may successfully be used to treat cancer patients for symptom management due to the low risks associated with its use.

The mechanisms underlying how acupuncture is so effective for treating pain have been researched extensively for over 60 years. While there is still much left to learn about acupuncture mechanisms and the human body in general, the neural pathways from acupuncture point stimulation, to the spinal cord to the deactivation of the pain centers in the brain have been mapped. Acupuncture has been demonstrated to activate a number of the body’s own opioids as well as improving the ...brain’s sensitivity to opioids. A number of other biochemicals involved in pain reduction have been found to be released or regulated by acupuncture stimulation, including ATP and adenosine, GABA and substance P. In the context of ineffective and often dangerous pharmaceutical options for pain, acupuncture represents a safe and effective alternative with a long track-record of successful use.

Acupuncture is widely known for its effectiveness in the treatment of pain. Its unique role in reducing suffering in patients experiencing pain is one of the main reasons it has become so popular around the world. The research is plentiful on the effects of acupuncture on specific painful conditions. For acute pain, a systematic review of 13 trials found that acupuncture was more effective than both sham needling and injection with painkillers. For chronic pain, in the large...st study of its kind to date, 454,920 patients were treated with acupuncture for headache, low back pain, and/or osteoarthritis in an open pragmatic trial. Effectiveness was rated as marked or moderate in 76% of cases by the 8,727 treating physicians.19 In a 2-year retroactive survey of over 89,000 patients published in 2016, 93% of patients said that their acupuncturist had been successful in treating their musculoskeletal pain. A meta-analysis of 17,922 patients from randomized trials concluded, Acupuncture is effective for the treatment of chronic pain and is therefore a reasonable referral option. Significant differences between true and sham acupuncture indicate that acupuncture is more than a placebo. A follow up study with this data looking at long-term pain relief, found that the benefits of acupuncture persisted 12 months after treatment ended. Another study in the journal, Current Opinion in Anesthesiology, in the paper titled ‘Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: an Update and Critical Overview’ concluded that mounting evidence supports the effectiveness of acupuncture to treat chronic low back, neck, shoulder, and knee pain, as well as headaches. Additional data are emerging that support the use of acupuncture as an adjunct or alternative to opioids, and in perioperative settings. Source: evidence based acupuncture.org

I’ve been open since mid-May and I am so grateful for my community of patients. They have been diligent and we have kept each other safe. Grateful to have access to weekly Covid testing to make sure I am healthy. Grateful for my two teenagers who have taken masks and distancing very seriously. Grateful to have gotten my first vaccine dose last week. Grateful for too many things to list them all. Since I can’t know if someone has Covid or not I assume everyone does and I take the necessary precautions.

If you have more than half of these, and no other apparent explanation for your pain, you probably have trigger points: You have sore spots in muscles. Your pain usually occurs in specific areas of your body.... The problem feels more like muscles than joints. Your pain is primarily dull, aching, and nagging. You feel a lot of stiffness as well as pain. Affected areas feel weak and heavy. Stretching is appealing (but not very effective). Hot showers and baths are usually helpful. Anti-inflammatory medications don’t really work. If you have painful trigger points, acupuncture will help!