Treating sciatica with acupuncture is helpful because it can really relieve the pain and inflammation within the sciatic nerve. Meiji University of Oriental Medicine did research on the effectiveness of acupuncture on sciatica treatment; they found that acupuncture not only influence humans’ pain inhibitory system, it participates in causing a transient change in sciatic nerve blood blow, including circulation to the cauda equine and nerve root. To further your understanding of how acupuncture relieves sciatic nerve pain: there are important acupuncture points within our back that can effectively trigger the sciatic nerve, thereby decreasing inflammation, numbness and pain.

My approach with acupuncture to treat sciatica is based on my extensive knowledge in Chinese medicine.  My unique acupuncture point selection is designed to improve blood circulation and relax paraspinal muscles, allowing more fluid and nutrients to nourish the disc thereby increase the elasticity of the discs. Such increase in the elasticity of the discs through acupuncture can help reduce the disc protrusion and thus reduce and eliminate the lower back pain. Most of the patients experience substantial sciatica relief after their first treatment!

After extensive research, I developed a special treatment plan which stimulates acupuncture points to create energy flow in the infected area to control and eliminate sinus and ear infection – subsequently removing the cause of sinusitis dizziness.  The efficacy of this treatment plan has been proven time and time again, evident in my patients’ testimonials.

I had never been dizzy before in my life and it really worried me. I went to my family doctor, he referred me to three ENT doctors within five months. They did a MRI, and a Vertigo test on me, but still they couldn’t figure out what caused the dizziness, and all of three ENT doctors told me that nothing more they could do to help me. Never in my life did I feel this hopeless, frustrated ! At this point, I realized that Western medicine couldn’t help me, so I started searching internet for alternative medicines. Dr. Huang’s website really caught me eyes and decided to give it a try.

On my first visit to Dr. Huang’s office, I noticed She is kind, warm, and very patient, but what impresses me the most is her knowledge of Chinese medicine. She asked me the detailed history of my problems, then gave me a clear diagnose. She explained to me that my dizziness was caused by my sinusitis ( which cause my ear lost balance). At his point, I knew I would be in good hand.After my first session with Dr. Huang, my ear pressure was released, my head felt cleared. I was really encouraged. Then, I began a series of acupuncture treatments( twice a week) combined with Chinese herbs. After I completed ten sessions as Dr. Huang suggested. I noticed that my dizziness mysteriously disappeared. I felt more energetic than ever. My colleagues noticed the difference and curiously asked me “what happened to you?”, I replied:” I went to see an acupuncturist “, then some of them asked me for Dr. Huang’s contact information. So far, three of my colleagues already got help from Dr.Huang. They all received good results.

I thank God daily for Dr. Huang and her abilities. It is through her hands that I have my life back.

-Lucy L.

Neck pain and shoulder stiffness can have a variety of causes, with continuous mechanical strain, constant stress, and trauma being the most frequently cited. Keeping your head in an awkward position can cause your neck muscles to fatigue, circulation in the tissues to diminish, and the joints to “lock” in place. This is a very common occurrence in office workers who sit in front of a computer and type for extensive periods of time. Trauma can cause a “whiplash” syndrome, with the muscles in your neck going into permanent spasm and causing pain and a limited range of motion. Acupuncture are very effective in treating neck pain caused by whiplash.

Constant stress is also a common factor in neck/shoulder stiffness and pain. Being under constant stress causes the sympathetic nervous system to become hypersensitive, like always being in the “flight or fight” mode. As many of us tend to “hold” much of our stress in the upper body, neck and shoulders, this can cause constant muscle spasm, a corresponding lack of circulation and nutrition to the tissues, leading to neck and shoulder pain and stiffness.

A Chinese medical approach to neck and shoulder stiffness and pain addresses both the mechanical and emotional aspects. With acupuncture, generally three to five treatments over a short period of time (2 – 4 weeks) are sufficient to effect substantial results. Results are quicker and better for cases involving trauma and/or whiplash the sooner the treatments can begin after the event.

In my practice, I have used acupuncture to treat both children and adults. In fact, I have done full acupuncture treatments on kids as young as 4, including needling points on the face, scalp, hands, and feet. Even patients this age typically do not experience any discomfort that lasts for more than a second or two.

The truth of the matter is that nobody really likes needles. We are generally conditioned to have an aversion to them because of the trauma involved in getting shots and other procedures using hypodermic needles. It is always funny when a new patient comes in and confesses in a voice that suggest their situation is utterly unique, ‘I don’t like needles.’ Most new patients make this confession– and most are very surprised by how pleasant the treatment actually is, even though it involves needles.

There are times where you can feel an insertion prick with the needles that lasts for a couple of seconds. You can also feel a nervy sensation that radiates through the area being worked on for a brief period of time. Other sensations include a dull achiness or pressure around the needles.

Many traditional Chinese doctors use a more aggressive style of needling that involves strong stimulation and thick needles. I have found this to be a turnoff for many Westerners, as excellent results can be achieved without having to induce strong sensations around the needles.

If you are interested in acupuncture but are reluctant to try it because of the potential pain involved in treatment, I encourage you to move through that fear, as you will likely find acupuncture to be a pleasant, gentle, and very effective form of treatment for your health care needs.

I hope this helps you overcome any apprehension so you can get proactive about your health using this ancient and powerful form of medicine.

Globe and Mail Update

Published on Monday, May. 24, 2010 6:38PM EDT

Last updated on Tuesday, May. 25, 2010 12:15PM EDT

We ask the experts to settle common questions we’ve all wondered about.

QUESTION

When should I consider using acupuncture? How do the needles work? How painful are the needles? What are the risks of acupuncture?

ANSWER

According to practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture is an important therapy for every person’s overall well-being. They use it for the prevention and treatment of a long list of medical conditions including migraines, insomnia, stress, depression, fertility issues, pain, neurological conditions and shingles, as well as drug, alcohol and smoking addictions.

Aside from these conditions, they recommend it for everyone (regardless of health status) twice a year between fall and winter, and in spring and summer as well-being maintenance. They suggest that these seasonal adjustments are important because the body can have a difficult time adapting to a new season, making it more vulnerable to diseases and infections. That’s why, they say, you see a spike in flu cases in late winter and early spring. The basis of acupuncture is simple. In Chinese medicine, it’s believed that in a healthy body, energy flows through channels smoothly. If that energy flow is disrupted, the person may become ill or suffer from pain.

Each person’s body has more than 300 acu-points where energy flow can be disrupted. Acupuncturists determine the disruptions by taking the patient’s pulse, reading his or her tongue and feeling his or her muscle tone. Needles are placed at the disrupted acu-points to resume the energy flow, which is thought to improve the patient’s well-being.

Some research studies have suggested that stimulating acu-points triggers the brain to produce many different compounds – such as endorphins – which improve an individual’s disease condition or reduce pain.Because no two individuals are identical and their conditions are different, the required frequency of acupuncture treatments ranges between patients. Through an initial assessment of the patient, the practitioner will determine the best treatment plan.

The degree of acupuncture’s effectiveness also differs between patients. For some, the treatment reduces symptoms, and for others it is believed to cure the condition. Acupuncture clinical trials are challenging because it’s difficult to come up with a proper placebo; however the results are intriguing. Researchers often compare “real acupuncture” with a control group called a placebo or “sham” in which non-traditional sites are used, or the needles retract into the handles when pressed against the body so they don’t penetrate the skin. A double-blind, controlled study in Australia revealed that inserting needle to a single traditional point (the forearm, close to the wrist) reduced post-surgery nausea, while the sham therapy did not have the same effect.

However, in a recent German study involving headache patients, the participants getting the “real acupuncture” reported feeling only slightly better than the group who received the placebo. It seems that pressing a faux needle against the skin may be enough to produce the desired effect. Or, there is simply a strong “placebo effect” to acupuncture treatment itself.

Nonetheless, acupuncture is considered a safe and recognized practice that is increasingly being used alongside Western medicine. A properly trained acupuncturist will place a needle gently so that it is painless, or the pain is no worse than a mosquito bite. Like most treatments, however, there are risks if it is administered incorrectly. There are rare instances when a practitioner inserts a needle improperly, puncturing a patient’s organ or causing serious internal bleeding. The other risk is contracting a bacterial or viral infection through the needles. This can be avoided by using disposable needles and using the right technique (which most reputable practitioners do). To be safe, ask your acupuncturist at your first assessment about his or her training and experience to confirm the quality of care.

If you’re considering acupuncture, a good first step is to speak to your family physician for more information about how acupuncture and Western treatment can work together to improve your health.

Dr. Adam Chen is associate director of acupuncture at the Rehab and Wellbeing Centre of Mount Sinai in Toronto.

According to Chinese medicine, each of the five seasons—winter, spring, summer, late summer and fall—have certain physical and mental attributes that manifest in the human body during that time. Why, then, is fear the emotion associated with the winter season? Certainly the holidays ramp everything up a notch this time of year. But as Christmas isn’t really a phenomenon of the natural world, isn’t it curious that many of us feel more tense, more ill-at-ease than we do, say, in summer? In treating people over the years and seeing how anxieties always rise this time of year, I have a few ideas why.

With winter come many inconveniences to our modern life-style. Shorter days and colder temperatures should make us feel more introverted; realistically, everything should slow down. We think of bears hibernating, plants going dormant, and, unless we live in the tropics, our own lives should reflect this turning inward, this slower pace, this effort to conserve and consolidate our energies until the warmer months arrive. But, because we are all busy, because we all maintain jobs or families or causes to which we are dedicated; because we have to feed ourselves, clean our homes, keep contact with our loved ones and often times devote ourselves to people or things which drain rather than support our energies, because of all of these things, it is nearly impossible to slow down come winter time. And, because of our calendar year, because Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and the New Year all come within weeks of each other, we have more to do, more to accomplish and more places to be. Yet, naturally, perhaps by some internal rhythm to which we are all still, albeit distantly in-tune, we feel the need to turn inward.

The urge or even the necessity to push though the natural pull to rest is perhaps what makes us feel more anxious in winter. When we go against our own rhythm, when our body and hearts say one thing but our heads (or our families, bosses, friends or colleagues) say another, the natural response in our system is to respond with fear. It’s as if we are saying, “How on earth will I have the reserves to accomplish all this if I never get a chance to rest?” This internal struggle between what we have to do and what we want to do can certainly make us feel anxious.

In treating the patient I mentioned, she found relief from her anxiety with only a couple acupuncture treatments. But part of her treatment involved finding time every day to do nothing. What she found was that she was usually tired but still had things on her list that she wanted to do and she’d begin to feel overwhelmed at the thought of doing more. But instead of returning another phone call, running another errand or even finishing up the dishes, she took a brief moment to sit down, take some deep breaths, and gather her energies back up for herself. After taking one or two minutes to do this every time she found herself feeling anxious, she began to feel calmer, more centered and, best of all, better able to finish the tasks at hand.

So if these last months of winter are brewing in you a sense of anxiety, remember that acupuncture is exceptional at relieving anxiety and fear—whether you’ve had it for weeks or years. Remember also that fear is part of the natural rhythm of the season. You can harness the power of winter by using the anxiety as a reminder to find out whether you are doing what is best for yourself and the people you love. And if you find time to “consolidate,” to rest in order to replenish your energy this winter, you will find you are able to devote yourself to the things you need without feeling scattered, rushed or anxious.

Just as the most conservative MD acknowledges acupuncture can be helpful to treat pain, most people who’ve only heard of acupuncture know it can relieve and in some cases cure pain. Yet even though this seems to be common knowledge, most people do not understand when to use it for themselves. People will try everything and anything to reduce their discomfort and usually it is not until the physical therapy, massage, chiropractic adjustments, injections and medications do not work that they decide to try acupuncture. It’s always better when someone comes to acupuncture not long after they’ve had the condition, but even when acupuncture is a “last resort,” in most cases it still works after time has passed and the condition has worsened. It works because acupuncture has always understood that there are different types and levels of pain and that these need to be addressed individually in order for the person to heal.

Acupuncturists use different acupuncture points on different individuals, even if they present with the same problem. This often makes acupuncture difficult to examine in randomized control studies, but it results in each person receiving the exact treatment he or she needs. Acupuncture points affect different layers of the body as well as the specific place where the pain is located. Some points access the fascia or surrounding muscles, others access nerve routes, some stimulate the connections of tendons and ligaments and others penetrate to the joint. In addition there are certain acupuncture points that increase blood supply to an area and others that drain swelling or inflammation from an area. Interestingly enough, sometimes these acupuncture points are located right over the painful area and sometimes they are on the opposite side of the body. So there is not one acupuncture point for low back pain or for neck pain. Instead, there are several dozen acupuncture points that can affect different layers of the back or neck from different locations. This huge variety in the action and location of acupuncture points allows an acupuncturist to help relieve long standing and serious pain in most places.

A good example of how this plays out in real life is in chronic low back pain. Let’s imagine that one patient is elderly with severe low back pain in the center of her low back that has limited her ability to bend and has worsened over several years. The second is a middle aged person with chronic severe low back pain in the center of the low back that has begun to radiate down the leg. In the first case we would choose points directly over the painful area that increase blood supply to the spine while also including points that go to the muscle layer and release stiffness. In the second case we would choose acupuncture points located near the foot that affect the nerve level to address the radiating pain and also include additional points behind the knee that target the lumbar area, allowing us to address low back pain without using any points in the back itself. Both examples might say they have chronic low back pain that is getting worse, but both require very different treatments. In fact, the acupuncture points that would help one person might aggravate the other.

It is this deep reservoir of options with very specific functions that allow acupuncture to address pain in any location and any level of the body. And it is this understanding of acupuncture that should lead you to use it for the pain that does not go away. We at Triangle Acupuncture Clinic understand how to choose and apply the right acupuncture points to treat all types of pain. So call us or tell those you care about to use acupuncture for what it has and will always do best – relieve your pain now.

When treating viral or bacterial infections naturally, there are two important mechanisms by which Chinese medicine works. The first is by fighting the illness itself and the second is by supporting our natural immunity. In order to treat the infection, there are several specific herbal formulas that you can have on hand. The main focus of these formulas is to address the symptoms of a cold or flu but they all have anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties so they’re actually fighting the infection, too. If these formulas are taken at the first signs of a cold or even the flu, they can help decrease the severity of the symptoms and shorten your “sick time” by almost half. The following are the names of our clinic’s most popular cold and flu remedies and the symptoms they treat. If you know you are prone to certain kinds of illness—say, you always get some kind of intestinal flu each year—then having a formula at home that helps this kind of illness will help you tremendously in overcoming it.

• Cold Away – this modern Chinese herbal formula treats all the common cold symptoms: runny or stuffy nose, sore throat, mild body aches and headache.
• Yin Qiao – this classical Chinese formula whose name comes from two of its ingredients is a staple in any herbal medicine cabinet to treat milder symptoms at the onset of a cold like a sore throat and a stuffy or runny nose.
• Flu Ban – is a blend of herbs and homeopathic remedies that address the severe symptoms of the flu like chills and fever, body aches and fatigue. It can also be taken for a cold.
• Early Comfort – is a classical Chinese herbal formula that can treat vomiting and diarrhea associated with an intestinal flu.
• Antiphlogistic Formula – is a blend of very strong anti-viral and anti-bacterial herbs that address the early stages of strep throat or any illness that begins with a very sore throat.

The second and very important component of treating infections naturally is supporting the natural immunity of the “host.” This is what makes Chinese medicine so powerful and what sets it apart from western medicine’s approach to colds and flu. By supporting our immune systems during an illness, we help our body overcome it more quickly while simultaneously strengthening our overall immunity. There are several Chinese herbs that can be taken as prevention throughout the season and others that can be taken during an illness to help fight off the offending infection.

• Power Mushrooms – Mushrooms are known for their immune enhancing and anti-cancer capabilities. This blend of Chinese mushroom extracts can be taken whether you are sick or are just trying to prevent yourself from catching what everyone else has.
• Astragalus – this single herb is a powerful immune stimulator that helps prevent colds and flu. A note about astragalus though: it should only be taken when you are NOT sick. If you catch an infection, switch to something less stimulating, like the Power Mushrooms. We sell astragalus at our clinic as a powder, but it can also be found at your natural foods store as a tincture or pill.

Having one or two of these formulas on hand can mean the difference between getting sick for two weeks, or making it through an illness with a little less time and a lot less suffering. Of course, there’s no substitute for lots of rest, plenty of fluids (and maybe an acupuncture treatment!) to help you recover swiftly. But being prepared for this challenging season will help you to feel less powerless against the forces of the common cold and even the H1N1 virus. If you still have questions, talk to your acupuncturist about which formulas you might want to have at home.