After incurring an injury, whether from sports, an auto address the underlying injury that is causing chronic issues. However, the field of acupuncture offers hope for both pain relief and long-term healing in those who have sustained injuries.
How Does Acupuncture Work?
Acupuncture is a time-honored medical practice that has roots reaching back centuries into ancient, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and healing philosophies. Long maligned in the West as folk medicine, recent studies utilizing advanced imaging techniques have shown that acupuncture is a valid and effective field of medicine that causes tangible and observable changes in the human body.
During an acupuncture treatment, the practitioner assesses the patient’s history system points in the human body, hair-thin needles are inserted in these specific acupoints. Needle insertion provokes:
Nerve stimulation that causes the release of pain-relieving neurotransmitters
Increased blood flow to specific areas
Reduced inflammation
Stimulation of the immune system
How Does Acupuncture Work to Heal Injuries?
The field of acupuncture realizes that injuries cause trauma, and trauma in turn causes imbalances that negatively affect the healthful functioning of the human body. This pain and physiological trauma causes a blockage of energy, known in traditional Chinese medicine as qi, and disrupts healthful blood circulation. Another component of injury that traditional Western medicine often overlooks are the psychological facto play. A serious injury may cause:
Emotional trauma
Anxiety
High levels of stress
Depression
Insomnia
The practice of acupuncture and the entire philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine focuses on reintegrating the harmonious functioning of the mind-body connection. TCM enables people who have suffered injuries to address their many nuanced roots of pain and inflammation.
Acupuncture – Offering Hope for Long-Term Injury Recovery
Many traditional docto their recovery plan often experience the following positive changes:
Effective and drug-free pain management
Reduction in inflammation
Regulation of the immune system
Better digestive health
Improved circulation
Improved state of mental health
Reduced scar tissue
Decreased recovery time from injuries or surgeries
Improved outlook for long-term recovery
Starting acupuncture treatment as soon as possible after an injury will yield the best results. This is a field of complementary medicine that carries almost no risk for serious or adverse side effects, so don’t hesitate to gain!
In this instance, an athlete was originally diagnosed with minor quadriceps muscle strain and was treated for four weeks, with unsatisfactory results. When he came to our clinic, the muscle was not healing, and the patients’ muscle tissue had already begun to atrophy.
Upon examination using MSUS, we discovered that he had a full muscle thickness tear that had been overlooked by his previous provider. To mitigate damage and promote healing, surgery should have been performed immediately after the injury occurred. Because of misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment, the patient now has permanent damage that cannot be corrected.
The most important advantage of Ultrasound over MRI imaging is its ability to zero in on the symptomatic region and obtain imaging, with active participation and feedback from the patient. Using dynamic MSUS, we can see what happens when patients contract their muscles, something that cannot be done with MRI. From a diagnostic perspective, this interaction is invaluable.
Dynamic ultrasonography examination demonstrating the full thickness tear and already occurring muscle atrophy due to misdiagnosis and not referring the patient to proper diagnostic workup
Demonstration of how very small muscle defect is made and revealed to be a complete tear with muscle contraction under diagnostic sonography (not possible with MRI)
Complete tear of rectus femoris with large hematoma (blood)
Separation of muscle ends due to tear elicited on dynamic sonography examination
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