Natural sciatica management with acupuncture

When it comes to sciatic pain, acupuncture may not always offer the sufferer long standing relief of his ailment. It is considered though to be an excellent alternative therapy for prompt relief of sciatica and back pain. Acupuncture should be seen as a way of relieving pain and not as a cure especially when it comes to sciatica. But if one is suffering from any type of pain, relieving it is as much important for the sufferer as curing the pain.

Acupuncture has now enjoyed the recognition it deserves after it became popular. It is a form of Chinese treatment that has been practiced in China and other parts of East Asia for thousands of years. Its rate of success in treating a wide range of conditions has been good although practitioners of this therapy would not claim it to be a cure for many illnesses. The treatment procedure of this therapy is quite simple. Very fine sterile needles are placed into the patient’s body at predetermined points on the skin and then the acupuncturist manipulates the needles in order to generate the desired stimulus.

Locating the acupuncture points (or acupoints) in the body requires training and experience on the part of the acupuncturist. Acupuncture is a component of Traditional Chinese Medicine, a type of Eastern medicine that believes in the existence of yin and yan in which the foundation of acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) stands. Western scientists, on the other hand, consider that when the needles are inserted into the skin, pain is alleviated because the needles actually stimulate the body’s very own pain relief mechanisms.

When it comes to sciatica, acupuncture treatment is not a cure for it. Also, there are people who really do not respond well to acupuncture treatment due to their unique constitution. For many others, though, acupuncture has been a very good alternative for sciatica relief and other back related conditions. One other thing that needs to be noted is that the relieving effect of acupuncture usually lasts longer than conventional over the counter or prescription pharmaceutical painkillers. Prescription pain relievers normally need to be taken again within a few hours. Furthermore, acupuncture has proven to have a much more potent effect in killing pain than these medications and one does not have to suffer the risk of being addicted to it (acupuncture).

When acupuncture starts to work for someone in some kind of physical pain that limits the movement of one or more of his body part, the lessening of the pain will result in more mobility and a natural healing of the condition. If ever acupuncture does not result in improvement, then a few more sessions of therapy may be needed, maybe about once a week to help bring about the desired outcome. However, multi-sessions of therapy also means more expenses which may be a bit hard for many people.

Hygiene and safety are both important factors when practicing acupuncture the right way. The needles used need to be always clean and sterile and should be used only once. If you do undergo treatment, you should expect the needles to come out of an unopened packaged and sterile. The acupuncture needles are very thin which means that when they are inserted into your skin, you won’t feel any painful sensation at all.

People who know very little of what acupuncture is, often ask if acupuncture does really have a pain relieving effective it has claimed to possess. Some researchers believe that acupuncture is nothing more than a placebo effect. One needs to refer to clinical studies in order to confirm that acupuncture is a real way to relieve pain including sciatica and back pain. This has been backed and confirmed by several clinical studies that tested its ability to relieve sciatica and other types of back pain. And when compared to the placebo effect, acupuncture has a much higher rate of success.

Although there have been people who actually were cured of their ailment using acupuncture, this therapy is really not considered a cure for most conditions. It can help generate a cure but not all the time. So when it comes to alleviating pain, acupuncture is well worth trying; who knows? It may actually result in something even much better. Acupuncture cannot cure a condition that is structural in nature like a slipped disc or sciatica. This is more the job of a chiropractor.