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A Closer Look at Seattle Acupuncture

Note:  "A Closer Look at Seattle Acupuncture" post taken from AcuTake.

Everyone’s pain is different. In Western medicine, this is offered as an explanation for why some people remain highly functional when in pain and others find it debilitating. In acupuncture theory, it’s meant literally.

Acupuncturists are just as concerned with how an area hurts as they are with where it hurts. This is different than how bad it hurts, which is something that biomedical doctors inquire about in order to rank pain on a severity scale. Acupuncturists, while also interested in severity, are primarily focused on pain quality.
Pain can stem from a number of different underlying imbalances. Cases where the pain is limited to a specific area—wrist pain, low back pain, shoulder pain, etc.—are referred to in acupuncture as Bi syndromes.

Bi syndromes are conditions characterized by localized discomfort in the muscles, joints and tendons. They are caused by an invasion of exterior pathogenic factors—Wind, Cold, Heat or Dampness. (Further reading: acupuncture and the environment.) These factors obstruct flow and function throughout the body, commonly manifesting as pain in a specific area.
The goal of acupuncture treatment, however, is to look beyond where the pain manifests. The idea is that there’s a reason pain is showing up in the first place. This approach differs from medication, which offers temporary symptom relief but does not address the root cause of pain—hence, the pain keeps coming back.

Acupuncturists combine pulse and tongue diagnosis with the patient’s description of the pain quality—as well as other seemingly unrelated factors, such as digestive health and sleep patterns—to formulate a treatment plan that provides symptom relief and prevents recurrence.
Names vary, but the following categories of Bi syndrome illustrate how acupuncturists differentiate between various kinds of pain:

Wind Bi
-Soreness and pain that moves from joint to joint
-Limited range of motion of the joint
-Aversion to wind
-May also present with fever

Cold Bi
-Severe pain of the joints and limbs
-Fixed pain
-Relieved by warmth and aggravated by cold
-Pain worse at night
-Stiffness in joints, difficulty moving
-No redness or swelling of joints

Damp Bi
-Heaviness, numbness, and soreness in limbs and joints
-Swollen joints
-Pain is fixed in location
-Stiffness, difficulty moving
-May also present with heavy head and body, distension of chest or abdomen, reduced appetite, difficulty urinating, and loose stools

Heat Bi
-Sudden onset
-Painful joints with redness and swelling
-Pain relieved by cold and aggravated by pressure
-May also present with aversion to wind, fever, thirst, sweating, irritability, scanty dark urine, and sore throat

Deficiency Bi
-Intermittent joint pain with difficulty moving
-Soreness and numbness of the limbs
-Soreness and weakness of the low back and knees
-May also present with fatigue, shortness of breath, dizziness, pale complexion, and insomnia

Stagnation Bi
-Sharp, stabbing pain
-Pain is fixed in location
-Stiffness, difficulty moving
-May also present with bloating or feeling of fullness

To address these specific Bi types, acupuncture points are selected distal to (far from) the location of pain. For example, a point on the head might be used to treat lower-limb pain that moves between the foot and ankle. There are also empirical distal points that are indicated for pain in certain areas—ST38, for instance, a point on the shin, is known specifically to relieve shoulder pain.

While some styles of acupuncture address pain entirely though distal points, most also include local needling at the site of pain. Acupuncturists palpate the area where the patient feels pain to identify ashi or trigger points, tight tender spots in the muscles. Needles are placed directly in or around these areas of tenderness. (Further reading: trigger points for low back pain.)
Pain usually brings people to acupuncture after mainstream options such as medication and physical therapy have been exhausted to no avail. A wider embrace of acupuncture in the earlier stages of pain management could help decrease the devastating financial and emotional effects of chronic pain. A little more “how?” in our questions about pain will lead to better answers than those we’ve found so far by only asking “where?”

Kelly Neu, Seattle Acupuncturist, can explain further if you have any questions!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email Kevin Rindal, Seattle Chiropractor at DrRindal@InHealthSeattle.com.