Do the pains not let go and interfere with your daily routine? suffer from chronic pain? Muscle aches? Arthritis Pain?

Acupuncture, the big star of complementary medicine, not only alleviates suffering but also contributes to your health in other surprising ways – and it also has some significant benefits over medications.

Each of us has a different pain threshold, but it is always easier to deal with the pain knowing that “soon it will pass.” If you are suffering from chronic pain, this sentence certainly does not comfort you, right? Chronic pain is defined as “pain that lasts for more than three months in a row and in the same place.” Only those who have experienced it know how frustrating and obscuring the quality of life is.

How common is chronic pain? is very! It is estimated that it bothers about 25% of the world’s people. Translated into numbers: Hundreds of millions around the globe live with unrelenting pain. 10% of people, for example, suffer from chronic lower back pain. Chronic pain can result, among other things, from an illness or accident, an incorrect posture or a sedentary (motionless) lifestyle.

Why we feel pain?

When a physiological-chemical process takes place in the body, such as during inflammation or injury, inflammatory substances are secreted that damage various places in the body (such as muscle or bone) and cause a chain of reactions, including pain. But, and this is a big but, in about 20% to 30% of cases the pain is not transient and is defined as “chronic”. In some of these cases conventional medicine fails to locate the source of the problem and therefore has difficulty dealing with it.

Acupuncture Works! Check It Out

The healthy solution to most chronic pain comes from complementary medicine. In two words: acupuncture. What the sages of ancient China knew 2,500 years ago has been officially recognized by the medical establishment in recent decades. A large-scale study of 18,000 patients, published in 2012 in the prestigious JAMA journal of the American Medical Association, clearly shows that acupuncture is no less effective than painkillers. Other studies show that acupuncture helps in 60% to 85% of cases where patients complain of chronic pain. For comparison: morphine helps in 70% of cases.

Wait, how does it actually work?

In the Chinese acupuncture method, the therapist inserts ultra-thin, disposable and sterile needles into various key points on the patient’s body. According to Chinese medicine, pain is created where there is a disruption to the normal flow of “qi” – the energy of life – in the various channels in the body called meridians. Since each meridian is related to some organ or system, problems in that part of our body will be felt in the meridian associated with it. The action of the thin needles along the meridians stimulates existing nerve fibers in the muscles, and the stimulus created sends a message through the spinal cord to the hypothalamic region of the brain. In response, the brain releases endorphins – natural chemicals that help relieve pain.

In other words: acupuncture is a kind of “starter” that causes the body to perform its natural healing activity. In the case of chronic pain, such stimulation sends the endorphins directly to the painful site naturally and not with the help of any medication. Acupuncture relieves pain associated with the facial organs and nervous system.

What pains can be treated with acupuncture?

• Muscle aches
• Arthritis Pain
• Limb pain
• back pain
• Neurological pain after recovery from trauma such as surgery or a car accident
• Neurological pains that come from nerve damage in diseases like fibromyalgia
• Neurological pain due to arthritis and even menstrual pain

Why is acupuncture better than medicine?

Acupuncture has no side effects – so it can be continued indefinitely, unlike drugs for example. The Western approach to pain management is based on painkillers, some of which have various side effects, and with increased use even pose a real danger. In contrast, Chinese acupuncture is considered the safest treatment, its side effects are rare, and unlike drugs it not only treats pain but often also the source of the problem.

Acupuncture not only treats pain but also its side effects – acupuncture has a calming effect that helps to treat depression and anxiety that are often accompanied by chronic pain. Those natural endorphins, which the stimulation of the needles causes the brain to release, not only numb the pain but also contribute to a general feeling of calm and improve mood.

Acupuncture saves money – if we put on the one hand the prices of medications, the cost of hospitalization days, absences from work and return visits to the doctor, and on the other hand acupuncture treatment, the equation is clear: acupuncture not only helps treat chronic pain but is also more cost effective. Acupuncture was the first complementary treatment to be introduced into pain clinics in hospitals. Millions of people who have undergone acupuncture have been able to get rid of the suffering or gain significant relief thanks to it. And what is beautiful is that all this happens thanks to those thin needles that do not inject any medicine into the body, and in a miraculous touch manage to relieve pain, suppress inflammation, relieve labor pains and more – with high success rates and no side effects.