ACUPUNCTURE AND PAIN RELIEF IN Sioux City IA

Any kind of chronic pain from sciatica, arthritis a pinched nerve or many other disorders can be upsetting. Treating nerve pain with traditional medicine is difficult as often nerve pain does not respond to prescription pain relief including narcotics. Acupuncture in Sioux City IA is accepted as a viable form of healthcare treatment. Our team is here to help.

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Acupuncture Helps With Pain Relief in Sioux City IA

Whenever you experience pain in the body there are sensory nerves firing and you may or may not have a structural problem that is causing the sensory dysfunction, in the majority of cases chronic pain has no structural cause. Doctors who are not experts in the field of neurology assume that if there is pain then there must be a structural cause for it. A structural cause would be soft tissue, disc, bone, or object pressing on a sensory nerve which triggers it to constantly fire. This is not an accurate assumption to make.

In the majority of cases of chronic pain, there will not be any structural reason for the pain. Even if your back looks like a corkscrew any neural impingement your doctor tells you about is suggested by a radiology report. Nerves cannot be seen on an MRI or an X-ray and therefore the medical profession is making an assumption that the pain has a structural cause due to their idealized knowledge of anatomy. In a lot of circumstances, the sensory nerves are inflamed and firing on their own as opposed to anything pressing on them.

Pain that registers in the brain has had to have two kinds of neural signals reaching the brain simultaneously. The first signal would be from the sensory nerve or nerves themselves and the second is from the proprioceptive nerve which is firing right alongside the sensory nerves. The brain knows where the origin of the pain is from the proprioceptive nerves and if everything is working normally the brain discharges a flood of enkephalins. The enkephalins are natural pain killers in the body and they plug up the pain receptor sites all along the spine, on the capillary beds where you feel pain, and the receptor sites in the brain. These chemicals allow the body to get back to normalized function as they stop the chronic pain.

In patients that suffer chronic pain and discomfort this process is no longer functioning properly and there are a number of reasons why the body's natural pain relief system is not working. The main cause seems to be a severe signal strength problem in the proprioceptive neural tissue. If the signal strength (neural threshold level) is too low the brain does not know where to release enkephalins so the pain continues. The use of Acupuncture elevates the signal strength on the proprioceptive pathway and the effect is a dramatic relief from the pain. It is, for this reason, we can help with a wide range of pain issues (see the list above)

This treatment carries with it its own issues if the patient's pain has been caused by a structural problem, as with this kind of pain there is actually something pressing onto a group of nerves or the sensory nerve. Increasing the strength of the proprioceptive pathway in isolation cannot alleviate this kind of problem and usually, a more invasive treatment such as surgery is required.

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Acupuncture Can Help

Acupuncture can provide pain relief for a wide variety of symptoms, including arthritis, back pain, bursitis, tendonitis, head pain, hemorrhoids, neck pain, neuropathy, sciatica, stroke, TMJ, trigeminal neuralgia, and much more. This article goes into detail on some of these symptoms, but if you would like to know how acupuncture can help you, contact our team at Manley & Obbink Chiropractic and Acupuncture today.

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Back Pain and/or Sciatica

Back pain can be extremely debilitating and exceptionally painful regardless of the cause is arthritis, chronic sciatica, or a bulging disc. Sciatica is caused by an inflamed sciatic nerve that starts around the base of the spine, continues down the back of the leg, and stops at the foot. Sciatic pain can be notoriously hard to treat as nerve pain doesn't respond well to any painkillers. Sciatic pain can be a very acute and stabbing pain that can make patients cry out if a sudden movement is made.

Acupuncture is effective as it stimulates the nervous system and permits the body to rebalance. Acupuncture has been studied scientifically and the studies show overwhelmingly that the procedure is successful in alleviating particular kinds of pain. Other methods can be employed to minimize back pain without the use of medication. Physical therapy and a progressive exercise routine that uses balance and stretching techniques is one method. Exercise or physical therapy as stand-alone treatment may not completely eradicate back pain so alternative therapies can be useful. The overall function of the lower back can be improved by exercises that strengthen the stomach muscles as they will also improve back strength.

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Shoulder Pain

The complexity of the shoulder joint makes pain in that joint problematic to treat. The shoulder joint is a ball and socket which is attached via ligaments and protected by cartilage. Any wearing down of the cartilage or ligament damage will obviously cause pain when the joint is used. Surgery is the only way to significantly reduce pain caused by worn cartilage. Acupuncture can however help you manage the pain whilst waiting for surgery.

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Arthritis

Arthritic pain is associated with joints, therefore the pain can be felt anywhere on the body and it can be extensive or limited to one joint such as the knee, shoulder, or low back. Arthritis is an extremely widespread health problem but with early diagnosis and treatment, the pain will not become debilitating. It is possible to live with arthritis for a prolonged period of time with zero pain if you are prepared to make some lifestyle changes which include alternative therapies.

Acupuncture treatments can provide relief from arthritis because they treat the whole person's well-being rather than just the disorder. Those that have arthritis will often have it in more than one place and the use of analgesics to help the pain will only work for a limited time.

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Prolonged pain even when it's not severe can cause a reduction in movement and lead to the loss of enjoyment in life as the pain is a constant thing. Long-term sufferers of any kind of pain are susceptible to depression as they can no longer do activities they had previously loved. Often chronic pain leads people to feel they suffer alone which results in loneliness.

Contact Manley & Obbink Chiropractic and Acupuncture in Sioux City IA today and we will be more than happy to help you understand pain relief and how acupuncture can help.