University of Kentucky acupuncturists explain how their procedure can help relieve pain if medication and therapy don't

By Dennis Kim and Norah Charles
University of Kentucky

Acupuncture involves the insertion of needles on specific points of the body. In Eastern terminology, it helps stimulate the flow of chi, which is the life force, along the meridians of your body.

In Western terminology, it helps send nerve fibers to the spinal cord, brainstem, the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. These fibers help release neurotransmitters such as endorphins, the body's natural painkiller, along with enkephalins plus norepinephrine, which helps inhibit the nerve pain fibers to suppress pain.

An acupuncture procedure (PeakStock/iStock/Getty Images Plus photo)

Acupuncture is non-medication. If a patient is having a condition that is not responding to medication, and they're not recovering fully with physical therapy or other kinds of therapy, we're sometimes able to make progress with acupuncture. We find that we get a lot of referrals from medical doctors who are trying to help patients, mostly with acute and chronic pain, find alternatives to medication.

The most common conditions that we treat with acupuncture in our clinic are musculoskeletal issues such as fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, carpal tunnel and arthritis. These, and other conditions that are treated here, involve neck pain, low back pain or any type of musculoskeletal issues.

The first session of acupuncture involves asking a lot of questions of the patient. Patients usually come in with a primary complaint and the acupuncturist needs details about what brought them into the clinic. The provider will usually go through questions involving other aspects of their health, such as health history, sleep, digestion and mood. This helps the provider develop a better diagnosis from the acupuncture perspective.

Another benefit of trying acupuncture is multiple conditions can be treated at once. If a patient presents with insomnia and also low back pain, those do not need to be separate treatments. We spend time talking with the patient at the beginning of the session to get an idea of what's going on with them in a whole health manner.

The acupuncture session lasts for about 20 to 30 minutes with the needles in, and follow-up sessions are scheduled as needed.

Acupuncture's benefits are cumulative. A patient who comes in with low back pain may notice relief after one session, but they will notice increased relief after more sessions. Everyone's body is different, and resukts depends on the condition, but we ask patients to give acupuncture three sessions to see if we can make any headway with their condition.

Dennis Kim and Norah Charles are licensed acupuncturists with UK HealthCare Integrative Medicine and Health.

Acupuncture is actually a gentle way to treat, despite the needles

Cheryl Truman of the Lexington Herald-Leader takes a look at acupuncture, an alternative form of medicine with practitioners across the state. "It's a really gentle form of medicine, even though there's needles," said Kathleen Fluhart, a nurse who first heard about acupuncture in the 1970s. "It just made sense."

There are 362 places on the body "where an acupuncturist can insert a needle to balance the flow of xi, or body energy, which in Chinese medicine flows in meridians throughout the body," Truman reports. Acupuncture can help treat sinus infections, allergies, fatigue and other side effects from chemotherapy and radiation treatments, tendinitis and plantar fascilitis.

Treatment centers like Houston's University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Boston's Dana Farber Institute both offer acupuncture treatment to cancer patients. "It's not a cure-all, but it is so amazing for certain things," said Elizabeth Armstrong, who practiced internal medicine for 17 years before becoming trained, and opening a practice in, acupuncture. (Read more)