How Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine can help decrease Neck, Shoulder and back Pain

ENCINO, Calif. - Nov. 30, 2015 - PRLog -- How Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine can Help treat Neck and Shoulder Pain

Neck and shoulder pain affects many people world wide. From being a student/athlete, to a mother carrying her new born, to the elderly who may have arthritis in their cervical spine. Neck and shoulder pain can be crippling, debilitating and most of all severely painful. Humans have very complex neck joint. There are many movements of the neck, which means there are many things that can go wrong in order to cause pain. In our necks we have the action of flexion (flexing the neck forward) extension (flexing the neck backwards) rotation (turning head left to right). Usually with neck pain if one were to consult their physician there are three things that would be prescribed. Medication, Physical Therapy, and in some cases and X-ray or MRI when needed. Unfortunately, acupuncture, chiropractic massage therapy and other modalities are rarely ever prescribed. Woodland hills.

1.     Medication – Usually the first that that doctors will do is prescribe some sort of muscle relaxer, anti inflammatory, or topical analgesic. This method, is quick, efficient, cheap, and doesn’t require any problem solving. In some cases when this is prescribed the pain may actually go away permanently. However, in most cases, this is just a temporary band aid until the medication wears off.  Acupuncture can accomplish all of these naturally. It is a natural muscle relaxer, and natural anti inflammatory and can also decrease the pain generally longer than any type of topical analgesic.

2.     Physical Therapy – In some cases your doctor will prescribe physical therapy for your neck pain because sometimes with strengthening and increasing the blood and oxygen flow to the muscles around your neck and shoulders it can decrease pain.  Acupuncture can also do this naturally. With treatments, acupuncture increase the amount of blood and oxygen into the neck and shoulder and in turn decreasing any pain, stiffness and discomfort in the neck.

3.     Xray/MRI - If your neck pain has been consistent for a period of time or has certain signs or symptoms that may concern your physician then one of these test may be prescribed by your doctor.

It is very rare that in the case of neck pain or just pain in general your doctor will recommend anything besides these three. Mainly because these three things are ingrained into mainstream western medicine, are generally covered by insurance, and fits within the bubble of knowledge of your physician. Fortunately there are many more things one can do for their neck, shoulder and whole body pain. For more extensive information please visit our website at www.balancewithinyou.com. We are located in Encino Ca, and cater to neighboring communities such as, Sherman Oaks, Woodland Hills, Beverly hills, Tarzana and studio city.

One of the main things that will help decrease neck and shoulder pain almost instantaneously is acupuncture. Acupuncture can help elongate muscles in the neck which in turn give you more relief. Acupuncture can also increase the amount of blood and oxygen into a specific area which also help decrease pain. Blood is what carries nutrients in your body to any specific area to help it heal. Therefore, if we can increase the amount of it to a certain location, the amount of time needed for you to heal and be pain free will decrease. Acupuncture, will also decrease the amount of inflammation in the area that is being treated by increasing circulation.

There are many different ways we can incur neck and shoulder pain, stiffness and discomfort. Posture, stress, DGD (degenerative bone disease),  and arthritis, are just a few to be named. However, with acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, most of these ailments and issues can be treated and targeted very well.

You may think that just because you have a slipped disk or a bulging disk more than three or four millimeters, that acupuncture cannot help. This is false information. I have treated patients with a large bulging disks and if their pain did not go away after several treatments, it definitely decreased anywhere from 40 – 80%. We have to understand that acupuncture has been around for many centuries and has been able to develop and mature in ways that our 500 year old western medicine has not. These two practices of medicine have their strengths and weaknesses like anything else and we must learn how to use both of them to our advantage. Our acupuncturist at Balance Within – Integrative Acupuncture are specifically trained and specialize in treating pain and pain reduction regardless where it is located in the body. Generally, neck, shoulder and back pain are the easiest to treat. For more extensive information please visit our website at www.balancewithinyou.com. We are located in Encino Ca, and cater to neighboring communities such as, Sherman Oaks, Woodland Hills, Beverly hills, Tarzana and studio city.