Acupuncture: Getting the Point

By Meghan Holohan

I must be the most klutzy active person alive. In almost every activity I do, I pull a muscle, tear a tendon, hyperextend my knee or turn my ankle. After a particularly traumatic fall where I strained my neck, left shoulder, left arm, and back, I decided to supplement my physical therapy with acupuncture.

When I announced to my physical therapist that I was headed to an acupuncture appointment, she cast a doubtful look and said, As someone who believes in science, I wonder if acupuncture could really work. She’s not the only person to doubt it. But many others have experienced acupuncture’s healing powers.

“The acupuncture (needle) gets the brain to communicate a pain relieving message,” says Ronald Glick, MD, director of the Center for Integrative Medicine, part of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Glick — who uses acupuncture for pain management — says the needles disrupt the brain’s pain communication. The majority of research proves that acupuncture is as effective a treatment for knee arthritis and back pain as physical therapy or anti-inflammatory drugs.

When I arrive at the Center for Integrative Medicine, acupuncturist K.K. Teh asks me what happened, where the pain is, what treatment I have had. “Can you pull up your right pant leg?” he asks. Along my shin, he gently presses my flesh with his thumb. Pain shoots through my calf.

“Is that tender?” he asks.

“Yeah it is,” I say, confused.

I lay on a massage table. He pops a small needled from its sterile packet. “Inhale,” he says and slides it into my calf. I become warm and then pain and tightness in my shoulder melts away. He slides 10 more needles in my skin along my shin.

He feels my skull, right at the center. “How’s this feel?”

“Sore.”

“Inhale.” I hear a little pop as the needles go into my skull. The needles are as thick as a piece of thread and cause less pain than a blood draw. A row of delicate needles line my head from mid-skull to forehead—the pain in my neck diminishes.

“Now relax,” Teh says and leaves.

During my weeks of treatments, Teh shares the history of acupuncture. For 3,000 years, Chinese healers have used acupuncture to restore the qi — or balance — in a person. They place needles in the meridian that corresponds with organs because patients with bad qi (pronounced chi) suffer from illness. These meridians — channels through which qi flows — also correspond with pressure points so needles in my right calf relieve tension in my left shoulder.

Glick notes there is evidence the needles increase the brain’s production of endorphins — also released during exercise and pleasurable activities — making the body less sensitive to pain. He also suggests that patients looking for an acupuncturist should ask around to find a reputable one. Either a licensed acupuncturist or a MD with an acupuncture license can perform the same treatment. Acupuncture can cause bruising or bleeding near the injection site.

Expect to pay between $50 and $100 per visit. The number of treatments needed depends on the severity of the injury.

Every treatment made me feel as if I had never hurt myself.

And then I tore a ligament in my thumb.