Headaches and migraines
Numerous clinical studies now prove that acupuncture is an effective option for treating chronic headaches.
This is because Chinese medicine focuses not only on the pain itself, but also on its origin.
Headaches have a wide variety of causes. Frequently recurring headaches include migraines and tension headaches. Patients are under constant stress and tension for a variety of reasons.
Both migraines and tension headaches can be described as stress headaches. While migraines are predominantly unilateral and often associated with nausea, tension headaches tend to occur in the back of the head and in the neck and shoulder region.
From the perspective of Chinese medicine
The aim is to find out which cause has led to a disharmony in one or more meridians. Possible causes may be:
External causes: Climatic conditions such as wind or weather changes
Internal causes: Emotional stress
Other causes: General constitution, exhaustion/exertion, diet, trauma
Sometimes, however, digestive disorders or menstrual cycles are also the cause of headaches (e.g. PMS – premenstrual syndrome). Severe flatulence, food intolerances or even food poisoning can also be associated with headaches.
Therapeutic approach
This is where Chinese medicine can intervene specifically with nutritional advice, heat applications and acupuncture to bring about improvement.
Shoulder blade pain, temporomandibular joint symptoms, “Frozen shoulder, rotator cuff pain, Shoulder bursitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, brachial plexus injury, myofascial pain syndrome, turtleneck syndrome
Complaints in the neck and shoulder area include:
Shoulder blade pain, temporomandibular joint symptoms, frozen shoulder, rotator cuff pain, shoulder bursitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, injury to the nerve plexus for the arm, shoulder and chest, local hypersensitivity of muscle tissue, cervical spine syndrome or whiplash.
VDT syndrome (video display terminal syndrome) is also common in patients whose work requires them to wear tight shirt collars and who spend most of their time sitting in front of a screen at a desk. The mostly one-sided downward posture of the head with a view of the monitor of the screen, tablet or cell phone puts enormous strain on the cervical spine, especially the regions of the lower cervical spine.
From the perspective of Chinese medicine
The tension in the gallbladder and large intestine meridians is often at the forefront here. These need to be relieved.
Therapeutic approach
The complex interplay of muscles, fascia and tendons that has been affected can often be noticeably relieved in just a few sessions using acupuncture. Cupping, heat applications such as moxibustion and physical therapies are also effective.
Back pain, pain in the lower back, slipped disc, sciatica, scoliosis, spinal canal stenosis
Working in an office for several hours a day, sitting at a desk and working in front of a computer screen are often the main causes of back pain, sciatica and lumbalgia. The sudden onset of acute pain along all parts of the back – from the cervical spine to the lumbar vertebrae or coccyx region – can be caused, for example, by sitting for too long in the wrong posture or even lying in the wrong position during sleep.
Furthermore, sprains can be caused by carrying heavy objects in the wrong position or even while exercising.
The causes are very diverse. It is therefore very important to take a close look at each patient’s lifestyle and tailor the treatment to it.
Acupuncture can be an effective treatment method, often with an immediate effect In the case of acute back pain, the body’s defense mechanism overreacts by putting even healthy muscles and vision into a kind of shock freeze. This means that both the affected sprained muscle structures and the healthy parts need time to recover and regenerate.
From the perspective of Chinese medicine
A blockage of the Qi leads to an overreaction of the muscles, which react with tension, stiffness and pain.
Therapeutic approach
By stimulating the Qi of the surrounding muscle fibers, Chinese medicine can use acupuncture and/or moxibustion to relax the overreaction of the muscles and relieve the stiffness, leading to an immediate reduction in pain of up to 50%.
Once the overreaction has been eliminated, the patient can then be helped relatively quickly with appropriate acupuncture and heat therapy to treat the original injury.
Sports injuries
Sports injuries usually involve strains or sprains of muscle structures. For such soft tissue damage, appropriate physical or physiological therapy should therefore be combined with acupuncture treatments.
Most sports can lead to acute and chronic tendonitis without proper warm-up, while staying at certain heights or even due to the lack of stretching after training. Even extensive “walking” similar to an 18-hole round of golf can put the tendons around the ankle or heel into a state of inflammation of the tendon plate of the sole of the foot (plantar fasciitis) or Achilles tendinitis due to permanent strain and tension.
This is often caused by incorrect posture when running or exercising. The knee is particularly frequently affected by this, reacting with pain and swelling when, for example, there are many abrupt changes in movement due to acceleration and deceleration (such as in tennis or squash) or increased uphill and downhill running (such as during long runs or marathons on high-profile terrain).
The combination of physical therapies with acupuncture usually means that rehabilitation is much more effective and generally leads to a shorter recovery time, allowing the patient to quickly return to their everyday training routine.
