Acupuncture

submitted by [deleted] from (self.whatever)

I thought I'd try acupuncture for my knee on the persistent recommendation of Melody.

$65 for some woo woo chinese bullshit sounds awful tho. So I ordered some acupuncture needles. They're coming from China because guess what, it's a class 2 medical device and can't be sold to peons.

I thought I might as well pick up an acupuncture certificate too because since it's woo woo bullshit, how hard can that be?

It requires college credits, taking an accredited program, studying Chinese medicine...

Graduation from a board-approved school of not less than six terms in residence of four months each for a total of not less than 1,800 instructional hours, with at least 2 terms in residence in supervised patient treatment.

Yikes!

Fuck that noise. I have no faith in Chi energy, but what does interesting me is using a needle to create irritation in my knee because that can spur healing.

I'll let y'all know how it goes when the slow boat from China arrives.

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[–]Anman 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Works for certain injuries. Worked on my wifes shoulder, never worked on any of my problems.

Get the needles and do it yourself anyway. Learn some good lessons.

[–]jet199Instigatrix 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

It tends to work better for stuff autoimmune related. Basically if the body thinks it's being stabbed it pays attention to that rather than attacking itself. Women have more autoimmune problems than men.

[–]Anman 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

You know, I would actually say the opposite. Due to child rearing i would say they have less autoimmune problems than men. My wife has super powers when she is pregnant in this regards. I'm not basing my position on anything other than this.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Acupuncture doesn't work for me. I tried it several times on recommendation, like you were advised to.

The same as hypnosis doesn't work for me.

Meditation does, though. When I finally started meditation persistently enough, I was able to drop a real nasty set of drug habits.

I believe you should try it anyway because we're all individuals.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I wouldn't expect acupuncture as is to work. That and dry needling rely on different but specific points to place the needles, and I'm going to place them based on biofeedback. There are spots that just feel like they're responsible, it's difficult to put into words exactly, but they don't correspond to chi meridians or myofascial trigger points. I.e. I think they're putting the needles in the wrong spot.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I never had any feedback when they set the needles. Except for my ears. I refrained from bitch slapping the nurse when she put one in my ears, though.

I don't know if she missed the spot or something, but it hurt like it was made from lava. So no acupuncture for me anymore.

No sen sable effect whatsoever, except for the pain. So, at least for me, all this advertised long-term "healing" effects of acupuncture don't fit.

[–]asterias 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

She did something wrong because it's not supposed to hurt.

[–]Zapped 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

My friend gets acupuncture for foot pain and swears by it.

[–]NuclearBadger 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If you have to go more than once it clearly needs to be better. They might just be severing nerve endings.

[–]asterias 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It's not something you are supposed to do yourself after reading some guide on the net. It has to be performed by a properly trained medical professional.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

You have a point, however, I am a former medical professional, with years of experience with needles, and I am a current practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine in the form of gua sha. As long as I stick to using it on myself, stay away from the spine and other problematic areas, and follow clean needle protocols, everything will be perfectly safe.

This is what the Chinese believe about gua sha:

Gua sha (Chinese: 刮痧), or kerokan (in Indonesia), is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practice in which a tool is used to scrape people's skin in order to produce light petechiae. Practitioners believe that gua sha releases unhealthy bodily matter from blood stasis within sore, tired, stiff or injured muscle areas to stimulate new oxygenated blood flow to the areas, thus promoting metabolic cell repair, regeneration, healing and recovery

That last part I agree with, but it's benefit comes not from woo woo Chinese medicine, or causing petechiae (you should not do that, that's bad gua sha imo), it's because of its a deep tissue massage. The tools let you get to places and in ways you cannot without them.

Similarly I think there may be benefit to acupuncture that is not because you're manipulating the body's Chi energy (woo woo), but because the irritation of the needle stimulates healing. That idea of using the body itself, particularly irritants, to promote healing is the idea behind some cutting edge medicine techniques today. And also it was used in ancient times, as tattoos were once used to treat pain. This seems to be a rediscovering of ancient technique.

I believe there's benefit to Chinese medicine but they got the Why of it wrong, and that's corrupted the practices.

In essence, I am not really doing acupuncture at all, but recreating a technique I suspect was the basis for acupuncture.

[–]Insider 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There's no strong scientific evidence for acupuncture. There is evidence for electro-acupuncture, which operates under the same principle as electrical stimulation devices.

In terms of acupuncture, the idea is not so much stimulating healing under the needle's irritation, but stimulating the nervous system.