In 2007 a pragmatic trial in Germany of nearly half a million people treated with evidence-based (medical acupuncture) acupuncture for headache, low back pain, and osteoarthritis reported that 76% cases found acupuncture to be effective to reduce pain¹¹.

Additionaly in 2016, a USA two-year retroactive study of over 89,000 patients by American Specialty Health Incorporated Health Services Department found that 93% of patients said that their acupuncturist had been successful in treating their musculoskeletal pain.¹²

Another study in 2016 a meta-analysis randomized trial of 17,922 patients concluded, “Acupuncture is effective for the treatment of chronic pain” and after a 12 month follow up study, it was found that the beneficial effects of acupuncture still persisted,^13,14 studies into the use of opioids by the society of General Medicine show that people were in more pain after 12 months of using the addictive opioid drugs like;¹⁵ OxyContin, Roxicodone, Oxecta, Oxaydo, Xtampza, Targiniq, Xartemis and Ercodan.

There are 13 different trials that show acupuncture to be more effective than injection of painkillers for treatment of shoulder impingement, with other studies showing acupuncture with exercise being more effective then NSAIDs, micro-discectomy surgery and low-level laser for lower back pain.^16,17

There are thousands of additional studies to support that acupuncture is one of the safest, most effective therapies, for the treatment of pain and inflammation from arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia, plantar fasciitis, peripheral neuropathy, shingles, headaches, migraines along with knee, hip, lower back, elbow, and shoulder pain.

Painful stimulus is felt from activation of pain receptors (nociceptors) inside the tissues of the body, the receptors send pain messages along nerves (C fibers) to a gate at the spinal cord, the message goes through the gate to the spinal cord on to the areas of the brain where it is then felt or registered.

Stimulus to the body with pressure, heat and vibration are felt at different receptors (mechanoreceptors) and they send their messages along different nerves (Ab fibers) to the same gate at the spinal cord as the pain messages (C fibers), the gate has a biological bias to favor the signal from massage/pressure, heat and vibration over the pain signals.

When you rub an area of pain the signals from the massage will cause the gate at the spinal cord to close to the the pain signals reducing the amount of pain message getting transmitted into the spinal cord and to the brain, the rubbing the area of pain also activated descending inhibitory control mech

This electrical and chemical mechanism is called Gate control and is why human beings instinctively rub, heat, squeeze an area of pain as it activates our own pain control programs that help to reduce the severity of pain felt, by closing the gate and reducing the pain signals getting to the brain, it is also shown that by activating the pressure receptors (mechano-recpetors) not only reduces pain signals to the brain but it enhances stimulation of natural opioids and further suppression of pain signals in the nervous system by helping activating the descending inhibitory pathway which activated pain killer and antinflammatory hormones.

Acupuncture needles into the sensory receptors (mechanoreceptors) near an area of pain activates messages down AB fibers to the spinal cord closing the gate to the pain messages getting to the brain, whilst also strongly stimulating the descending inhibitory pathway¹⁸ and activating release of pain killer hormones.

Experiments show that performing acupuncture around the area of pain not only reduce the feeling of pain whilst the needles are in but the effects continue afterwards and with overall pain continuing to stay reduced with consecutive treatments.¹⁹

Studies show people with chronic pain have lower levels of natural pain killing hormones ( endorphins, enkephalins and dynorphins ) being released by the brain (pituitary gland and brain stem), normally when a person is in pain rubbing the area of pain reduces pain messages to the brain and activates the release natural pain killing chemicals (descending inhibitory pathway) reduce discomfort, but there are times when this program is not working correctly.

Acupuncture needles placed in sensory nerve pathways in the area of pain not only reduce the pain messages to the brain via gate control but also stimulate the brain to release endorphins, enkephalins and dynorphins,²⁰ non-opioid neuro-peptides, serotonin,²¹ norepinephrine²² and dopamine²³ (part of the descending inhibitory control process) which are biochemicals involved in pain reduction, feelings of well-being also helping with depression, anxiety and insomnia.

Use of pharmaceutical painkillers like NSAIDS and opioids for pain without treating the cause interferes with the production and release of the brains own painkillers through a process called negative feedback cycle (this occurs with all hormones in the body including using estrogen and testosterone etc.). Effectiveness of the synthetic/natural painkillers become less effective over time and the body may stop or reduce production its own painkillers, leading dependency of medication with esculation to stronger more dangerous drugs at higher dosage, more frequently and with less relief.

It is always important to find out the cause of pain which may include damaged sensory nerves not telling your brain to release painkillers or scar tissue from an old injury that has not healed completely, shortening muscles and tendons that cause misaligned joints, pinching nerves and excessive wear and tear.

Organs can refer pain to different areas on the body even if their dysfunction is not severe enough to show up on a blood or imaging tests, the liver may cause pain into the right shoulder but blood tests may not show any changes to liver enzymes or or high cholesterol. Changes to cholesterol or raised liver enzymes usually are associated with some referred pain, but many physicians may not connect the pain in the shoulder/neck coming from raised cholesterol, in fact two different physicians may be treating them both separately without any connection.

A physician can check the functional reflexes (visceral-somatic reflexes) for muscle guarding which may indicate organ distress and then by applying pressure or a small electrical charge into the correct reactive acupuncture points the muscle guarding can be felt to reduce, if the pain is refferred from the organ it will also reduce. By treating the organ or gland it will not only stop the pain but it also improves the organ function or treat the disease occurring.

Nerves going to and from the internal organs (Enteric nervous system) have branches at the spinal cord that connect to nerves going to the arms, legs and torso (Peripheral nervous system).²⁷ When there is even mild dysfunction of the internal organ, electrical distress signals are sent across to the nerves going to the torso, arm or legs, various acupuncture points (neuro-vascular nodes) become inflamed, painful to touch and have higher electrical resistance, this process is called neurogenic inflammation.²⁸

Experiments have demonstrated this process, Rats with high blood pressure, ulcerated colitis, and gastric ulcers were injected with blue dye and some acupuncture points (neurovascular nodes) on the legs arms or torso that connected to the internal organs went blue from the dilation of capillaries at the points. But not all the same acupuncture points on different rats with the same disease went blue or showed inflammation. Areas that were not acupuncture points showed no inflammation nor did acupuncture points on different nerve pathways that did not connected to the diseased organs.

Needling the reactive/inflamed acupuncture points change the symptoms of the condition but also reversed the diseases, needling the non-reactive acupuncture points (point didn’t become inflamed or go blue) on the diseased organ nerve pathway had no effects even though the same points worked for other rats.

These experiments demonstrate that successful treatment of internal disease depends on the acupuncture physician correctly finding and needling the reactive acupuncture points on each individual for acupuncture to work^29,30

Acupuncture and Menopause

A randomized clinical trial published in 2016 from Wake Forest School of Medicine and Duke Medical University in North Carolina of several hundred women with menopausal symptoms including at least 4 hot flushes a day show acupuncture showed a significant decrease in severity and duration of hot flushing in only 3 treatments, with 8 treatments needed to give maximum effect.

The effects of acupuncture in this trial also included: reduced depressive symptoms, lowered anxiety, feeling less stressed, improved health-related quality of life, and improved sleep quality, benefits of the trial were still maintained even after 6 months without any further treatment⁴³.

This presents acupuncture to be an effective and safe alternative to the treatment of menopause mitigating the cancer risks of Hormone Replacement Therapy (even bio-identical hormones pose risk) in the treatment of menopause.

Acupuncture and Poly-cystic Ovarian Syndrome

Various Studies into Acupuncture for Obesity with Poly-cystic ovarian syndrome show that acupuncture is very successful to reduce symptoms and also reverses the condition, one study published in 2016 in Obesity Science and Practice; show how 5 weeks of Electro-acupuncture on overweight women aged 18 to 35 can reduce the HbA1c involved in diabetes, and reduce androgen levels from poly-cystic ovarian syndrome⁴⁴.

In another Scandinavia study in 2000, women 24-40 years of age were given 10-14 acupuncture treatments with poly-cystic ovarian syndrome found significant improvements in regulation of ovulation, lower body-mass index, waist to hip circumference, lower testosterone concentrations and improved insulin concentrations⁴⁵.

X-Rays and other imaging only show the bones/vertebrae that are bulging or pinching nerves, they don’t show the tight/shortened muscles, tendons and ligaments that are actually causing it, and it is often not considered because scar tissue and adhesions cannot be seen on any imaging tests including x-ray, ultra-sound, MRI or C-T scan, they can only be diagnosed with surgery or by a trained physician who knows how to feel for them and with testing the range of motion of joints.

Shortened muscles and tendons from scar tissue (or just tight muscles) from old injuries are often the unknown or undiagnosed by many Doctors who only focus on the bones, many joint problems from inflammation, pinched nerves, bulged discs, ruptured disc and degenerative conditions like osteoarthritis⁴⁶require continuous adjustments, medications and eventually surgery because the cause is often never treated.

Establish research shows how acupuncture initiates the repair and regeneration of soft tissue (muscle, tendon, ligament, fascia, nerves, blood vessels) through activating the body’s own ability to repair damaged tissue (the healing cascade) and the attraction of stem cells to the area of injury.^{47,48,49,50,51}

Acupuncture, Prolotherapy, Collagen Induction Therapy, chemical peels are all therapies that use low level controlled truama to soft tissue to activate the bodies ability to repair its own tissue.

Treating Inflammation with Ice

The use of ice to treat pain and inflammation works fast and is effective to reduce pain and inflammation becasue it freezes the nerves and tissues, this can damage sensory nerve receptors which can malfunction the body pain control program (gate control and decending inhibitory control) leading to chronic pain, additionally it interrupt the body ability to heal (healing cascade) leading to formation of scar tissue, muscle knots and reduced soft tissue strength.

Ice appears to accelerate healing but in fact it slows it down and can even stop complete healing^52,53 and damage nerve receptors reducing pain signals giving impression the area is healed leading to reinjury.

The position and movement of a joint or vertebrae is completely is determined by the muscle, tendons and ligaments that connect and hold it into position, bones cannot move themselves and if two bones (vertebrata/joints) are out of alignment, it is because muscles, tendons or ligaments are pulling it out.

Acupuncture is able to reduce muscle tightness and tension by stimulating neural structures called muscles called muscle spindles and Golgi organs in the tendons that control their contraction and relaxation. Acupuncture needle directly into the muscle spindles and Golgi organs then a low level electrical current (electro-acupuncture) is introduced causes the muscle or tendon to contract and relax, resetting the tissue back to normal resting state.

This is similar process to TENS stimulation that goes on to the surface of the skin but with electro-acupuncture a much smaller current is used directly into the neural structure (hardware) that holds the program (software) that controls the tension of muscles.