Musculoskeletal Pain Doctor In Chapel Hill, NC
What is acupuncture?
A musculoskeletal pain doctor in Chapel Hill, North Carolina can treat your chronic condition with acupuncture.
Acupuncture is one of the most ancient forms of healing, thought to have its roots in traditional Chinese medicine. It involves pricking the skin or underlying tissues at specific anatomical locations, called “acupoints”, to alleviate pain and treat various physical, mental, and emotional conditions.
For many years, published acupuncture studies were unreliable due to relatively low funding, small sample sizes, and lack of consistency in practice. The latter should not be a concern if you choose Acupractic Natural Healing Center, Chapel Hill, NC, for your acupuncture therapy. Our acupuncturist comes with significant experience and knowledge in the field, and is heralded for her approach to each patient as an individual with specific, unique needs.
How does acupuncture treat pain?
There are several proposed modalities by which acupuncture has been found to effectively treat pain, and each theory has evidence in scientific literature.
Patients who suffer from osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint condition due to overuse and prolonged periods of high impact activity, have usually fallen victim to degenerated cartilage. Cartilage is notorious for having poor blood perfusion, and studies have shown acupuncture can improve regulation of blood flow.
A musculoskeletal pain doctor in Chapel Hill, NC understands acupuncture treatment has been found to induce the release of endorphins, the body’s own “feel-good” hormones that play a role in a variety of processes, producing downstream effects that include improved wound healing as well as stress relief.
As interest in researching acupuncture has blossomed. More and more information is coming to light as to the mechanism behind acupuncture’s pain relieving abilities.
Is there any proof that acupuncture works?
A musculoskeletal pain doctor in Chapel Hill, NC understands the research behind the value of acupuncture.
Clinical practice guidelines issued by two of the leading authorities on pain medicine in Western medicine speak to the growing consensus within the scientific community on the efficacy of acupuncture. The American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society have both recommended acupuncture as a non-pharmacological approach to treating patients with chronic low back pain, one of the leading causes of pain, disability, and depression in the United States. This is due to the growing body of evidence in favor of acupuncture as a modality for treating chronic pain, and stress relief.
For example, a 2016 paper in The Journal of Intensive and Critical Care found that acupuncture improves blood pressure by regulating blood flow, a critical component of wound healing. A 2009 article in the renowned journal PAIN found that electroacupuncture not only improved subjective pain scores (using the WOMAC and VAS pain measurement scales), it also significantly elevated levels of serum beta-endorphin, and reduced levels of serum cortisol (commonly referred to as the “stress hormone”). This showed objective evidence that acupuncture was relieving stress and improving pain control on a physiologic, hormonal level.
Finally, a 2012 study found that when comparing acupuncture to no acupuncture or simulated acupuncture (similar to a placebo group in a clinical trial for a new medicine), acupuncture improved pain control in the following chronic pain conditions:
- Neck pain
- Osteoarthritis
- Chronic headache
- Back pain
- Shoulder pain
Who should I call?
If you’re searching for a musculoskeletal pain doctor in Chapel Hill, NC, we can help. At Acupractic Natural Healing Center, we have made a significant positive impact in our community by offering our patients a reprieve from chronic pain and stress. Not only do we take pride in our ability to help people, we take pride in doing it the right way: listening to patients, remaining updated on the latest literature on acupuncture, and following the age-old adage of modern medicine to “do no harm.”
If you suffer from chronic pain and/or stress, our approach to acupuncture therapy may be the answer you’ve been looking for. Our musculoskeletal pain doctor in Chapel Hill, NC, is ready to help.
Call Acupractic Natural Healing Center to learn more about our practice or to schedule an appointment today.