Has anyone tried acupuncture and felt pain throughout the session? Or does it vary from person to person?
Extreme pain is usually due to too much aggressive needling with the individual patient, especially on a first treatment. You should absolutely communicate this to the acupuncturist.
If, as someone else mentions, the pain was more a dull, distending sensation, or mild ache that is tolerable it is a common sensation. This is not generally reported as "painful", so much as the patient is aware of the needle.
Side note – 42 states regulate the practice of acupuncture.
Edit – Claims that acupuncture is not regulated in the United States are patently and blatantly false. It is regulated at the state level and as noted above the vast majority of states do regulate non-MD acupuncturists.
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My answer is very biased and is not based on anything but my experience.
The practitioner is very much involved in the pain. I distinctly remember one doctor who triggered a reaction down my leg that showed me by demonstration exactly where the meridian was. He used a long needle and went deep. It was in my gluteus maximus. He was very secretive about his herbal formulas and did not teach me along the way. I discontinued his treatments.
My long term doctor has an amazing light touch. I rarely feel pain. Part of the work is the qigong behind the practitioners use. That may sound like mumbo jumbo. It is, sort of.
Try another doctor before you give up.
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Nine years of receiving treatments.
It shouldn’t be so painful. Did the treatment achieve anything? Do you think it worked or helped?
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It’s important to differentiate the nature of the pain. If it is purely sharp, burning or stabbing then this is due to poor needle technique. If it is more of an ache, heavy, dragging sensation then this may be part of the appropriate needle sensation.
Different conditions will feel more or less sensation. It’s the same as if you were having a massage. If somebody were to massage a part of your body where there was a lot of tension it would be much more sensitive than a part of your body that was in a normal state.
If in doubt you should ask your practitioner about it. More traditional Chinese style practitioners tend to feel a good degree of needle sensation is correct practice. More Japanese style practitioners prefer you to feel nothing. If you can’t tolerate the way this acupuncturist practices then look for a Japanese style acupuncturist. You’lll find it quite different.
And as a note to William T there may not be state regulation of acupuncture yet, but any decent acupuncturist should be a member of a voluntary regulatory body. These ensure high standards of practice following codes of conduct and safety. Unfortunately, the title is not protected so it is quite possible that somebody can practice with little or no training. As a patient you should check if your acupuncturist is a member of any regulatory body and what level of training they have.
References :
Extreme pain is usually due to too much aggressive needling with the individual patient, especially on a first treatment. You should absolutely communicate this to the acupuncturist.
If, as someone else mentions, the pain was more a dull, distending sensation, or mild ache that is tolerable it is a common sensation. This is not generally reported as "painful", so much as the patient is aware of the needle.
Side note – 42 states regulate the practice of acupuncture.
Edit – Claims that acupuncture is not regulated in the United States are patently and blatantly false. It is regulated at the state level and as noted above the vast majority of states do regulate non-MD acupuncturists.
References :
Certified Acupuncturist. <~ Title granted by the state I reside in under the statute governing acupuncture 8~)
You are right, it should be painless, but then you shouldn’t be bothering with this quack remedy anyway, whatever your problem is you should be seeing a proper doctor.
Acupuncture only works by placebo effect, certified acupuncturist is as valid as certified witchdoctor, both work on gullible people only.
Just because acupuncture is ancient, eastern in origin, has very impressive charts showing so called ‘energy lines’ and has the mysticism of sticking pins into these lines, all helps with the placebo effect.
Trials where needles were inserted into non acupuncture poits, or using sham needles, ie needles that looked as if they were piercing the skin but actualy retracted both gave the same results as ‘true’ acupuncture.
EDIT: "If it’s a placebo why is it used and works on animals."
This old chestnut is often thrown up by people who think that things like acupuncture and homoeopathy actually work on animals, and therefore can’t be a placebo effect, WRONG!! It’s called ‘Placebo by proxy’, there is not a shred of proof that these alternative medicines work on animals, only the anecdotal reports by people who already believe that it does.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=263
http://skeptivet.blogspot.com/2009/07/placebo-effect-in-animals-and-their.html
References :
http://www.skeptics.org.uk/article.php?dir=articles&article=acupuncture.php
Ignore the people who say that Acupuncture is a placebo.
If it’s a placebo why is it used and works on animals.
When the Medical Profession first tested Acupuncture they cut the body up to find the meridians looking for the likes of nerve endings and when they could not find them said it was a load of rubbish?
Technology as now improved and the meridians can now be traced with electrical machines.
Acupuncture reacts on the electro chemicals of the brain.
To answer your question there are two possibility’s for your pain.
1st: every ones pain level is different some people can be very sensitive?
2nd: Who ever is using the needles can not have the skills needed to cause less pain?
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