Acupuncture Treats Low Back & Sciatica Pain

A cold wind is blowing, and the leaves in your yard need to be picked up. You bend over to scoop them up and suddenly you feel a sharp stabbing pain in your low back. You try to move a heavy box from your car and you pull your back out… With difficulty, you straighten up as much as possible and head for your bed. All you want to do is go to bed and lay down, without moving. Oh my back hurts! The next day you wake up, and the pain is shooting down your leg. Oh, my sciatic nerve!

The good news is that acupuncture and Oriental medicine can help relieve your pain and enable you to prevent future reoccurrence of your lower back pain.

The cause of back pain and/or sciatic nerve pain can be structural or musculoskeletal in nature. Whether it is the bones in the spine, the discs between, or even the muscles in the buttocks, each scenario includes some sort of mechanical irritation to the back and sciatic nerve, which exits the spinal cord in the lower back and travels down the leg into the foot.

In traditional Chinese medicine, we look at the this problem in many different ways:

• Cold-Damp type - cold or damp weather aggravates, causing a dull, heavy pain that can radiate down to the heel.
• Liver-Kidney Deficiency – pain worse in the evening, better in the morning and aggravated by fatigue. Also, this type tends to have a slow onset and a long duration, which is to say that this is a chronic condition, not something that just popped up one day. This doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with your liver or kidney from a Western perspective.
• Trauma/Local Qi and Blood Stagnation – pain worse in the morning and aggravated by sitting still. The trauma can be anything from a pulled muscle, a sports injury, a car accident, or maybe even poor posture, etc. Something is pinching or irritating the physical nerve. This is the cause of sciatica that Western medicine usually assumes, but as you can see, it is only one of three possible causes.

Three types of Back Pain

In our culture, we talk about catching a head cold. In Chinese medicine we can catch cold or be invaded by external cold, wind or dampness in any part of our bodies. If we are tired or rundown, our defenses (immune system) may be weak and the cold can more readily enter our meridians. This type of back pain is usually worse on cold, windy, or damp days, and the most common symptoms are a heavy sensation in the back muscles, and stiffness that can limit our ability to move. This type of pain is usually not alleviated by bed res

• Deficiency of the Kidney energy back pain is usually gradual in onset, and the pain is typically one of soreness. A deficiency of Kidney energy does not mean there is a problem with your kidney organ. There may be a weakness of the lumbar area and knees, with accompanying symptoms of fatigue. The pain is aggravated by exertion. Rest alleviates this type of pain, and massage feels good. The body is in a weakened state from lack of rest, overuse, and illness or aging.
• The most common type of low back pain is from trauma. The trauma may be a car accident, incorrect lifting, or any other sprain or strain. A common cause of strain is incorrect posture leading to prolonged stretching of the ligaments and muscles supporting the back, which in turn causes weakness in the area. This "posture strain" can also be due to the chairs we use and the bed we sleep on. The pain is usually fixed and is aggravated by movement and pressure.
• Back pain can be a mixture of all three types. For example, if we are run down from lack of sleep or stress, the Kidney energy can become deficient leading to weakness of the lumbar muscles. This can lead to sprain or strain, and be aggravated by contact with wind, cold or dampness.

Treatment

Acupuncture can be used to relieve the spasm and pain in the area by removing the energy blockages, and increasing blood flow to the area to speed healing. Natural herbal compounds can be used effectively to reduce inflammation without the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs. Ginseng and other Kidney tonifying herbs can be used to support the energy in the low back. Many of my patients feel better immediately, but some of them have chronic back pain, sciatica pain or disk problems, which may take longer (5-20 treatments). If you suffer from back pain and have tried almost everything, acupuncture along with electrical stimulation and Chinese Cupping is likely going to help you the most. This is a very safe, natural, drug-free and effective way to relieve back pain.