A Book Is Born

WARNING  sever blisters and worse can happen. Do not try without a doctors permission.

I’ve been busy since my last post March 4th. Had a lot to learn about publishing on Amazon’ Kindle, more about that later, but I did it with a little help from my friends. So, I am proud to announce my new ebook Moxibustion for Pain Relief, which introduces an ancient Chinese method of relieving pain that is finding favor with pain suffers today. Moxibustion soothes the acupoints to stimulate circulation and pain reducing hormones. Heating acupoints is a soothing way to relieve pain and it is fast and effective.

Moxibustion for Pain

My book covers the history and health benefits of moxibustion, especially the moxa stick first written about in 1717 in China, wherein it was called the Grand Ultimate Divine Needle, or simply, The Magic Needle. The needle magically relieves pain when the burning tip of the needle is suspended over the sore spot; the needle never touches the skin.

Patients often comment, “I find the moxa therapy as beneficial as acupuncture, but less uncomfortable than needles. The moxa feels soothing and relaxing.”  See a recent post Moxibustion for Pain

The idea for this ebook came while researching a textbook for massage therapists on the use of the moxa stick. I discovered some famous teachers and practitioners who used moxa therapy in China and in the West. This surprised me in view of how little moxibustion is used by acupuncturists today. Yet, acclaimed sages praised it, often noting the burning moxa stick method is quick, safe, and effective in relieving pain. I want to raise awareness of the 300-year anniversary of the moxa stick coming in 2017.

No cure-all for chronic pain has been discovered; however, when one treatment fails to work, I try another. Moxibustion does not relieve all types of pain; however, trying it is a wise practice because most pain can be benefited. Examples and case histories are included in this book.

I have developed and currently teach a moxa-pressure technique that soothes and relieves most pain. Regular treatments have a lasting reduction in chronic pain.

Oh yes I wanted to tell about MY PAIN in publishing my book Moxibustion for Pain Relief, as an ebook on Amazon. It is expensive and that make me want to save money, do-it-myself, but ouch. I have avoided tinkering with HTML code since my first website.

However, I could not publish my book without proper formatting and I knew what that meant because in my youth I programmed with several computer codes. My book would need HTML formatting and I knew I could edit the HTML code myself, but I have avoided coding for the last 20 years. Because of a barrier I firmly planted in consciousness, my coding days were over.

So if I wanted this book published inexpensively, I would have to confront and accept HTML code. At least it’s easy to work with. Coding in the early days of computers was tedious and brain straining as was the rest of the brainwork required as a systems engineer so I was looking forward to no more coding in the healing arts.

However after starting my alternative medical career in 1983, I saw the need to write a relational database to run my office. I knew I could do it but it would be a painfully long time in my life. So when that was over, I said ‘never again.’ Oh well HTML isn’t that bad with a good software editor.

And a book is born; Moxibustion for Pain Relief tells the fascinating story of the spread of the moxa stick from east to west and the benefits this type of therapy can achieve.

Advertisement

Learning Chinese Medicine

Back to school last weekend in San Francisco to study the ancient Chinese medical writings with internationally renowned scholars, Elizabeth Rochat and Ken Rose for a post-graduate program called “Teaching From the Roots.” This weekend we cultivated the qi of knowledge. Future classes promise more in depth study of the acupuncture-moxibustion classics.

We are studying the ancient texts to expand our knowledge of the way acupuncture was practiced two thousand years ago by exploring the Classical Literature of Chinese medicine.

While attending, I have met people who are experts in fields of knowledge that I know very little about. I have been studying the ancient Chinese medical classics since the late 70’s, now I can discuss these writings with others who have interest in their teachings. We are trying to understand how the ancient masters practiced, especially areas of our medicine not much taught these days.

Since the time in ’69 when I first read the Dao De Jing, I have learned to read and write many Chinese characters. Years ago I studied the Chinese characters to help me understand the names of the acupuncture points. Chinese medical terms and concepts are often translated using many different English words. Knowing the symbolism inherent in Chinese characters gives me a better understanding of what that term means.

Discussions are in depth and cover much material new to me. I know a little bit, my fellow teachers know a little also—even the course instructors admit to a deficiency of knowledge that designing and teaching this class will help them gain. So Dear Reader, if you are practicing medicine, alternative or orthodox, and are interested in understanding what ancient Chinese teachers had to say about Chinese medicine, this is the class to join. New people are still joining.

Natural Healing

I am reviewing my interviews and teaching videos taken over the last thirty years.

Here are two interviews, one old and one new.

The earliest video, an interview by Rosemary Broccoli in 1986.

Michael Turk answers Rosemary Broccoli’s first question, “Michael, how was it you became interested in Oriental medicine?” More of the interview will be posted soon.

Recently, I was interviewed while demonstrating Moxa-Pressure, a technique I developed to quickly relieve many types of pain.

The following videos of classes are being reviewed for short lessons to publish.

• I taught three workshops on Acupressure for Headaches, Points for Pain, and Using Chinese Herbs in 1989.
• In 2006, I demonstrated prenatal massage and taught acupressure massage at the Pacific Symposium.
• My favorite video in 2007 was a class on the Origin of Chinese Symbolism.

As I publish these videos I will give background information.

Post your questions about health and healing using ancient Asian healing arts.

Feel Your Qi and Relieve Pain

Published in the Lotus Guide. Chico, CA. January 2012

Today qi is commonly referred to as energy, yet qi is a mystery to modern science. In Chinese philosophy, qi is a subtle substance that pervades space; in Chinese medicine, qi is a physical sensation described as the feeling of something strange moving in the body experienced by patients who receive acupuncture or moxibustion.

Scientists and scholars may disagree about the existence of qi, but traditional Chinese medical dictionaries all agree the sensation of qi felt during acupuncture indicates a successful response to insertion. Some scholars discuss the question: Is qi matter or energy? And is that even the question?

What is qi? Is it matter, energy, spirit, or something else? And how will knowing what it is help explain the concept of qi? Sometimes authors look to the Greek words pneuma or psyche. Pneuma is a name for “air inside the body” and psyche is a term for ‘spirit’ used to distinguish between “living and non-living things.” When qi, an eastern concept, is compared to western concepts such as ether, energy, or spirit, these different concepts cannot be substituted for the true meaning of qi in Chinese philosophy.

I will use the Chinese pinyin spelling ‘qi’, rather than try to find a good English word to translate the term qi.

To get a better idea of the term qi, examine its use in the well known 5^th century BCE humorous story from the Liezi that tells about a man from the state of Qi (same sound, different tone and character) who was worried the heavens might collapse and fall into pieces depriving him of food and sleep.

A friend consoled him with, “Heaven is only an accumulation of qi; that same qi is everywhere. Why then do you worry about a collapse of heaven?”

The man said, “If it’s true that heaven is an accumulation of qi, why don’t the sun, moon, and stars fall down to earth?”

His friend replied, “Those bright lights are only shining masses of condensed qi. Even if they did fall they wouldn’t hurt anybody.”

The man continues to question and his friend continues to give answers until a sage declares, “What does it matter? One cannot know when the end will come. Why then worry if the world will be destroyed or not?”

Here qi seems to be a subtle substance found everywhere. This is not the complex theory of qi found in traditional Chinese medicine. A fundamental theory of ancient medicine is the theory of that many types of qi form a complex interacting system found everywhere in the human being.

The next author Xun Zi (312-230 BCE) makes a distinction between qi and life, two agents of change. He then explains the role qi plays in the lives of people and the power people have in controlling the qi in their lives.

Xun discusses the concepts of qi, life, awareness, and judgment stating all can change the world. The subtle qi of water and fire changes things but has no life; furthermore, some living things have awareness but only people possess judgment. Therefore people have qi, life, awareness, and judgment. Judgment is the power to distinguish and influence change.

All ideas and theories are in the head, but the experience of qi is in the body. Patients receiving the traditional Chinese method of acupuncture experience qi regularly. Though the sensation can be uncomfortable, it is a favorable sign. Patients say qi sensations feel like they are radiating, tingly, achy, heavy, and various other sensations. The qi sensation changes with the diagnosis and how the needle is inserted.

Erica D. says, “Sometimes it feels like a small energy bomb shooting sensations like beams toward distant parts of the body.”

 

Acumoxa for Pain Relief

Published in the Lotus Guide. Chico, CA. July 2011

Acumoxa Treatments: Pain Relief Without Needles

Acumoxa quickly reduces chronic pain by soothing acupuncture points with heat, rather than stimulating with needles

What Is Acumoxa?

Acumoxa is a method of treating disease developed by ancient Chinese doctors along with acupuncture and acupressure therapy. Moxibustion is the therapeutic use of heat to treat pain and weakness. The herbs called moxa come from a number of plants; they are processed for easy burning. About 300 years ago, acumoxa became popular with the invention of the moxa stick, called the “grand ultimate divine needle” or “magic needle.” The needle-shaped stick of moxa is held over the acupoints without touching the skin. Applying and removing the heat as needed is easier to teach and use without injuring tissue. Magic needle moxa therapy–noninvasive, nonscarring, and nonblistering–is most effective in relieving muscle pain and arthritis. Acumoxa is not a cure-all some health problems are relieved entirely, while others cannot be helped at all. From China, its popularity has spread to Korea and Japan, where it is a favored method of self-care. Today many smokeless methods of heating acupoints are available.

Acumoxa Today

Chronic pain has become an epidemic that is disabling millions of Americans. New ways to treat pain have not slowed the increase in the number of people suffering. Americans are now turning to ancient Asian methods for self-help methods such as acupuncture and acupressure massage. Acupressure and acumoxa provide many of the benefits of acupuncture–especially pain relief–without using needles.

A History of Healing

Time-tested moxa has been relieving pain and curing disease since the Stone Age. A survey of 33 premodern acupuncture texts–published over a 2,000 year period–reveals a cluster of health complaints for which moxibustion is beneficial; myofascial pain, infectious diseases, inflammatory disorders, and female problems.

Conditions Benefited

Myofascial disorders: Arthritis, tendonitis, low back, and sciatica

Infectious diseases; Bacterial dysentery, hepatitis, chronic bronchitis, and UTI

Inflammatory disorders: Bronchial asthma, simple goiter, diabetes, indigestion, acute mastitis, and hemorrhoids Recuperative: Stroke, adrenal depletion, incontinence, prolapsed anus or uterus

OB/GYN: Irregular menstruation, dysmenorrhea, abnormal bleeding, and leucorrhoea

An Ancient Healing Recipe

Printed in the Lotus Guide. Chico, CA. July 2010

When the young woman walked into my acupuncture office, I knew something was wrong. Her complexion was as pale as impending death, her walk was slow and deliberate, and when she sat down she lowered herself as if sitting on a pile of rocks. This initial evaluation informed me of the challenge ahead. The intake form confirmed it, “How long since your last healthy bowel movement?”

“I’ve had unrelenting diarrhea for the last year. It has left me weak and exhausted. The urgent need to relieve myself has interfered with my ability to work. Leaving my station at a moment’s notice is unacceptable.”

The form read RN for occupation, “I see that you’re a nurse. Have you tried Western medicine?”

“I am a nurse and my boyfriend practices alternative healing. It’s not an infection and I’ve visited many natural healers. Nutrition and herbs have not helped me and I don’t want to use drugs to mask the symptoms, but sometimes I use them for temporary relief.”

I asked the usual questions to fill out her chart notes. As I pressed her acupoints to check on the condition of her energy system, a thought came to me. Her medicine would be the oldest formula for difficult problems mentioned in an ancient Chinese classic.

Remembering this recipe does not appeal to some people, I said, “Tell me, for the next six weeks, what are you willing to try no matter how difficult or unappealing it sounds?”

“I will try anything natural that causes no harm.”

“The medicine is something you cook up yourself with common ingredients found in the supermarket. For the next few months I want you to cook these foods for eight hours in ten cups of water and eat the soupy medicine for breakfast and avoid the foods on this list.”

She looked at the list of ingredients for the medicinal soup, “Doesn’t over cooking destroy nutrients?

“No” I replied, “with time, different nutrients are released. Chinese medicinal herbs are cooked for hours.”

“It doesn’t sound very appealing, but I will try it.”

The next week she came in with a fire in her eyes that had been absent the week before. She reported her bowel movements had started to firm up, “Though the porridge didn’t taste good to me, within minutes of eating the first bowl, I felt good inside, better than I have felt in the last year. It feels so good eating the medicinal soup. I don’t want to eat anything else! Is it okay to eat it exclusively?”

“Yes, that’s okay. I’m sure once your internal organs are healthy, your appetite for other foods will return, but be careful with the list of foods I advised you to avoid.”

During her acupressure treatment, the acupoints that report on the internal organs were still sensitive, but I detected an overall energy improvement.

In the following weeks, her bowel movements became easy, painless, and solid; her symptoms of fatigue and soreness faded with each day. Now that going to the bathroom ceased to be urgent, she returned to work with pleasure.

Some of the most difficult health problems can be cured with ancient medicine.

This soupy ancient medicine is also the most popular breakfast in the world. The Chinese call it congee, but it has many names in Asian cultures. Chinese herbalists do not consider it to be like ordinary cooked rice. Extended cooking changes it into something entirely different. Try congee for colon problems:

Raisin-cinnamon Medicinal Rice

1/3 cup rice
3 cups water
1/3 cup raisins
2-3 sticks cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions: Place all ingredients in a crock-pot or a slow cooker. Cook on high for one hour and then lower the heat setting. (The high setting can cause the liquid to evaporate.) Cook 6 – 10 hours. It should be like porridge. Don’t ever stir while cooking. After it is cooked, gently stir for consistency. Patients report it is delicious for a breakfast, snack or dessert.

Chinese herbal medicine is the oldest continuously practiced medical science in the world.

Massage Helps Chronic Pain

Published in the Lotus Guide, Chico, CA. October 2010

Don, a triathlete, stopped competing and started physical therapy while attending medical school. It started with a running injury in which he tore a hamstring muscle. The pain gradually worsened, leaving him with right hip and lower back pain that stopped his participation in sports. He saw two orthopedists and went to physical therapy for two years; he even tried some cortisone injections, which helped slightly, but did not cure the condition. Don gained weight, lost energy, and grew despondent.

Don’s case is one of a multitude of cases that fall under the medical name Chronic Pain Syndrome, persistent pain from unknown causes. In this case, the injury healed, but pain remained. It is estimated between 15 and 20% of Americans suffer from chronic pain.

The September 2009 issue of the Scientific American Mind magazine published a special report focusing on Chronic Pain Syndrome. The magazine, citing the latest studies, reported, “No one knows for sure why some injuries, even minor ones, result in persistent pain or why it occurs in some people but not in others. Nevertheless, researchers are pinpointing telltale changes in the neurons that underlie persistent pain. In particular, they have documented abnormal excitability among neurons at every level of the body’s pain network.”

Pain is a sensation that defies explanation and keeps authorities arguing. However, all agree that pain stimulates a sense of alarm that requests a response. Most definitions note the suffering; some note the protective benefits of pain. However, recent studies report the way people define pain, changes the way they experience it. So choose your definition well.

The Oxford English Dictionary, a venerable reference book, defines the sense of pain as, “A primary condition of sensation or consciousness, the opposite of pleasure; the sensation which one feels when hurt (in body or mind); suffering, distress.”

Today scholars say, “…pain is a complex perceptual experience influenced by a wide range of psychosocial factors, including emotions, social and environmental context, sociocultural background, the meaning of pain to the person, and beliefs, attitudes, and expectations, as well as biological factors.”

Western medicine distinguishes between two types of pain:  acute and chronic pain. There are important distinctions, which affect diagnosis and treatment.

The word ‘acute’ means sharp or pointed. “Acu” is used in words such as acuity, acumen, acupuncture, and acupressure. Acute pain occurs during healing from physical injuries, vigorous exercise, and rehabilitation therapy. A period of acute pain comes to a natural end after the healing crisis.

‘Chronic’ is a medical term that applies to long-standing diseases. Chronic pain is lingering and incurable, the opposite of acute pain that heals and stops hurting.  Chronic Pain Syndrome disables and demoralizes people, because the constant pain holds victims hostage for months or years at a time, keeping them from what they love.

Western culture defines pain in terms of its discomfort and its role in suffering. Eastern culture defines pain in terms of its association with the life force (qi) and its role in healing. Traditional Chinese medicine states qi, the life force, is meant to move throughout the body. Pain results when the flow of qi is impeded.

Qi and blood are partners: qi moves blood and blood nourishes qi. They are like yin and yang, always found together but in different quantities. This is especially true in the muscles and connective tissue where qi and blood disorders can be felt. The feeling of stuck qi is tender tissue, and the feeling of congealed blood is stiff tissue.

While fear is a natural response to pain, and avoiding activities that provoke pain is reasonable for acute pain, it serves no purpose when treating chronic pain. Anxiety and fear intensify the pain experience, increasing the sensitivity to pain-related activities. Prolonged states of anxiety reduce tolerance for pain. Fear of re-injury is a better predictor of disability than the signs, symptoms, and severity of the pain.

Pain makes exercise more difficult, resulting in loss of flexibility, strength, and coordination, which further complicates recovery, and when the victim believes painful activity may aggravate the initial injury, it results in avoidance of therapeutic activity, which could reduce pain and promote healing.

A therapeutic massage can stimulate mild acute pain to desensitize the fearful patients. It can reduce the anxiety by releasing endorphins and relieve chronic pain with a little acute pain that improves circulation throughout the painful injured tissue.

A massage therapist can coach a suffering patient and talk about the problems caused by their painful condition. Mary Ewing, owner of Back To Basics, an integrative health center, is a massage therapist and chiropractor. I asked Dr. Mary how she coaches a patient. She said, “When people come into my office, I listen to what they tell me and the language and terminology they use to describe their problem. I talk to them about rewiring what they say about their pain.”

Besides being good listeners, some therapists have a healing touch¾their hands dissolve pain. Some massage therapists go deeper into more painful places, and patients find the relief outweighs any discomfort during therapy. It is as if acute pain defeats chronic pain.

Don, now a doctor, decided to see a massage therapist recommended by a friend. When he came to see me, he still suffered from back pain that kept him from running, bicycling, and swimming. He was initially skeptical.

I used massage to remove the blood stagnation¾improving circulation and reducing tension in stiff muscles. Then after locating the points needed for therapy, I pressed the acupoints used since ancient times to relieve pain. I also located and pressed acupoints that I discovered during my exam. After a course of treatments, the bad pain was gone and he resumed swimming. After working with me for six months, his problem was completely resolved. Three years later Don wrote about his recovery from chronic back pain with acupressure massage, “(It) completely controlled not only that problem, but chronic shoulder stiffness and pain.”

Though pain may be a mystery to many, it is no mystery why people seek massage therapy. Massage has many benefits, no risks, and is complementary to medical therapy. Massage clients report long-term benefits of more energy, greater strength, and flexibility.

The way you think about pain can hurt you. When in pain, imagine your body is talking or your life force is sending you a message, seeking a helping hand. Massage therapists erase pain by rubbing it out. Acupressure therapists relieve pain by applying pressure to acupoints. Remember, you do not have to suffer from pain.

Formula for Failure

Published in the California Journal of Oriental Medicine, Fall 2004

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) relieve pain most effectively the first time they are taken, however, when taken daily they lose their effectiveness. Increasing the dosage or changing to stronger pain pills may bring temporary relief, but soon even these strategies fail to be effective. In such cases even acupuncture fails to give lasting relief for this pain. Few sufferers realize that this formula for failure they are experiencing known as rebound pain, results from their use of NSAIDs (aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen and acetaminophen). The cause of rebound pain will be explained in the following article.

In order to discuss rebound pain, a fundamental understanding of tissue repair is helpful. Western medicine identifies three healing stages for injuries great and small (note 1). When these three stages of healing proceed naturally, healing progresses quickly. However, when healing is disrupted, problems abound: specifically, poor circulation of blood and lymph, as well as chronic pain and its associated disability. During tissue repair, fresh blood brings nutrients and oxygen to provide material for healing and the lymph removes the byproducts of tissue repair. As pain becomes chronic, it is often accompanied by stiffness and reduced range of motion. The use of pain pills to relieve chronic pain often backfires. The resulting rebound pain causes or plays a role in several chronic pain syndromes such as fibromyalgia, chronic muscle pain syndrome, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

The Three Stages of Healing

The three stages of healing are:

1. Inflammation
2. Cell proliferation
3. Remodeling

Scar tissue normally forms during the first two stages of healing.

1) During the initial inflammatory stage, which lasts three to five days, prostaglandins initiate multiple tasks: to stimulate the immune system, to buildup platelets around the lesion, and to attract white blood cells that protect against infections and clean up the damaged tissue. Specialized cells called fibroblasts produce disorganized fibrous (scar) tissue.

2) During the second stage, which lasts four to six weeks, cells proliferate to replace the damaged cells and scar tissue becomes organized. Physical activity eliminates unnecessary scar tissue that has inadvertently adhered to neighboring tissue.

3) During the remodeling stage, lasting about six months or more, the repaired tissue remodels itself. Interestingly forensic anthropologists and archeologists observe changes in bone structure, for example, to determine the types of work a person performed based on the fact that remodeling is an automatic process accompanying use. During the third stage of healing this process can restore damaged tissue so it is stronger than it was before the injury. If remodeling doesn’t occur, it leads to weakened tissue prone to reinjury.

Injuries are an opportunity to become stronger. When the three stages proceed normally, tissue becomes stronger and less prone to injury. This principle is used by performance athletes. Likewise, pain is rare if the damage heals quickly and thoroughly, without abnormal adhesions.

What Is Scar Tissue?

The fibrous connective tissue produced during the initial inflammatory stage serves to temporarily replace damaged tissue during the first stage of healing. Scar tissue lacks oil glands and elasticity. By contrast, healthy tissue is elastic and lubricated, which protects it against irritation. It is the nature of scar tissue to contract over time and become sensitive as pain nerves enter the aging scar tissue. (note 2) This sensitivity prolongs the period of inflammation and results in the formation of excessive scar tissue. Muscles become fibrous as a result of chronic inflammation. Scar tissue reduces and blocks the circulation of fresh blood, carrying nutrients and oxygen, and the flow of lymph, which carries away toxins. This vicious cycle of continued scar formation can thus increase pain, reduce circulation, and restrict movement.

As pain nerves penetrate scar tissue, it becomes hypersensitive to stimulation. This makes it easy to find during massage because the pain response indicates the scar tissue with its hypersensitive nerves. An acupuncturist can also feel the presence of recent and old scar tissue by feeling the resistance to the needle. Healthy tissue offers no resistance and feels like it is soft and lubricated.

Other Causes of Scar Tissue

From my clinical experience, there are many causes of fibrous, sclerotic tissue in the musculo-skeletal system. In-depth discussions with patients about the history of their pain have revealed treatments with trendy therapies such as icing, cortisone injections, and NSAIDs, all of which alter and inhibit healing by blocking prostaglandin production. Prostaglandins are produced during the first stage of healing to protect and repair the damaged tissue. They protect by delivering a pain message and by sensitizing the area or injury to keep from further injury. They initiate a host of repair activities that are required during the healing process.

Intentional scarring therapy (sclerotherapy) is sometimes used to treat chronic pain. This involves local injections, especially of the steroid anti-inflammatory cortisone; the more cortisone administered, the more scarring of subcutaneous tissue. Patients who have received cortisone shots often report more painful acupuncture-needle insertions at the injury site. Relief for them will also require more acupuncture treatments than if cortisone was not used. Cortisone injections have also been shown to dematerialize bone and cause soft tissue to become fragile.  (note 3)

One of the therapeutic actions of cortisone is tissue necrosis. Injections at the site of inflammation kills the inflamed tissue sending out pain signals.  My interviews with surgeons indicate scar tissue present at the site of cortisone injections. Basically, washing inflamed tissue with cortisone kills it, and it is replaced by scar tissue. At first this brings quick relief, but in about three months pain nerves enter the aging scar tissue as it shrinks. This vicious cycle spreads to surrounding tissue, resulting in reduced mobility and the return of more intense and intractable pain.

Unintentional scarring can also result from the application of cold to relieve pain. My interviews with patients having a history of athletic injuries often revealed a pattern of stiff and painful tissue in areas where icing was used to relieve pain after athletic events. The more often icing was used, the more resulting tissue stiffness was discovered and the more subsequent treatments with needle moxa were required to restore the circulation of blood and lymph.

Although no statistics are available, a survey of the history of medicine from around the world suggests that traditionally, though pain was an uncomfortable problem, chronic pain was rare. (note 4) Prior to the 20th century, the method of treating pain was dramatically different. In the past, chronic pain was treated with counterirritants (irritation applied to the surface of the body to counteract pain and disease), such as mustard and medicinal plasters. Since the discovery of aspirin and the increased use of anti-inflammatories, there has been an increased incidence of chronic pain. Chronic pain is reported to be most common in countries where anti-inflammatories are used extensively. In Third World countries where time-honored means of treating pain are employed, chronic pain is rare. (note 5)

Many recent studies have associated NSAIDs with chronic pain, especially degeneration of joint cartilage. (note 6) Basically the inhibiting effect of NSAIDs that applies to muscle healing also applies to cartilage repair. The use of anti-inflammatories heightens the incidence of chronic pain. Treating pain while disrupting the healing process results in a build up of painful scar tissue, which can also interfere with the functioning of muscles by scarring proprioceptors.

Proprioception & Tension Receptors

The simple act of walking upright is actually not so simple; it is still a challenge for robot designers. When our body’s ability to sense its position and orientation – known as proprioception – becomes impaired, our ability to move quickly and accurately degrades and our athletic performance suffers. One facet of proprioception is the product of our muscles’ tension receptors, dysfunction of which can also cause chronic pain. Knowing how to locate and heal tension receptors using massage and acupuncture can quickly and permanently reverse years of chronic pain where other attempts to heal brought only temporary relief.

If the muscles become scarred and fibrous, tension receptors in the muscle belly do not readily change shape with the muscle, resulting in delayed or absent responses. When this happens, the brain fails to register the degree of muscle contraction. Consequently, the brain’s signal to contract is increased, causing spasms and/or continuous muscle tension.

When a muscle is either tense or constantly tight it may have fibrous, stiff, and frozen tension receptors. Even when the patient believes they are relaxed, the muscle is tight. It is tight when they go to sleep and tight when they wake up. Deep-tissue massage and acupressure on the origin, insertion, or belly of the muscle can forcefully change the shape of the tension receptor and the muscle will relax temporarily, but constant tightness will return because the tension receptor has not changed. Massage and meditation will fail to relax this type of muscle. Stretching can temporarily reset the tension level, but tension will return. Therefore, the use of massage, acupuncture and moxibustion can correct the chronic tension that often accompanies chronic pain.

Rebound Pain

Rebound pain is paradoxically caused by NSAIDs. NSAIDs stop the first stage of healing by blocking the production of prostaglandins. Bradykinin is one type of prostaglandin that increases pain sensitivity by ten times and speeds healing by five times. (note 7) In other words NSAIDs inhibit healing and the subsequent stages of healing are thus compromised. Rebound pain begins after 4-8 days of continual NSAID usage and slowly increases until it becomes the major component of chronic pain. It is a type of withdrawal pain and may be diagnosed as fibromyalgia (FMS), fibrositis, chronic muscle pain syndrome, psychogenic rheumatism, tension myalgias, and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). It is my belief that FMS is fibrosis of the soft tissue often complicated by rebound pain.

Rebound pain probably develops because NSAIDs mask small pain signals that cause us to squirm and wiggle or adjust how we sit and stand. These adjustments to our posture stop tissue damage from the pressure applied to joints and muscles when we sit or stand still. When people stop using pain pills, they temporarily feel their body trying to heal this damage in their joints and muscles. Some patients tell me they cannot stop using the drugs they take because their pain is so bad, but when they do stop, they often have a remarkable reduction in their pain.

A Formula for Success

Acupuncture can initiate a healing process with puncture wounds where healing had been incomplete or interrupted by NSAIDs, cortizone or icing. It is interesting to note that regeneration, the ability to regrow limbs for example, which happens in lower life forms is absent in higher life forms with one exception, the healing of puncture wounds. Local treatments at sites of sensitivity called ahshi points stimulate or restimulate healing as described in the three stages of healing. Therefore, when a patient suffers from chronic pain which doesn’t respond to acupuncture treatments, ask them to reduce and eventually stop pain pills.

Explain to your patients how NSAIDs, cortizone or icing all interfere with healing, which impede the effectiveness of therapeutic approaches such as acupuncture, acupressure, and massage. Acupuncture, however, can be used as a complementary method to quickly end rebound pain when NSAIDs are discontinued. Ear acupuncture is commonly used in detox programs and can restore the body’s natural pain relievers, endorphins. Local treatment with needle moxa therapy on scarred fibrous tissue eliminates the cause of chronic pain. (See “Treating Chronic Pain with Meridian Dredging“ by Michael Turk in CJOM 14.2, Summer 2003)

Notes

1a) Wells, D. “Injury: Three Stages of Healing” in CJOM 14.1 winter 2003

1b) http://www.issaquahfamilychiropractic.com/sti.htm

1c) The Encyclopedia Britannica CDROM refers to four stages of healing. The first stage is divided in two: one lasts for one day and the second part the typical 3-5 days.

2a) Singh, Vijay, MD “Pathophysiology of the Disc” in Interventional Pain Management

2b) Encyclopedia Britannica CDROM

3) Diwan, P., “Influence of Zinc Sulfate on Steroid Depressed Wound Healing,” Kulkarni, D. InsJPharmac., 11(4), 257-264 (1979)

4) The following statistics indicate the trend toward high rates of chronic pain in the USA

1973   “Although accurate statistics are not available, data from a variety of sources suggest that chronic pain states cost the American people between 10 and 25 billions of dollars annually” (The Puzzle of Pain by Ronald Melzack 1973).

1973    The first world conference on pain estimated 10 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. (The Conquest of Pain by Samuel Mines 1973).

1980    40 million Americans suffer; it is the third leading cause of disability (Pain Control, the Bethesda Program by Bruce Smoller, M.D. & Brian Schulman, M.D. 1980).

1983            “Authorities figures prepared for the year 1983 estimated that 90 million Americans suffered from chronic pain, that 60 million Americans were either partially or totally disabled… (The Culture of Pain by David Morris 1991).

5) Dr. Brand lived and worked in India for many years. He reports that chronic pain was rare p185-190. Brand, P. The Gift of Pain 1997 Zondervan

“Frantic attempts to silence pain signals may actually have a paradoxical effect.”

“My esteem for pain runs so counter to the common attitude that I sometimes feel like a subversive, especially in modern Western countries.  On my travels I have observed an ironic law of reversal at work: as a society gains the ability to limit suffering, it loses the ability to cope with what suffering remains.  (It is the philosophers, theologians, and writers of the affluent West, not the Third World, who worry obsessively about ‘the problem of pain,’ and point an accusing finger at God.)”

6a) Werbach, M. Nutritional Influences on Illness. Third Line Press, California, (468, 469, 590), 1987

6b) see bibliography at http://www.unitedmedicalnetwork.com/umnrationale_joint.asp

6c) Lopes Vaz AL. Double-blind, clinical evaluation of the relative efficacy of ibuprofen and glucosamine sulphate in the management of osteoarthrosis of the knee in out-patients. Curr Med Res Opin 1982;8:145-9.

6d) Dingle JT., Cartilage maintenance in osteoarthritis: interaction of cytokines, NSAID and prostaglandins in articular cartilage damage and repair. J Rheumatol Suppl. 1991 Mar;28:30-7.

7) From a private communication with Dr. Bruce Pomerantz who has been studying the role of Bradykinin in healing.

8) Turk, M. “Treating Chronic Pain with Meridian Dredging” in CJOM 14.2, Summer 2003

Further Reading

1) Chang, Yeung, Chung Through-and-through & Collective Loci Acupuncture 1976, Medical Interflow Publishing House

2) Chen Xingseng “Comparative Study on Acupuncture Needling Methods for Sciatica: Routine Needling Vs. Point-to-point and Deep Puncture” in American Journal of Acupuncture Vol. 26 No.1 1998.

3) Lowenkopf, Anne N. Osteopuncture 1976 Medical Arts Press

4) Brand, Paul, The Gift of Pain 1997 Zondervan

5) Turk, Michael Pain’s Healing Secret 2001 Chico, CA: Acu Press