has anyone tried it after an injury? does it work? should you do it after the inflammation is gone? before or during physiotherapy? thanks.
Well it works for some cases and not others but also depends on how good the accupuncturist is. My mother had a back pain for quite a few years, doctors here said there was nothing they could do aside from surgery. She went to see a very good accupuncturist on a recommendation, first session no difference, 2nd session no difference, 3rd session eased pain, 4th session pain completely disappears. It's been 10-15yrs now and shes still fine (touches wood!). But I've personally tried accupuncture as well, for my shoulder and knee with different practitioners and I can honestly say it had made no difference. The biggest difference I have found was from going to see a chinese 跌打 practitioner and learning to warm up properly to prevent injury.
Yes, it works. But it depends. On the illness, the acupuncturist and experience, and the patient and expectations.
I just cannot believe that there are positive effects of acupuncture besides the placebo effect. One has to consider that in most cases the pain would have gone away after a few weeks anyway...
Sure that too. Any inflamed area. One of the active ingredients is salicylic acid, which is similar to ASA, which is a good analgesic anti-inflammatory. If that doesn't work, then there's always dexamethasone.
Placebo or not, if it works for that particular person, it has worked. That is what is important for that individual. It may not work on another person though.
Agree with this. I have patients whom I never would believe would be gullible to sham medicine, who were definitely helped by acupuncture. But it is highly 'operator-dependent'. My only personal experience with it was during medical school. A young Scottish professor, who had just taken an acupuncture course, stuck 7 needles in my ear as a demonstration 'for stress relief'. He came back ten minutes later and asked, in thick brogue, whether I was more relaxed. "Heck," I replied, "I work 100+hrs per week and you left me lying down for 10 minutes: Needles or not, I was bloody well asleep!"
You'll want to use the romanization "dit da jow" literally translated iron hit alcohol. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dit_da_jow Then there's other regional variations like "wood lock yau" and "zheng gu shui". http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Lock http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_Gu_Shui Good stuff!
if there is a muscle injury, i thought you should not rub it or put any pressure on it. is that correct?
Tried the oil but the stuff you get from the shops is only good for very minor injuries, sprains etc... I was really talking about going to a proper practitioner - which is what I did. There was one I went to here in UK who was recommended by a friend. What he did for my shoulder was to massage the area with 跌打oil, but he does it with a lot of pressure (quite uncomfortable I have to say) before applying this black herbal 跌打 paste which he makes from scratch - secret family handed-down recipe. He applies it hot to my shoulder before wrapping it up and tells me to keep it hydrated with alchohol for the next 48hrs. After about 5 sessions with him I definitely felt my shoulder ease up but at that time I was still quite complacent about warming up before playing, so ended up injuring myself again!
I really don't believe there is any placebo effect from proper accupuncturist - although accupuncture does not cure/treat everything. It has stood the test of time given it is thousands of years old. But I have to say there are a lot of bogus or bad practitioners that have tarnished this ancient healing practice. Accupuncture is now taught at most physiotherapy universities in the UK now as part of the course and is recognised by western medicine to be effective even though it is not fully understood. I also read that they are also treating animals with accupuncture now as it has shown to be quite effective.
I have no idea, I'm not an expert. But when I had accupuncture from my physio for my knee, he did both at the same time - didn't really help mind you. When I went to see that 跌打 practitioner, there was no exercises to do, just keep drinking, I mean "hydrating" it with alcohol. lol
