Pain Management

When we take into account back pain, arthritis, repetitive stress injuries, and sports injuries we realize that the majority of the population is often managing some sort of painful condition. Unfortunately, the help we receive when we visit our primary doctor is often minimal and fails to get to the root of the problem.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) approaches the treatment of painful conditions in an entirely different way. TCM recognizes that there are many subtleties to the types of pain we experience and many reasons why our bodies are unable to heal themselves. Masking the symptoms is not enough. The pain will never truly go away until the tissue is healed and the underlying factor impairing the body’s natural ability to heal is removed.

This type of targeted and supportive care requires a very sophisticated system of diagnosis and specific treatment. TCM differentiates pain according to where in the body it is located, what type of pain is felt (sharp, dull, shooting, etc), what factors make it better or worse, and any other imbalances in the patient’s constitution. Through this very specific classification of the painful condition, targeted and supportive care can be prescribed. The result is individualized treatment plans for the specific patient that often lead to dramatic and rapid reductions in their pain.

Acupuncture is a modality of TCM that addresses many types of pain by releasing the body’s own pain-killing endorphins, increasing blood flow, and reducing stress. Together with functional medicine which addresses the root cause of health issues, many patients find relief for lower back, neck, shoulder, knee, and other chronic pain. Inflammation, injury, or other issues that result in pain can be treated so that you enjoy relief and can go about your routine.

At Points for Wellness, we integrate additional modalities such as acupuncture, herbal medicine, bodywork, rehabilitative exercise, cupping, dietary modification, and relaxation techniques. Our approach is to be aggressive with frequent treatments in the beginning in order to effect change and eliminate the pain. Most patients see results within a few treatments and depending on the injury, pain is greatly reduced or gone within 5-7 treatments.