Give Shoulder Pain the Cold Shoulder With Acupuncture

The shoulder is a fascinating, complicated an important area of the body. It has an incredible range of motion and thus allows our arms to movie in many different ways and accomplish a wide variety of tasks. Everything from everyday chores to incredible athletic feats like pitching (Happy Baseball Playoffs!) and hitting a tennis ball are possible because of the little ball and joint located at the tops of our arms.

The problem with the shoulder? Because it’s so amazing and allows us to do so many different things, it is unfortunately prone to many different types of injuries and discomfort. Previously, we covered the condition known as Frozen Shoulder, and how acupuncture can help with the, well, unfreezing return the shoulder to full range of motion without pain. But there are a number of other shoulder conditions, major and minor, that acupuncture can also help with, including bursitis, rotator cuff injuries, arthritis, tendonitis, labrum injuries, and more.

It depends on the specific ailment, so it’s important to see a specialist to determine exactly what type of shoulder issue you are experiencing. However, acupuncture will be able to help in many ways, regardless of the condition, by doing a number of things. First, acupuncture helps regulate the energy in the body, clearing up blockages in the meridians that are helping cause the pain and discomfort at the point of injury. Acupuncture also increases blood flow which acts as a natural anti-inflammatory, a holistic and safe alternative to cortisone shots and prescription painkillers and other medication. And finally, acupuncture, particularly electroacupuncture, can actually help speed up the healing and repair of damaged tissues and muscles.

Whether you’re a professional baseball player or just hoping to do household chores like the laundry and grocery shopping without pain, your shoulders are of utmost importance. If you ever have an issue with them, acupuncture is here to help!

How Acupuncture Can Help Relieve Tendonitis

Acupuncture is one of the most well known and well studied natural remedies for pain relief — including for pain related to tendonitis.

Known as more of an umbrella term for pain radiating from tendons without any other verifiable diagnosis, tendonitis can be extremely painful; limiting mobility and quality of life. Symptoms include pain, swelling, and redness, and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, tendonitis causes more than 70,000 people to miss work per year.

It’s also starting to manifest in new ways, and for different reasons than before. We are all using our hands more than ever before — but not in the most natural ways. Texting and typing are leading to more and more cases of tendonitis, as a hand and orthopedic surgeon explained, she has been seeing a rise in patients with tendonitis, especially in the wrist and fingers. She attributes a lot of this to tablet and smartphone habits.

Luckily, we can help.

Pain is the result of blocked or imbalanced qi along your inner meridians, which acupuncture can help to restore. By renewing the blood supply around the injured area and restoring the proper flow of energy, acupuncture also will trigger the release of pain-reducing endorphins, so swelling and pain will be reduced as mobility is increased.

A trained and licensed acupuncturist can help you to find relief.

Depending on the area of concern (the wrist and elbow are most common) acuneedles will be inserted in targeted acupuoints as you sit back and relax, enjoying the warming sensation of an infrared heating app as the work begins to set in. You may experience relief in just one session, though consecutive appointments are necessary in the beginning for maximum benefits.

We look forward to serving you along your journey to better health.

Why Acupuncture Is The Best Bet To Beat Tendonitis

Tendonitis is one of the most common injuries affecting both athletes as well as everyday people. Anyone who uses a particular part of the body over and over is susceptible to tendonitis. Repetitive motion causes strain on the tendon—the fibrous tissue that connects our muscles to our bone—which eventually leads to inflammation and in many cases, degeneration of the actual fibers themselves. That’s why the name “Tennis Elbow” has been coined for elbow tendonitis…you can imagine the amount of strain put on a tennis player’s elbow, hitting shot after shot after shot in largely the same motion.

For many, the answer for tendonitis seems to lie in cortisone injections. But these injections bring with them a host of potential side effects, including extra pain and swelling, infection, allergic reactions and in rare cases, even nerve damage. For many, a cortisone shot can temporarily relieve pain—allowing that person to return to work or to the field or court for the time being. But there is no healing being done to the root cause, and more often than not, pain and discomfort will rear its ugly head once again.

That is, unless you seek out acupuncture.

Traditional Chinese Medicine has been shown to be an effective remedy for healing the pain caused by tendonitis, and also by doing just a bit more. That’s because acupuncture doesn’t just reduce inflammation; in the case of tendonitis, it helps repair the damaged fibers that cause the inflammation and pain in the first place.

As Mark Kastner, LAc writes, “The concept of acupuncture moving the qi and Blood to assist in healing is also not without merit as numerous studies have shown acupuncture does increase vasodilatation around inserted needles, along with the anti-inflammatory molecule adenosine.” This helps regenerate the damaged fibers, replacing them with healthy ones that don’t result in pain when the tendon is being used.

Tendonitis is very common, but you don’t have to make a cortisone shot a regular part of your life. Instead, let acupuncture do the healing for you the natural and holistic way.