As you age, pain becomes a significant impediment to having a quality life and sometimes could turn out to be a major health problem. A 2019 study showed that 58.9% of all American adults experienced pain in the previous three months. 39% of senior citizens, or those aged 65 or older, suffered back pain, and 30.7% had pain in the upper limb. Further, 36.5% of the adult population experienced lower limb pain, explaining how pain increases as you grow older. Most of the respondents claimed the pain disrupted their quality of life. With pain being prevalent as you age, it is critical to find therapeutic solutions to safely and effectively manage it.
Using pharmaceutical interventions as you age poses a significant challenge because crucial organs like the liver and kidneys are less efficient and could result in toxic buildup in the body. Therefore, you should explore alternative medicine techniques, like acupuncture, which utilizes tiny needles to stimulate specific areas of the body to alleviate pain and restore normal organ and body systems’ functioning. Understanding the acupuncture procedure in pain alleviation can reduce or eliminate needling anxiety, which discourages many from using the treatment.
Reasons You Start to Experience Pain as You Age
Several factors explain the prevalence of pain as people age, particularly among senior citizens. As you age, you are more prone to develop diseases like osteoporosis and osteoarthritis (OA), which are associated with chronic pain.
Besides, as you get older, your body heals slowly, meaning that delayed healing can result in continuous pain when you sustain injuries.
Similarly, aging degenerates the neural circuits that modulate pain, leading to psychological changes that cause these people to perceive pain more than the younger generation.
Whatever the cause of your pain, you can manage it using Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), like acupuncture. People have the misconception that you cannot avoid pain as you age, causing many adults and elders to live with pain without seeking treatment. Do not allow this misconception to deter you from exploring safe pain management therapies, like acupuncture.
Effects of Pain on Your Mental Well-being and Routines
Pain disrupts many aspects of your life. In addition to the physical suffering, pain interferes with your body's functionality, forcing you to depend on others, even for the activities that came so naturally for you. It restricts your mobility and elevates the risk of falling. Grooming, cooking, and personal hygiene become impossible tasks, forcing you to depend on loved ones, which leads to loss of independence. Having to rely on others for almost every activity can severely dent your emotional and mental health, and this is supported by data that shows 65% of patients with at least one pain symptom suffer from depression.
Pain, especially persistent or chronic, reduces the performance of activities, leading to patients' withdrawal from social places. The persistent pain, loss of independence, and isolation lead to mood swings and mental issues.
The pain also disrupts sleep patterns. Lack of sleep makes you easily irritable and fatigued and lowers your quality of life. Sleep loss also alters your perception of pain, causing you to report experiencing pain, even when you are not.
Understanding the adverse effects of pain as you grow helps you appreciate or recognize the benefits of TCM, like acupuncture, in alleviating or managing pain. Further, research shows that acupuncture can treat headaches, neck pain, and other acute pains.
Acupuncture Overview
Acupuncture is a 3,000-year-old TCM that heals various health problems. The treatment uses the principle or concept of vital energy called Chi or Qi, which flows through meridian pathways or channels. A balance in this vital energy is crucial in maintaining spiritual, physical, and emotional well-being. However, when qi is blocked in the meridians or is imbalanced, you develop diseases or pain. Acupuncture treats diseases and pain by unblocking or creating balance in vital energy.
At first, experts used sharp stones to restore free qi flow and balance. Over the years, the treatment has evolved, with acupuncturists inserting the tiny needles instead of sharp rocks, as it was previously, in specific energy points called acupoints.
In the West, medical experts recommend acupuncture as a complementary treatment, combining it with Western pain management solutions. Also, acupuncturists know the human anatomy and physiology, and they combine this with the TCM principles to manage or treat pain.
A study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows that acupuncture significantly reduced pain and improved mobility in senior citizens with persistent low back pain more than patients under pain management prescriptions or physical therapy. Patients with opioid addiction, particularly those with cancer, can fight the addiction using this alternative pain management technique.
The Process of Managing Pain with Acupuncture
Acupuncture runs under the concepts of the five aspects and the harmony of yin and yang. Your body operates on a life or vital energy called qi. Internal and external elements can impair the free flow or balance of the energy. Muscle restriction and pain occur when the energy is blocked in its channels.
Acupuncture alleviates muscle restrictions by inserting tiny needles in the skin at the acupoints. The insertion causes the body to release natural substances called endorphins that function like morphine to kill pain. The only difference between endorphins and morphine is that they do not cause addiction or other side effects associated with the use of morphine for pain management.
Acupuncturists achieve the effect by twirling the tiny needles or stimulating them with heat or electricity. Other stimulation techniques include herbs, moxibustion, and cupping. Stimulation enables the tailoring of acupuncture to produce specific opioid peptides endogenously, meaning the treatment can be customized to address the particular pain needs of a patient.
The primary objective of acupuncture is to restore life force flow and balance in the body, enabling the system and organs to regain optimal function. The technique does not specifically focus on healing various illnesses. Combining the therapy with exercises and a balanced diet will improve your quality of life as you age, instead of deteriorating.
During the procedure, the licensed acupuncturist inserts ten needles in acupoints and gives you 10 to 30 minutes to rest before removing them. A pain management session can last at least 15 minutes and up to an hour, depending on your needs.
The treatment begins to take effect after fifteen minutes. You can tell you have achieved qi if you experience soreness, heaviness, or numbness in acupoints where the needles have been inserted. These sensations signal a stimulation of the nervous system and initiation of pain relief.
When you seek treatment immediately, the pains start to occur, and acupuncture becomes very effective in pain management. The therapeutic sessions are short, and adjustments can be made to prevent recurrence. However, when you live with the pain for a long time, it might turn into a health crisis that is difficult to manage even with TCM, as the body’s healing abilities diminish as you age. Although acupuncture will produce results regardless of the duration you have been having the pain syndrome, the focus will be more on managing the pain rather than addressing the underlying condition causing the pain.
The Role of an Acupuncturist in Managing Pain as You Get Older
When you visit your acupuncturist for the initial consultation, they will thoroughly examine your entire body. The examination is necessary, particularly when your pain is systemic to osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. Most of these conditions are caused by blocked or imbalanced vital energy. Therefore, the practitioner uses acupuncture to restore harmony and flow in the entire system, thus curing or managing your pain.
When you suffer from migraines or headaches, halitosis, dry eyes, or constipation, your TCM practitioner will identify acupoints in the stomach and large intestines and stimulate them for improved digestion. Besides, focusing on the stomach reduces migraine frequency, meaning that you can use acupuncture for headache management.
Depending on the injured soft tissues and nerves, your acupuncturist selects the acupoints to stimulate. Some lower back pains are due to herniated discs that compress the nerves, causing acute pain. Acupuncture targets acupoints in the area of the decompressed nerves to unblock free qi flow, thus alleviating the pain.
An acupuncturist will target trigger points during treatment if you struggle with muscle contractions. Trigger points are highly sensitive areas that trigger a twitch response when stimulated using acupuncture, causing immediate pain relief.
Acupuncture Treatment Preparation
It is common for pain to creep in as you age. You might experience sudden knee pains, neck pains, or back pains that come and go. The problem is that when you start experiencing these symptoms, you can easily assume it is due to old age and turn to pharmaceutical solutions to relieve the pain. However, ten years later, you might find yourself with a significant health crisis, some triggered by the persistent pain you have been assuming. The physical exercises and activities you used to enjoy now become a source of knee, back, and neck pain. You are at this point because you disregarded the warning signs when you could have taken action and managed or treated the pain before it became worse.
Therefore, do not let pain define your adult or senior citizen life. You can turn to acupuncture at the early onset of the pain symptoms for better pain management as you age. When considering acupuncture, you can ask family members, friends, coworkers, or your Western medicine doctor for recommendations. Doctors sometimes complement modern pain relief drugs with TCM techniques like acupuncture for better results. So, your doctor can refer you to a few licensed acupuncturists.
Once you have received recommendations, you must research these experts to ensure they have the qualifications to practice acupuncture. A qualified acupuncturist must have passed the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine test.
List down the names of all the qualified acupuncturists in your area and then call them or arrange a face-to-face meeting. The physical or over-the-phone meeting is intended to understand their services and how they will manage your pain as you age. Do not forget to inquire about the safety and effectiveness of the treatment.
Request quotations from all the acupuncturists you are considering and compare them to find the practitioner offering uncompromised services at reasonable rates. Also, you should check if your health insurer provides coverage for the treatment. If they do, it will significantly lower the treatment cost.
Acupuncture reduces muscle tension, improves mood and sleep, enhances mobility, and provides a calming effect like a massage. You do not have to make any significant lifestyle changes for results. Nevertheless, you should avoid other pain relief solutions like alcohol, potent antidepressants, or stimulants like coffee and cannabis in the days leading up to your treatment. This is encouraged because using pain relievers or stimulants disrupts vital energy balance in the body, reducing acupuncture effectiveness. Again, take a light meal at least an hour before your acupuncture appointment.
During the appointment, your practitioner inserts tiny needles in acupoints around the injured area. You will experience minimal discomfort during needle insertion, but this goes away after the insertion.
Acupuncture combines Western medicine and TCM techniques. Therefore, when you visit the practitioner, they will ask questions about your medical history, evaluate past medical reports, and thoroughly examine the areas where you are experiencing pain. They will check the color of your face and tongue as part of the diagnosis. Once they establish the source of your pain, they will develop a treatment plan that meets your unique needs.
Find a Competent Acupuncture Practitioner Near Me
There is a common misconception that pain is inevitable as you age. However, this is not true, as pain is a signal that you have an underlying issue. You should listen to your body and seek treatment immediately when experiencing the symptoms. The safest and most effective pain management solution as you age is acupuncture. You should find a registered acupuncturist if you are interested in the treatment.
At Art of Chinese Healing, we can restore your quality of life as you age through acupuncture for pain management. Call us at 310-405-1610 for a free consultation with our experienced practitioners in Los Angeles, CA.