Every year millions of people consult their doctors about pain. Chronic back pain is one of the most frequent complaint and rivals only arthritis as being the cause of most missed days of work. A lingering pain condition can be totally disabling.
People with chronic painful conditions often seek medical treatment thinking of their body like their cars. All the doctor needs to do is to find out why they are in pain and then make it go away by cutting the right nerve or give them some magic pill or injection. Unfortunately things are rarely that simple, the diagnostic tests such as X-Rays, Myleograms and CAT scans frequently don't show very much in spite of the pain. Surgery is often unsuccessful and can leave the patient with worse pain and disability. Conventional treatment relies on painkiller and anti-inflammatory drugs. A standard treatment for severe arthritis is cortisone steroids, sometimes by injection. Cortisone has undesirable side effects even aspirin may cause stomach ulcers. The harm that these drugs do to a patient's general health often outweighs their temporary advantage. Ultimately, some are told, at the end of a long and frustrating treatment course that they are going to have to learn to live with their condition.
Acupuncture can give us valuable choices in the treatment of these acute and chronic conditions. Chinese Medicine is a powerful and complete system of medicine that has diagnosed, treated and prevented illness for well over 2000 years. There is a full range of effective treatments of both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. It is possible to take away a chronic knee, elbow or back pain that has plagued a patient for months or years.
