Input wanted: Acupuncture, other alternative therapies?

[va_deb]

Have any of you tried acupuncture or other forms of alternative medicine for skiing or other injuries? My SO has had some issues over the years; knee - meniscus, shoulder and neck pain, and some disc/cervical spine issues that come and go. (Apparently he has a much higher threshold for pain than I do!)

He's had some surgical consultations and some PT, and wants to avoid surgery if he can. After some prodding from me he tried acupuncture and didn't feel like it did too much for him. He torqued something playing golf and ended up seeing the first guy who could fit him in sooner rather than later, and in hindsight I wish I had done more research to get some stronger recommendations.

Curious to find out if any of you have had success with acupuncture, chiropractic, or other things in the alternative medicine world.

If you had success, did you feel somewhat better right away after your first treatment? Or did it take several treatments...or trying several different practitioners to find the right one? And did your health insurance cover any of it?

I know that everyone and every situation is different, YMMV, etc. Guessing that there are likely more choices and better practitioners doing this type of thing out west than we have back east (we're in the VA/Washington D.C. area just in case anyone has specific names to suggest).

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

 

[coskigirl]

I am a big fan of dry needling and ART. Both have given some immediate relief with more gained over time. The ART combined with chiropractic work and taping are the reason that I don't need surgery on my foot yet.

 

[va_deb]

Glad you have found some relief, @coskigirl. Can you say more about dry needling? And what does ART stand for? (Guessing alternative something therapy, but Dr. Google wasn't too helpful in this case.) Thanks for sharing!

 

[coskigirl]

Sorry! Dry needling is similar to acupuncture but the needles go all the way into the muscles to trigger realese. ART is Active Release Technique and is somewhat similar to massage and acupressure.

 

[Jerez]

My DH has tried almost everything. Our experience is that different modalities work for different things for different people. You kind of have to try them and see.

I too had great success with dry needling. This is especially useful for things like chronic muscle spasms and for example it helped me recover from a sprained ankle that was slow to heal. The relief is pretty immediate. the needle, if it's placed correctly, will cause a major twitch and then the muscle will relax. Don't think it will work for disc issues unless his pain is coming from a muscle spasm that resulted from the disc. Chiropractic can be miraculous too, but not always. It fixed my headaches but made my upper back issues worse. Then I can report great success with seasonal allergies from Acupuncture. However, my DH didn't find relief that way. He did find acupuncture helped him postpone neck surgery for about a year. He also tried PRP, Regenokine and a bunch of other weirder stuff his acupuncturist sent him to. Those proved expensive and not worth it in the long run. Regenokine was the most successful, but it is obscenely expensive. It provided instant relief but only lasted a few months, not tenable at five figures a pop. Sometimes you just need the surgery. No amount of acupuncture is going to stop that nerve from pinching if it is squished between two bones.

Here's something else that didn't work for the long run: steroid shots. The most he got was a month's relief. So it's not just alternative medicine that is sketchy.

Plain old Physical Therapy with a really good therapist and a dedicated exercise regimen has worked the best and the longest for him. He is skiing bumps and steeps despite two lumbar and one neck surgeries.


All this is a long-winded way of saying that there is only a very fuzzy map of what to do. My advice is to try the things that have been around the longest like acupuncture and chiropractic and go from there. These things are an art, so try to get personal referrals. And, have your BS antennae up, because a lot of these people will try to sell you bogus supplements and other crap that you don't need and won't work.

Good Luck!

 

[SBrown]

Glad you have found some relief, @coskigirl. Can you say more about dry needling? And what does ART stand for? (Guessing alternative something therapy, but Dr. Google wasn't too helpful in this case.) Thanks for sharing!

IMS helps with the google machine re: dry needling.

 

[Lorenzzo]

For upper body issues I've found acupuncture, chiropractics and physical therapy to all be very effective. What I've gained from seeing physicians doesn't even remotely compare, I treat them as a last resort.

Somehow my lower body has the lives of a cat. Good thing I'm not superstitious.

 

[scott43]

Acupuncture didn't work for me. But then my condition probably wasn't conducive to treatment from acupuncture. I think it really depends on what you have. Acupuncture ain't gonna fix your broken leg. Otoh Advil isn't going to fix your neck muscle imbalance that's causing headaches....

 

[crgildart]

I was once a Guinea pig pin cushion for an acupuncture migraine study. Seemed to help at first but after a few weeks back to the regular pain cycles.

 

[eok]

Well, my wife is always needling me - which gives me a pain in the neck. But seriously...

I began having increasing lower spine & sacroiliac issues last year and they became more troubling last summer. Acupuncture or even NSAIDs didn't really help.

The three things that really did help me:

- Upgraded my bed & pillow to get healthy back & neck support. This alone can make a big difference for some people. Prior to doing this I'd be in major pain getting out of bed in the AM - and that pain would nag me for hours after. When I told my PT he said: fix your 'danged bed!! So I did & now I get out of bed without any pain. Yes, it did take a month or so for my back & neck to get used to the new bed before the benefits became apparent.

- Exercise tailored to strengthen the back & upper leg/hip muscles and stretching exercises to keep the trouble spots limber. It took me 2 months of this to see serious improvement. Kind of amazing how well 30min of simple targeted exercises (4 days/wk) worked. I just added them to my regular suite of exercises.

- Added a B12 supplement to my diet (2-3 time a week). My B12 level in blood tests has been borderline for at least couple years. A few weeks ago it was suggested I try a supplement to calm down some sensitivity I was still having in my lower back. I was told low B12 can promote irritation of some nerves in the back/spine because the condition can slow their natural healing/rebuilding processes. It actually worked for me. I'm still kind of shocked over this.

Anyway, those three things worked well for me. I'd say my my lower back and sacroiliac are back to pretty close to 100% now. Doubt I'll ever get back to 100% - just too many rough miles on this chassis.

 

[pete]

Don't know first hand on any alternatives, but have friends who've tried various methods.

Always a bit skeptical as some alternative folk want to book you for 6 sessions to begin with. I will say have 2 buds both who took acupuncture while doubtful, both had some leg muscle spasm/pain issue that just wouldn't go away. Both swear they'd never believe it's work but for them, did. Got another buddy who as lower back pain, severe. He had a symptom where he couldn't readily lift a leg high. Went to a chiro and after a handful of sessions worked some alignment issue in a leg that showed up as pain in the lower back due to compensating his walk. The compensation for the leg issue manifested the lower back pain, so fixing another part of the body solved the other.

PT works great for those I know with knee or lower back issues, strengthening the weak area was enough relief to avoid other more invasive fixes.

If you haven't local recommendations, I'd tend towards (if your physician hasn't a recommendation) an outfit with multiple alternatives in a regular medical office. Idea being if they share facilities they likely respect one another and would be more likely to suggest a best approach. I recall long ago in high school physics class two classmates, both right in front of me with a spat between themselves something in realm of: "my dads a doctor, a chiropractor" .. other kid whose dad is an MD says "what, he's a voodoo doctor who believes TB can be cured by whacking the back" .... they exchanged a few more fine words. Anyhow, point is that at that time few medical facilities had chiropractors in the same building, today far more common, that and PT's, Nutritionists, etc.

essentially what @scott43 says ....

 

[VickieH]

My dog suddenly developed a back problem (at day care) that left him almost unable to walk. Vet prescribed muscle relaxers, then he could walk but with a constant limp.

Then he had one acupuncture treatment. I waited a few days before starting to monitor him. He limped twice in the next week or so, then none. He was 15 and resumed his normal walking and running.

Based on this, I believe acupuncture does work. But I agree that it's not going to fix a fractured bone.

 

[cantunamunch]

Otoh Advil isn't going to fix your neck muscle imbalance that's causing headaches....

A teaspoon of turmeric in lemon water each day fixes that. What?

No, no, redoing his cockpit geometry and joining a boxing gym had nothing to do with it, it was the turmeric.

 

[Ron]

does acupuncture work? yep, does ART work? Yep, Dry needling? Cortisone? PT? yep, there's two points I wanted to make. 1- it takes hard work. Don't think that you just need to show up at PT 2x a week and not make changes to your life and you will be "cured". As @eok posted you will need to put the effort and time in to get back into shape or strengthen body areas or make a change to something in your life you don't want to. 2- Nothing will repair an injury to a ligament, tendon, cartilage/labrum or bone if its beyond what the body can do or through any conservative care protocol. That can be a very hard fact people have a very hard time accepting. I do think you should always try any viable protocol prior to surgery but sometimes prolonging the inevitable will just result in further damage. I can tell you that from personal experience on my hips. So, carefully evaluate your injury with a dr who has experience and proven track record, then formulate a plan including the protocols that hold the highest chances of success but be ready to put the work in required.

 

[Lorenzzo]

^^^ After what you've been through I defer to you.

 

[Monique]

I've had experience with a whole lot of alternative therapies for a variety of reasons. Chiro has done me a world of good, but I'd be worried about going for actual disc issues. Dry needling and the electrified version of dry needling have done a ton for me with overly tight or non responsive muscles. Specifically pecs and glutes - oh, and jaw. The pec dry needling was actually for my shoulders.

Massage is the unsung hero. I feel like people don't take it seriously as treatment because it might - gasp - feel good. For shoulder and neck issues - has he been seeing a massage therapist regularly? If not, I'd start there.

Actually - one step back - has he been doing yoga? Yoga does wonders for my shoulders. I think it's downward dog. The first one feels really awkward, but by the end of the class my shoulders are cooperating much better. I have chronic shoulder and neck issues thanks to my keyboard warrior lifestyle ...

 

[Ron]

Totally agree on Massage! Super beneficial and commonly looked at as only "makes me feel good". Neuro-muscular is my favorite to get muscles to release that are often "recruited" when there's an injury to surrounding areas. Also very good for post op treatments.

Yoga: be careful!!!! For instance, if you have a damaged disc or hip injury chances are you will just piss it off more! That's why you need to have a qualified dr evaluate your specific injury.

 

[Lorenzzo]

I'm a deep tissue massage supporter. After a succession of distance cycle rides my hamstrings recruit my lower back. That is until Brunhilda does her thing. She's sadistic and evil in a highly therapeutic kind of way.

Yoga I hate. In my version of hell it's all yoga all the time.

 

[VickieH]

Yoga: be careful!!!! For instance, if you have a damaged disc or hip injury chances are you will just piss it off more!

Apparently my dog knew that. He refused to do yoga.

 

[James]

I've had success with accupunture for neck pain stiffness that was so bad even gentle acceleration from a stoplight was agony. Also lower back pain. These were not chronic conditions though.