Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Hmm, have you had an ergonomic evaluation of the major places you work at (desks or tables you type at, especially)? I had bad shoulder pain in my last job that went away after a week with an ergonomically tweaked workstation.

I've got a chair that's good on my back. It's more likely due to my having a very heavy knapsack hanging off my left shoulder when I did my absurd amount of air travel during the past couple of months.

Ok, forgive me for being a hypochondriac by proxy...but if your arm pain persists, gets worse on exertion (I don't mean moving your arm, I mean it gets worse when you go up stairs, for example) or is accompanied by shortness of breath...um, see a doctor. You see, I was really counting on reading your next book!

Acupuncture has worked for me, but not always alone. Since I could not get rid off something similar to what you have I followed a chiropractor’s advice: walk 15 to 30 minutes every day for a week or two. (Best if it is done on uneven terrain... not pavement).
It worked wonders for me. And whenever I feel lumbago is lurking on the corner, I go back to my walking :-)

As they say here in Norway: god bedring!

Lisa, thanks for your concern, which I tried to forestall by not pointing out that it's my left arm that aches. But, even though I had no other symptoms, our clinic gave me an EKG before sending me off to the acupuncturist. The ol' ticker is fine. At least it was two weeks ago.

See you tonight at the Berkman Thursday night meeting.

Álvaro, thank you for the advice. (When you say "walk 15-30 minutes," I assume that you mean browsing a site such as walk.com or exercise.com for 15-20 mins, right? :)

You'd think with all the needling I give you, you'd be in perfect health!

Uh, where can I send my bill?

;^)

A friend in chronic pain since hit by a drunk driver years ago was treated at the University of Washington hospital by an acupuncturist who was also an M.D. The doctor/acupuncturist told him that the results seemed to divide into thirds -- about a third found it helped, a third didn't respond one way or another, and a third found only that it hurt. My friend fell in the middle third.

Acupuncture? Needle placebos. I hope they work for you, but wouldn't you be better off (physically and financially) taking pain-killers?

I found that accupuncture got rid of the pain for three days or so but did nothing for my underlying problem causing the pain. Better ergonomics and physical therapy did the trick.

Sorry to say, David, but you need to start doing some regular physical exercise - not only the walking, but also some weight lifting to maintain your muscle mass and therefore, support your limbs. The pain you describe is related to carpal tunnel. You can still work yourself out of it by developing muscle mass strong enough to support your hours of mousing around, but you've definitely hit the age when you can't pound the puter sans exercise without serious consequences. Get yourself on a program and stick with it.

Sorry!

wow, so much good feedback about personal experiences. As a licensed acupuncturist, I would say the theory of thirds was developed by someone more research-oriented than someone more clinically-oriented, but that's just my intuition.

your description of the needling and symptoms describes something less like carpal tunnel alone than the involvement of muscles in the neck, shoulder, and even those around the clavicle (keep in mind i haven't seen you, and don't know what part of the wrist it the pain is centralized in), which commonly refer pain into the wrist and sometimes cause carpal-tunnel like symptoms. This doesn’t mean your wrist isn’t tight and filled with trigger points, but the strategy of treating the problem from the origin down to the wrist itself is sound.

Richard Carter, ~Chip :), and others are correct: your problem comes from somewhere, most likely what you're doing at work/desk. Ergonomic chairs, they help, but until you start doing stretches to alleviate the restrictions along the nerve pathway (where you feel tension/pain/etc, from neck to hand), and follow-up with strengthening exercises to support good posture and keep you from compromising your mechanics when overworked or tired, the problem is likely to recur.

For something like this, acupuncture usually works best to get the blockages out of the way quickly, so you can start developing the strength and the limberness necessary to keep it at bay in the future. You know it’s working if you have less pain in the areas treated. Most acupuncturist know something about Chinese exercises effective at rehabilitating injuries like these, and believe it or not things like diet and making sure you’re not sitting in a cold draft or AC while working can make a big difference in recovery.

There is really no scientific theory behind accupuncture but it has been believed to be effective for many problems.

I did some acupuncuter lately. It wasn't for a broken leg, but my injury went away very fast after only one treatement. It was in Las vegas where I had it done.
It was some old chinese guy:)
Anna W.

The above post by stevepanglac talking about wrist pain originating from problems in the shoulder is a very good comment. I am an acupuncturist, and in my clinic hand pain of the type that people think is carpal tunnel syndrome is most often a problem with tight muscles in the upper back and shoulder pressing on nerves and causing pain to be felt in the hand. Acupuncture in the wrist can even increase the pain, while acupuncture correctly applied to the points in the shoulder can often quickly relieve the pain.

The good thing about acupuncture is that the pain relief is long term and there are no side effects of the drugs. For example, they did a study on neck pain and headaches, the participants of the study still felt the benefit three years later.
However, the effect of acupuncture is not always as immediate as the drugs.
With the drugs is just opposite. You get relief right away, for short time (4-12 hours), you get side effects (digestive system, cardiovascular system, etc may be affected).
As far as the cost is concerned, there were a few comparative studies done in UK, and it appears that acupuncture is comparable or cheaper than orthodox care. And they didn't take into account the damage to your health that the drugs can cause.

Acupuncture is a centuries-old chinese method of healing. Acupuncture is the insertion of really fine needles (sometimes in conjunction with electric current). Acupuncture is something that has mystified and baffled scientists researchers and the public for some time. On the average probably no more than 10 points or so can be selected for treatment. Blockage of energy is responsible for pain or disease in the corresponding body part.

Elboydny

Someone once told me that it's not so much a theory as a mnemonic device.

This is not entirely correct. Chinese medicine has a theory that is very old. Back then Chinese knew the anatomy pretty well. They also knew many diseases (syndromes) and had detailed descriptions of them. Over centuries they empirically came up with an effective treatment for these diseases.
They believed, that diseases are caused by problems with the internal organs. However had very strange explanations of the diseases and names for them. For example hypertension was called liver yang rising.

They had many other theories that are extremely interesting and still very relevant in the medicine today. For example, they explain how emotions may affect the physical health and vice versa. The connection conventional medicine has been denying for decades...

Conventional medicine often works the same way. And some diseases still have funny names. Like a common cold is called like that, because we used to believe that it was caused by a cold...

I also had acupuncture done for my ankle after a terrrible basketball injury.

I was really nervious and very skeptical at first. As I settled into being a human pin cushion, I felt very relaxed. And you know what it didn't hurt at all.

Most amazing was that Alysia the Acupucturist told me that I should be feel better after a few days. She was right, my ankle stopped bothering me and I played ultimate frizbe that weekend.

So bottom line is that for sports injury, acupuncture rocks. If you are interested in finding out more about Alysia and her acupuncture you can visit her web site in Portland OR. www.portlandacupuncture.net.

Peace

I have never done acupuncture but My friend who is a acupuncturist recommended a footchi reflexology mat. Check this out, this is a mat with simulated cobblestones sewn right on to the mat. You just walk on it and your own weight will give enough acupressure to move the chi or qi (energy). They did a study on it in oregon and found that it helped old people with balance and pain. Something also about lowering blood pressure. the site is Foot Chi.

I may try acupuncture but I am a needle phobic. Does anyone know if it hurts?

there is heaps of research to show that it just works!

This is a great story. Does anyone have experience using traditional chinese medicine for fertility?

Hi there! I was also searching about the effectiveness of acupuncture and my friend shared me some Acupuncture Videos
I was really amazed of what acupuncture can do as an alternative way for solving health problems.

I am going in today to an old china man that has been doing acupuncture for over 30 years, I have rods in my back and have tons of lower back pain. I also am unbalanced all the time my sholders ect. are higher on one side due to my back. I am scared of wasting money I don't have but also what can it hurt when you are in this much pain. I have been on pain killers for years and they work but are temporary and I wish I could get off them all together.

Here are some scientifically verified effects of acupuncture that were measurable by Western diagnostics:

• It can treat pain by affecting neurological transmitters and related chemicals in the central nervous system, such as serotonin, dopamine and epinephrine.

• It supports immune responses by increasing white blood cell count.

• It can normalize blood pressure and peripheral circulation in hands and feet, as well.

• It increases both the flow of calcium in broken bones and microcirculation.