Low Back Pain

Acupuncture is commonly used for pain management.  Interestingly, everyone's pain tolerance varies in great degrees.  Some patients can bare their pain for months or even years, but some patients want to get rid of their pain right away either with pain medications or physical therapy.  Unfortunately doctors and patients don't think of acupuncture as the first resort.  In Chinese Medicine, we call pain a blockage in the Meridian or Channel, so we commonly say that when there is pain, there is a blockage, and when there is no blockage, there will be no pain.  I see many patients on a weekly basis who have low back pain with sciatica.  In one particular case, after a series of electric-acupuncture treatments, for the first time in many months, the patient was able to pick up her granddaughter and hold her, which gave her immense joy, that is priceless and heart-warming.  Being able to improve one's quality of life with acupuncture gives me great pleasure in my profession.

~ Mei Lin Maunakea

Image credit to Pain Health