Acupuncture for Low Back Pain

Acupuncture can relieve low back pain and get you back to doing the things you love.

Lower back pain can be triggered by structural injuries such as poor posture, trauma, overworking the muscles from physical activity and even long-term emotional stress.

It affects nearly 80% of the population at sometime in their life. For most it’s likely to develop gradually over time through poor body mechanics or may have started after an emotionally stressful time in your life. Acupuncture can help diminish and eliminate your lower back issues. It is a safe, nonsurgical, drug free approach and can also be used in conjunction with other therapies like cupping, gut sha, local electrical stimulation and/or customized herbal medicine.

Your acupuncture practitioner can go over what combination of therapies will work for you. If stress is a trigger, additional acupuncture points can be used to help treat stress or anxiety. Acupuncture has been shown to increase the circulation of blood in the area treated, decrease inflammation, calm areas of the brain that register pain and release endorphins (our bodies’ natural feel-good chemicals). The symptoms each patient is experiencing can be looked at differently person to person, as pain frequency, intensity, location and quality can differ in each patient.

After an exam, we will give you a comprehensive treatment plan developed for your unique symptoms as we gage your response time to treatment. Many patients start noticing relief after 1-2 treatments. Herbal formulas can also be recommended at this time. Other home recommendations will be given to further assist you in achieving a strong, healthy back and prevent further injuries from occurring. Recommendations may include exercise regimens, proper stretching and lifestyle adjustments.

Cupping Therapy

In my South Loop acupuncture clinic, cupping therapy has become popular ever since the 2016 Rio Olympic Athletes were seen using it to ease their muscular pain. Cupping has been used for thousands of years, although acupuncture needles are the most commonly thought of modality in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), other tools or modalities are used as well.

Cupping in acupuncture:

Glass cupping:
Also called fire cupping, these thick warm glass cups are attached to the skins surface to create a suction/ negative pressure by introducing heat briefly to the inside of the cup just before applying it to the skin. Glass cups can also be moved around the skins surface to treat a larger surface area.

Plastic cupping:
The plastic cups are made from a hard durable plastic and comes in a variety of sizes. They’re placed onto the skin where a small device attaches to the top of the cup and can be used to pump the air out of the cup to create the suction affect. These cups are left in there position and cannot be moved around the skin.

Acupuncture Cupping Benefits

1) Warming and promoting circulation of blood and fluids
2) Diminishes swelling and pain.  
3) Muscular pain in the neck, back, shoulders, hips and legs.
4) Alleviates respiratory symptoms related to congestion, coughing and asthma.

Cupping may also be used to eliminate toxins stored in the muscle and fat tissue of our body.

What does Cupping Acupuncture Feel Like?

Most patients describe the feeling as suction cups or pressure on the skin that is warm and pleasantly comfortable. After cupping there may be a bruise at the local area, this is normal and will disappear within a few days. Multiple treatments may be needed depending on the amount of discoloration that appears after each treatment. Benefits are achieved when discoloration no longer surfaces during the cupping treatment.