Arthritic pain can flare up in your knees or hips. If you have arthritis in your knees, you may be tempted not to exercise, even though it is very important to encourage a range of movement so that your knees do not completely stiffen and seize up. Painful symptoms may be keeping you immobile. Many people have found that acupuncture helps deal with knee pain. Acupuncture, as you probably know, is an ancient Chinese treatment involving the insertion of needles into specific points on your body. The advantage of trying acupuncture for an arthritic condition is that unlike painkillers, acupuncture treatments can be adapted to your specific condition. Depending on what is causing your pain, how severe it is and how long you have had it, acupuncture can attempt to realign the imbalances that have led to inflammation in the bones of your knees or hips. Acupuncture Eases Knee Pain Acupuncture can stimulate the nervous system to release natural neuron chemicals.
These chemicals, like "serotonin," "endorphins" and "cortisol," return your body to normal balance and reduce pain and inflammation. In one clinical trial, 80 patients with confirmed cases of osteoarthritis of the knee were given acupuncture. Based on results, researchers concluded that acupuncture is an effective treatment for knee osteoarthritis. Acupuncture treatments are not painful-the needles that are used are very thin and pass easily and effortlessly into the surface of the skin. You can combine acupuncture treatments with specific exercises and stretches that help loosen up your knees and hips. Alternate some of these stretches with half-hour rest periods where your back is immobile. Lie flat on the floor if you can, and put a pillow under your knees for support. You should try to do the exercises regularly-doing them once won't help much. Set aside a specific time each day and give yourself the time and attention you need to complete them. You can even do them twice a day to keep everything loosened up. Once some of your knee pain goes away, you can start to incorporate other forms of exercise back into your life. Biking, walking and swimming are all great ways to keep limber, strong and healthy. Manage your weight by eating a healthy, balanced diet. Extra weight puts a definite strain on the knees and back muscles. Vitamin C, vitamin E and calcium can all help improve muscle and bone strength. Consider taking supplements while you are doing your exercise routine.
Acupuncture Eases Lower-back Pain A sore lower back is an all-too-common health complaint. Some people are afflicted with pain when they get out of bed in the morning. For others, pain flares up when they try to participate in a favorite activity. It doesn't really matter when your lower back starts bothering you-the point is that it hurts and it's disruptive. It can affect how much you get to do each day, and it can affect how much quality sleep you get each night. Maybe you have tried various things over the years to get rid of that persistent ache, but how about acupuncture? A study that was published in the journal Internal Medicine says that acupuncture can help chronic lower-back pain better than standard treatments. The study was done by a team at the University of Regensburg in Germany. Researchers compiled data from the "German Acupuncture trials," which involved 1,162 patients. The patients were all suffering from chronic lower-back pain. Each patient was randomly assigned to one of three groups: real acupuncture, based on traditional Chinese medicine; "fake acupuncture," involving the use of needles at non-acupuncture points; and conventional therapy that consisted of drugs, physical therapy and exercise. Each patient was given two 30-minute sessions per week. After six months of therapy, the researchers discovered that the acupuncture group showed a 46% rate of improvement in symptoms compared to the conventional-therapy group, which showed a 27% improvement. Acupuncture is a traditional form of medicine in hich practitioners believe that the body contains a natural source of energy, called "Qi." This energy flows harmoniously in a body that is healthy-in other words, here are no blockages. Any disturbance in the flow of Qi is thought to cause discomfort and illness.
This is where acupuncture could come to the rescue. Your Qi moves along pathways in your body called "meridians." Each meridian is linked to a number of internal organs, and the whole system becomes interconnected. Acupuncture points lie on specific areas along each meridian. Each acupuncture point has a name and carries a specific healing function. If you are considering giving acupuncture a try, make sure that you find a qualified practitioner. Acupuncture Boosts a Depressed Mood Along with fighting pain, acupuncture could also boost moods. When it comes to depression, acupuncture could help alleviate the symptoms that are associated with this condition. Because acupuncture helps release chemicals like serotonin in the body, it can quite effectively lift mood. Serotonin is called the "feel good" hormone by medical researchers. It can directly affect how you respond to the world around you emotionally. A research team that was based at the Institute in Medical Sciences in Shanghai, China, reviewed eight randomized, controlled trials. In the trials, 477 patients in total received acupuncture treatments to relieve ymptoms of depression. The researchers concluded that acupuncture significantly reduced the severity of symptoms in the patients examined.
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