The pulse is a kind of a monitor. When I touch an acupuncture point with a round-tip needle, the pulse changes. If what I did to the acupuncture point, the pulse becomes softer and slower, but if I did something wrong to the acupuncture point or my skill was not good enough, the pulse becomes harder and faster. That is why I check the pulse frequently after I touch an acupuncture point with a round-tip needle or insert a regular needle. The pulse also changes by just touching with the finger. If I touch an acupuncture point too hard with my finger, the pulse becomes hard and/or fast, and if I touch an unsuitable acupuncture point for your body, the pulse also changes the same way. The same thing happens to the abdomen and other parts of the body. If I touch a suitable acupuncture point with right strength, the abdomen becomes soft and smooth. So I check the abdomen and the muscle of the neck as well in order to confirm my pulse reading is correct, especially when the changes of the pulse is subtle. That the pulse becomes harder and faster means your body gets stressed, while that the pulse becomes softer and slower means your body gets relaxed, which is the condition that acupuncture tries to lead to.
0 Comments
The patient was 9 years old girl. She had been to my clinic for other health issues, but one day she came with her right ankle pain. She hurt her right ankle a few days ago, but she didn’t know how it happened. The inside of her right ankle hurt when she walked or just stood.
Laying her down on her back, I checked her ankle. There was heat around ankle bone. When the ankle was twisted inward and outward, and was flexed downward and upward, she felt pain inside of her ankle. After general pediatric acupuncture treatment, I checked her right ankle for painful points with pressure. There were 5 painful points and I tried to relieve the pain, but a few points remained painful. Then when she stood up, her ankle still hurt even though it was a little better. When she came to my clinic 2 days after the last treatment, her ankle still hurt. She went to see a doctor and took X-rays, but there was nothing wrong. When I checked her ankle for painful points with pressure, there were no painful points around the ankle bone but 2 painful points on the ankle bone. After general pediatric acupuncture treatment, I gave a little strong vibration with a tool called Dispersion needle to the painful points on the ankle bone, and then asked her to stand up. She said her ankle didn’t hurt. She went home without an ankle support brace she had been wearing when she had come. When she came back 4 days later, she didn’t feel any pain in her ankle even if I pressed around her ankle and there was no heat around the ankle. This was a case that a tiny hairline crack on her ankle bone was suspected, which didn’t show up on X-rays, but Dispersion needle was as effective for this kind of cases as I had experienced before. [Acu Note] Pain and tingling sensation from low back to thigh diagnosed with Meralgia Paresthetica3/19/2019 A woman with the age of 60s came to my clinic with pain and tingling sensation in her left inguinal area, low back, buttock and thigh.
4 weeks ago she had visited a doctor and had been diagnosed with shingles, and a week later she had visited another doctor and had been diagnosed with Meralgia Paresthetica. She had tried to cool, warm the area of the pain, apply CBD cream and take pain killers every 4 hours, but there had not been any improvement. She was referred to my clinic by her niece who was my patient, but very skeptical about acupuncture. Her symptom showed up when she lay on her side during sleep. After the first treatment, pain and tingling sensation in her left thigh disappeared and she could sleep on either side, but she seemed still skeptical and was thinking that it got better because one week had passed. After the second treatment, pain and tingling sensation in her low back, buttock and inguinal area disappeared mostly as well. At this point, she seemed like trusting the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment. I finished her third treatment telling her to come back for 2 more treatments to prevent reoccurrence. A patient came to my clinic. He had had ringing in the ear before. That had been good after some acupuncture treatments, but it came back.
In the case of ringing in the ear, I usually retain needles at the points located around the ear in addition to the whole body treatment, and at the end of the treatment, I leave a short needle at one of the points around the ear. I did the similar treatment on him, but when he came back, he told me that his ear was good for just a few days. So I left a short needle at the different point from the previous treatment, but the result of the treatment was almost the same. So I decided to leave a tiny ball on a sticker around his hip joint. Hip joint? When he had come for ringing in the ear previously, it had been difficult to leave a needle around the ear because of the hair, so I had tried to use a point around the hip joint. This point had not been indicated for ringing in the ear, but I just had felt like it could be effective for the ear. And actually it had worked well. But I found a good needle which could stay even in the hair so that I started to use the needle in the hair instead of the hip joint point. He came back again in a week and this time he told me he didn’t notice ringing in the ear so much. Hip joint for ringing in the ear? Acupuncture is interesting. I had been feeling uncomfortable in my right hip joint, but I went out for running and stopped running after I ran 5 miles due to pain in my right hip joint.
The next day I felt pain in the hip joint only after a half mile walk and when I’m sitting or lying down, I felt pain in the inside of my right knee and lower leg, squeezing feeling in my right thigh, ankle and top of my right foot. It is difficult to treat yourself because you can’t reach where the cause of the pain is or where you want to needle, especially when the symptom is on your back side. But since the condition was the same on the following day, I decided to start treating myself. After self-acupuncture treatments of about twice a week for 1 month, there was no pain while sitting or lying down, and less pain when I walked, so I tried to run about 3 miles. While I was running, there was no pain so that I thought my hip joint got better, but the next day I couldn’t walk more than a half mile without pain. Again I started treating myself. I continued self-treatment for 2 weeks, but this time my hip joint didn’t get better at all even though I did the same kind of treatments I had done before. When I started to think that I should visit another acupuncturist, an idea came to my mind. I usually put the thinner side of a round-tip needle on an acupuncture point, but I came up with the idea of putting the thicker side of the round-tip needle on an acupuncture point, flipping the round-tip needle. Then I touched an acupuncture point located on the side of my abdomen called GB26 with the thicker side of the round-tip needle, and moved my right hip joint. When I was touching the point with the thinner side, there was pain by moving the hip joint, but touching the point with the thicker side decreased the pain in the hip joint. After that experience, I continued self-treatment, incorporating this method, and the pain in the hip joint gradually disappeared. 2 weeks later I tried to run again about 3 miles, but the pain in the hip joint didn’t happen. Then I tried 6 miles and 9 miles, but the pain didn’t come back. As I mentioned at the beginning, self-treatment is difficult because what can be done on myself is very limited compared to the treatment for others, but it is a very good chance to find better way to treat a patient because I can try something I usually don’t do on my patients. A patient with the age of 60s came to my clinic with pain in her right upper abdomen. The pain started 9 months ago and she didn’t have any idea why it had started hurting. She had been to some hospitals to have blood work, ultrasound and x-ray, but the cause of the pain was unknown.
The pain in the right upper abdomen occurred when she twisted her body and when she lifted her right knee toward her chest. First I checked her pulse. There was a sign of fracture in her pulse. When I checked the area of the pain, there were some painful points on the lower rib (coastal arch) with pressure of fingers. According to her pulse and the pain on the rib, I suspected of a hairline crack of the rib. I gave her the treatment to harmonize all the body and the treatment to remove the pain in the area, and I added the treatment for hairline crack with a special needle called Dispersion Needle. After the treatment, there was less pain when she twisted her body and when she lifted up her knee toward her chest. I gave her 2 more similar treatments and ended the course of the treatment for the pain on her rib since she didn’t feel pain with the movements of twisting and lifting her knee. There is nothing to do when nothing comes out by any tests in the hospital, but it is interesting that acupuncture has the way to approach those symptoms. A patient with the age of 30s came to my clinic for low back pain. Her low back hurt with bending forward and backward. She was also suffering from a severe headache from the back of her neck to the back of her left eye for 3 days. She took medication, but the headache didn’t get better. She had had a chronic headache since she was a child almost every day.
When I checked her body, she had a lot of painful points between shoulder blades and her left buttock. After removing all the painful points with 2 needles on her head and left low back, her headache was gone. After some touch-up treatment, I had her stand up and check her back. There was no pain in her low back with bending forward and backward. Since she had a headache in the back of her eye, I was planning to use another acupuncture point which was usually used for such a headache at the end of the treatment, but it was not necessary. I think that her headache comes from the tightness between her shoulder blades and continuous acupuncture treatment helps improve her chronic headache from her childhood. There are 2 types of chronic joint pain.
One is the joint pain coming from the injury in the joint. This is the case that acute joint pain becomes chronic joint pain. For example, after you sprained your ankle, pain in the ankle continues for more than a month though the pain goes up and down. Another is the joint pain gradually appearing without a specific injury in the joint. For example, the elbow has been painful even if you didn’t fall down or hit your elbow, or you didn’t play tennis or golf right before the pain started. Both types of chronic joint pain cause or are caused by blockage of energy flow in your body. The blockage of energy flow appears as a form of pressure-pain or tightness in the other part of the body and the joint itself. For example, when you have chronic knee pain, in most cases, there are pressure-pain or tightness in your low back and buttocks. In my practice, knee pain is sometimes improved by only releasing these pressure-pain or tightness without treating the knee itself because the knee pain is considered as caused by tightness of low back or hip joint. However, in the case of the joint pain coming from the injury in the joint, the joint is often necessary to be treated directly because this type of chronic joint pain often has the blockage of energy in the injured joint. Let me give you another example. In the case of elbow pain, treating pressure-pain or tightness between shoulder blades often improves elbow pain. That means tightness of the neck and shoulders causes the elbow pain and removing the blockage of energy flow appearing in this area leads to the healing of the elbow pain. In my acupuncture practice, I usually release the pressure-pain connected to the joint pain within the treatment. In the above elbow pain’s example, tender points between shoulder blades and around elbow disappear after the treatment. So surprisingly you should not feel tender on the points where were tender or painful before the treatment when I press the points again. I think this kind of instant result or phenomenon doesn’t happen other than acupuncture. I don’t say your joint pain will be fixed by one treatment, but I think you will feel improvement after every treatment. Pain is essential to us because pain is a warning signal. Pain informs us that there is imminent danger or abnormality and we need to avoid the danger.
For example, in the case that you step on a nail, you feel pain and step back quickly to prevent the nail from puncturing your foot more deeply. Therefore, this type of pain is on our side. When you injure somewhere in your body, our body transmits a signal of pain and causes inflammation including redness, heat, swelling and pain. This is considered as acute pain. If this pain signal continues for a long time, our nerve memorizes the pain and the pain becomes chronic even after the injury is cured. So it is important to control the pain at the beginning of the injury not to make the pain chronic. That is why it is okay to use painkiller (anti-inflammatory analgesics) or icing in the case of acute joint pain with severe pain. Why Painkiller should not be used for chronic pain? Because painkiller is not effective against chronic pain. Painkiller prevents the production of the substance to dilate the blood vessel and contracts the blood vessel, preventing the blood flow. Our body wants to provide a lot of blood to the diseased area to supply nutrition that improves the injury. But continuous use of painkiller prevents the improvement of blood flow and delays the cure. Therefore, painkiller is proper to be used for acute pain for a short period of time and should not be used for chronic pain. The same is true of cold patch (topical anti-inflammatory analgesics). 1st: Chosen by 31 out of 100 Acupuncturists
Indications Stiff neck and shoulders, Headache, Cold intolerance, Edema, Stress, Anxiety, Insomnia, Tiredness of Eyes, Low back pain, Knee pain, Constipation, Menstrual cramps, rough skin, High blood pressure, Diarrhea, Pollen allergy, Sore throat, Toothache, Dizziness, Snoring, Ringing in ears This acupuncture point is all-around and the strongest acupuncture point effective for various symptoms all over the body. Acupuncture point Large Intestine-4 (LI4) Location of LI4 LI4 is located where the bones of the index finger and the thumb meets and is the index finger side (Fig. 1). Pressing LI4 promotes the secretion of the substance having an analgesic effect and affects the symptoms all over the body. How to press LI4 Push your thumb into the inside of your index finger and count 10 (Fig. 2). |
IchiroThis Blog is for a memo of my clinical realizations, information about health I have learned recently and update information. Archives
January 2024
Categories
All
|