{"id":7448,"date":"2023-10-17T13:09:43","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T17:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=7448"},"modified":"2023-10-17T13:09:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T17:09:43","slug":"acupunctured","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2023\/10\/acupunctured\/","title":{"rendered":"Acupunctured"},"content":{"rendered":"

When my doctor first suggested I try acupuncture to relieve my lower back pain, I was dubious. Would my Medicare Advantage plan pay for it? To my surprise, it would. Was it available nearby? It was. <\/span><\/p>\n

But I was still doubtful, based on what little I knew about how acupuncture works. It was invented in China several thousand years ago and rests on the belief that energy courses through the body along pathways called meridians. When they become blocked or out of balance, inserting hair-thin needles at the right points in the meridians can unblock or rebalance that energy. <\/span><\/p>\n

I have trouble believing in things I can\u2019t see, hear, touch, taste or smell and that have no scientific explanation. <\/span><\/p>\n

Physiotherapy\u2014something I could understand\u2014hadn\u2019t helped my back. I was supposed to believe acupuncture would? <\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, egged on by friends, who were probably tired of listening to me complain about my back, I did some research online. I found lots of acupuncture studies, and they reported that it can <\/span>successfully treat a host of problems<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

For starters, there is evidence that it can ease chronic pain\u2014including lower back pain like mine. It can also reduce the inflammation and misery of osteoarthritis and relieve headaches and migraines.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Acupuncture can also help resolve problems with digestion, including the nausea and vomiting that can be side effects of chemotherapy. It is effective in lowering high blood pressure and can ease depression and anxiety. It\u2019s being used today to treat PTSD, addictions, allergies, hot flashes, incontinence and more. Much more. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m leery of treatments that claim to be able to cure a whole range of unrelated maladies. If something seems too good to believe, it probably is, in my experience.  <\/span><\/p>\n

So I continued to stall. I told myself that, at 88, my creaky old body was probably too far gone for an acupuncture rescue. Further rummaging online, however, turned up the information that, though older people are often left out of research, many acupuncture studies have focused on us because it\u2019s good for so many of the things that ail us. And nobody\u2019s suggesting it should replace Western medicine. Often, it\u2019s used alongside the usual therapies\u2014medications for high blood pressure, for example\u2014to improve their results.<\/span><\/p>\n

The clincher came when my daughter reminded me that acupuncture cured her own back problem, which was much worse than mine. I\u2019d forgotten about that. I made an appointment. <\/span><\/p>\n

At our first session, Laura, my acupuncturist, described what she was about to do and how it worked. I lay down on my back with my clothes pushed aside so that the middle of my body was exposed, and Laura inserted more than a dozen sterile, extremely thin needles into my midriff, scalp, arms, legs, hands and feet. <\/span><\/p>\n

The needles didn\u2019t hurt going in and they barely penetrated my skin. Mostly, I felt a slight pressure with each one, occasionally a brief, sharp pinch. Laura focused heat lamps on the areas she\u2019d needled, then left me to relax for about 20 minutes, after which I got 10 minutes of massage that felt wonderful. <\/span><\/p>\n

Western scientists have a number of theories about acupuncture. Some believe the needling stimulates a type of nerve that can block the transmission of pain signals to the brain. Some say it triggers the release of hormones and other healing biochemicals, such as endorphins to relieve pain, melatonin for sleep problems and so on. Still others point out that acupuncture affects so many different bodily functions\u2014breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, circulation, the immune system\u2014that it will take a very complex theory to explain what it does.<\/span><\/p>\n

For two days after my first session with Laura, I had no back pain. Then it returned, but that was OK. I didn\u2019t expect a quick cure. After my second session, as I got behind the wheel of my car, I felt almost euphoric. I couldn\u2019t wait to go back again. Alas, so far that feeling hasn\u2019t returned.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the following weeks, acupuncture continued to give me a couple of days of pain relief after each treatment. In addition, to my surprise, the insomnia that had been wearing me out became a rare occurrence. I\u2019d mentioned to Laura that it was a problem, and she\u2019d placed needles accordingly. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had several months of acupuncture now, and progress has been gradual. Most weeks, I have little or no back pain for three or four days after treatment\u2014sometimes for longer. I still have insomnia, but not often. Once, when I had to go two weeks without acupuncture, it returned with a vengeance. <\/span><\/p>\n

Laura told me that many of her patients get greater relief sooner than I have. But<\/span> I remind myself that my daughter\u2019s back was so bad, she couldn\u2019t lie flat. It took three years of acupuncture, but by the end, she could sleep on her back again, and the pain was completely gone.  <\/span><\/p>\n

So I\u2019m hanging in for however long this takes.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When my doctor first suggested I try acupuncture to relieve my lower back pain, I was dubious. Would my Medicare Advantage plan pay for it? To my surprise, it would. Was it available nearby? It was.  But I was still…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Acupunctured<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[79,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-voices-views"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7448"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7526,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7448\/revisions\/7526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}