BACK PAIN - Your Questions Answered

One of the most debilitating conditions is back pain. It contributes to days off work, reduced productivity and quality of life impacted. Chinese Medicine practitioners routinely see patients with pain, and back pain is definatley on the top of the list of commonly treated conditions in my clinical practice.

Here are some answers of frequent questions and common treatments we offer:

1) Firstly, seeking help earlier can reduce the number of treatments needed.

2) One big difference between acupuncture and other therapies such ans chiropractic, is acupuncture is not designed to be an ongoing treatment. CM practitioner must treat both the root and the manifestation of the disease in order to administer proper CM protocol of therapy.

3) IF the cause of the problem is ongoing and not eliminated, then ongoing treatment may be necessary. The above principal (2) cannot be applied correctly if the patient is continuously exposing him/herself to the cause. EG - lack of exercise, extreme weight, poor posture & repetitive movements are all common ongoing causes.

4) Moxibustion is a warming method we commonly use to treat back pain. Moxa as it is easily known, treats back pain by providing a blood moving and warming therapeutic effect to the acupuncture (by warming the needle). It's like having a hot pack but going straight into the points where the muscles are tight or the inflammation is causing the pain

5) Cupping is a NO NEEDLES technique which works by a heated suction effect on the skin. This warms and stretched the muscle gently, which, over a 20 minute period cause the old blood to be brought to the surface and fresh, new blood can get in there and heal the area. This method is great for children and adults who might be scared of needles. A bruise-like mark is produced. During the treatment a pulling feeling is felt, but there is no pain (during or after). Sometimes after the treatment, patients feel like the pain moves around the next day, followed by a great pain relief feeling the second day.

Cupping is particularly beneficial in "telling the muscles" their new position. As muscles have a memory and they often go back to their old, regular tightness after manual therapies such as chiropractic or massage therapy.

6) Everyone is different, and I generally don't like to generalise number of treatments needed, however it is a common question,

HOW MANY TREATMENTS WILL I NEED?

Back pain can be treated in 1 -3 sessions, chronic conditions usually require 4 - 6 treatments in a 2-3 week period, followed by ongoing monthly or fortnightly treatments to maintain a pain-free back.

If you have any questions about back pain, or any other health condition, you may call Marie at Metro Health and medicine on 1300 132 830, or email to marie@metrohealth.com.au.

Acupuncturist who are not properly trained

As a TCM practitioner (i.e. someone who has devoted their training in acupuncture to it's original context - i.e. traditional Chinese Medicine diagnosis and treatment) it really ticks me off to see so many other health practitioners offering acupuncture treatments.

Some are physio's, naturopaths, GP's, chiropractors, massage therapists and even some barely-trained "healers" that do spiritual healing or untrained musculoskeletal therapists.

Firstly, patients often have a negative experience of acupuncture because these poorly trained acupuncturists don't spend years practicing their needle technique. This is an important part of a TCM-acupuncturists training.

We practice on cushions, oranges, stacks of paper etc before moving onto a "fellow student", let alone a patient in a student clinic.

It appalled me when i worked at a physio clinic once in Beechboro, that a Physio there simply purchased a box of acupuncture needles and started sticking them into the patients.

Of course, many say they are doing "dry needling" not acupuncture. But patients don't know much of a difference and they end up with a bad experience of acupuncture, or the understanding of "I've tried acupuncture and it doesn't work for me". When they haven't tried acupuncture at all, they have been some practitioners practice cushion!

Of cource not all other health practitioners are poorly trained in acupuncture. I'm just hiliting that we should be aware of this - Patients - check the training of your practitioner. In our modernised, "consumer-driven" health care system, the practitioner has come to expect this kind of scrutiny. It's good that you ask about qualifications and practitioners - we shouldn't take this as a negative thing when potential patients ring up and ask all kinds of questions about your qualifications.

Chinese medicine is a complex medical system, requiring years to fully understand the principals and philosophy behind a good acupuncture prescription, let alone the ability to make the right diagnosis.

Acupuncture, whether treating pain, injuries and musculoskeletal type conditions or internal medicine conditions (eg constipation, insomnia, infertility) gets the best results when it's used according to the Chinese medicine diagnosis.

You won't get the benefit of the Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment Principal use from a non-TCM trained practitioner offering acupuncture.

There are only 2 ways to make money

I often repeat this phrase to myself. In business you've got to constantly remind yourself of simple things (l like reducing things to simple phrases or principals), and this is one thing I heard somewhere, which echoes in my mind.

2 ways? - Earn More & Spend Less.

True dat, but I was having a thought whilst cycling round China...that while this is true for normal dimention people, for some of us there might be 3!

The third way - Giving.

In Churchy-circles who hasn't heard the phrase "Give your way out of poverty"?

What about the woman with 2 mites? (Mark 12) She could have spent less (but what is less than the lowest currency (AUD5c) ? She could have earned more? But instead she Gave.

God makes it clear in scripture that He dosen't want us to live in poverty, urging us that living a lazy unproductive life will lead to a downward spiral in this regard (eg Prov 14:23)

Proverbs 11:24 kind of puts a whole differen spin on "making money", that not Giving generously could cancel out the other ways of "making money"

Who dares to enter the GOD-D (God Dimension) and make more money?

Pleanty of businesses know this. Even if they are not giving to God, Giving (reciprocity in general) can be giving of labor, stock, profit percentage, monies in general. Pleanty of businesses give to charities. It's a principal regardless of belief in God, that giving leads to more seed comming in to be sown.

Giving opens up the portal for business in the God-D. How much more can Giving with faith and giving with a God connection bring this 3rd way of making money?

PS - You can't go wrong - just read Malachi 3:10