Acupuncture Penrith & Eden Valley

Acupuncture can provide long-lasting benefits to back pain sufferers.   Chronic back pain is one of the most common and difficult-to-treat medical problems in health care and it has been estimated that up to 80% of the world's population will suffer from back pain at some point in their lives, with the lower back as the most common location of pain.

The use of acupuncture to treat back pain has increased dramatically in the past few decades, based to a large extent on placebo-controlled studies that have validated it as a reliable method of pain relief.  It is now widely accepted by practitioners of modern medicine and endorsed by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), (May 2009), the independent UK organisation responsible for providing national guidance to the NHS.

Each patient is individually assessed by me and your treatment is tailored accordingly. I will examine your spine for areas of tenderness and identify trigger points, the latter representing tender points in muscles or soft tissues. I insert fine needles to an optimal depth into tender or trigger points.

Stimulation of various nerves modifies the way the nervous system processes painful stimuli, releasing the body’s natural painkillers – endorphin and serotonin – along pain pathways, thereby altering the perception of pain.

The number of needles used is variable. Each sitting may last from a few minutes to half an hour.  It is advisable to have frequent treatment initially and taper off as the pain diminishes.  Muscle strains or spasm, unresponsive chronic low back pain, and fibromyalgia, a condition characterised by widespread chronic pain, often respond well to acupuncture.