Muscle Pain

Just about everyone has pulled a muscle or lifted something a bit too heavy and hurt themselves. We know this pain all too well and sometimes we can manage it

with a nice hot shower and some light stretching and other times we need some type of intervention. We often seek the advice of a professional such as an acupuncturist, physiotherapist or doctor to see what they can provide in terms of pain relief. Often results in some sort of massage or needling or medication to help remove the inflammation.

When we injure a muscle, we turn on a pain response neural pathway. This pathway tells our brain that if we keep using this muscle the way we are, we will cause ourselves serious injury and potentially not be able to run away from danger if it presents itself to us. Now, when we were hunter gatherers this mechanism was really important as we were actually being hunted. However, in modern day where we spend most of our time either at work at a desk or sitting on the couch watching Netflix, we don’t necessarily need to protect ourselves from bears and the like. This biggest issue is not being able to turn this pathway off. We continue to guard our muscles and joints causing more long term pain that we can not get rid of. This then turns into Chronic Pain and is a very long term issue that may be very difficult to treat.

Before we get to this stage, it is quite important to see someone for a treatment. Acupuncture and cupping can have a great impact on how the body responds to such pain and prevent this from turning into a long term chronic pain condition. When we insert an acupuncture needle into a muscle a few things start to happen within the body. An immune-like response takes place, as we are putting a foreign object past the skin and into the body. This starts a flood of white blood cells and red blood cells.

In Chinese Medicine, we often call this moving stagnation and invigorating the Qi in the body. It also creates an electrical response of the muscle, as the needles are stainless steel and highly conductive. This allows muscles to “switch on and off” sometimes causing them to have a twitching response when a needle is inserted into them.

Creating these responses allows the body to help turn off this pain pathway that was mentioned earlier. This then allows for the body to heal, and return back functioning normally without hesitation, guarding or pain. Getting acupuncture treatment anywhere along the healing process is beneficial however, it is always best to get treatments when the pain first starts to prevent it from getting worse and then continue on a maintenance treatment plan to continue pain free and get back to what matters most in life.

- Dr. Nicholas Watson