KATY BRADSHAW ACUPUNCTURE
PAIN RELIEF
Are you a builder unable to do your job properly because your back is hurting? Or a plumber with knee pain? Perhaps you love playing tennis but can’t manage more than 15 minutes without your elbow stopping you from carrying on. Or joint pain is preventing you from writing, painting or playing the piano. Whatever is stopping you from doing what you love or need to do you will no doubt be desperate to find some pain relief.
The British Medical Journal recently said that 43% of people in the UK are living with chronic pain – that’s a huge number! Living with pain can be disabling and frustrating. It can affect your ability to work, sleep, relax and can also affect your relationships with family and friends. Many people are looking for effective and safe methods of pain relief.
NHS recommendation
The current NHS advice is to use a combination of exercise, CBT talking therapy and pain killers but with so much attention now focused on the ‘opiod crisis’ in the US and now increasingly in the UK, a wider range of approaches is being considered, including acupuncture. Patients and their GPs are now looking for more effective ways to manage pain.
What can acupuncture treat
Research indicates that acupuncture is as good as and often better than many of the options currently available within the orthodox repertoire. Acupuncture provides effective pain relief for a wide range of conditions, including:
- back ache
- neck and shoulder pain
- knee pain
- osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis
- sciatica
- headache and migraine
- tendonitis
- RSI
- carpel tunnel syndrome
- neck pain
- plantar fasciitis
Research shows that acupuncture provides pain relief by:
- stimulating nerves located in muscles and other tissues
- releasing endorphins
- changing the processing of pain in the brain and spinal cord
- reducing inflammation
- improving muscle stiffness and joint mobility
- dispersing swelling and bruising
- reducing the use of medication
- providing a more cost-effective treatment over a longer period of time
- improving outcomes when added to conventional treatments such as rehabilitation exercises
Traditionally Chinese Medicine Practitioners view pain as the result of stagnation of qi (energy) and blood which is treated by re-establishing the smooth flow of energy through the painful area and the body as a whole.
I use a combination of techniques including cupping, electro-acupuncture, moxibustion and acupuncture to stimulate the body’s own healing response. I use a combination of local and distal points that will bring immediate as well as long-term pain relief.