Medical Acupuncture

How Does Medical Acupuncture Work?

The Leagrave Therapy Clinic is proudly certified and registered to perform medical acupuncture with the Luton Borough Council under their laws and regulations. Proof of certificate and registration can be viewed below:graph

Medical Acupuncture Luton Borough Council Certificate

Medical acupuncture, also known as dry needling, is a technique whereby fine needles are used to treat hyper-irritable spots of the skeletal muscle otherwise known as trigger points.

Trigger points feel like “knots” or tight bands in the muscle.

The goal of the insertion of a dry needle into the tight bands is to sedate these trigger points, release pain and help reorganise and align collagen fibres.

Dry needling allows access to deep musculature that may have never been reached without the use of a needle.

Chemicals are released such as calcitonin and bradykinin, which dilates local blood vessels and often create red flushes on the skin.

It is important to note muscle trigger point dry needling has no similarities with traditional acupuncture except for the needle being used during the process.

* Medical Acupuncture treatments can be booked under osteopathy.

Book Online

Medical Acupuncture in Luton

Whether you have neck pain or shoulder pain, you can rely on me for efficient solutions. Contact me today to make an appointment.

medical acupunture, sports massage, Leagrave, Luton

How Safe is Medical Acupuncture and What Can I Expect Post Treatment?

Two surveys were published in the British Medical Journal in 2001 which concluded that the risk of a serious adverse reaction to acupuncture is less than 1 in 10,000.

Sterile needles are always used before being disposed into a sharps bin.

The insertion of a needle into the trigger point can produce a deep ache or cramping pressure that lasts only briefly.

Reproduction of pain and referral of symptoms may also occur, and soreness may last for 24-48 hours. Improvements in function and range of motion, decrease in complaints of pain and comfortable mobility may be experienced after treatment.

What the Science Says About the Effectiveness of Dry Needling?

There is not any substantial evidence that dry needling is effective, however many patients have reported benefits from the treatment.

Dry needling may help with:

Low-back pain
Neck pain
Osteoarthritis or knee pain
Reduce the frequency of tension headaches and prevent migraine headaches
Shoulder pain

For more information get in touch with Leagrave Therapy Clinic today.

Osteopathy

Interesting Research on Acupuncture

Vickers et al., (2012) found acupuncture to be superior to both no acupuncture control and *sham acupuncture for the treatment of chronic pain (1.).

Haake et al., (2007) found that after 6 months, response rate to acupuncture treatment was 47.6% in the verum acupuncture group, 44.2% in the sham acupuncture group and 27.4% in the conventional therapy group. Lower back pain improved after acupuncture treatment was applied for at least a 6 month period. Effectiveness of acupuncture and *sham acupuncture was almost twice that of **conventional therapy (2.).

Another study investigated the effect of acupuncture for chronic shoulder pain and concluded that a course of 15 acupuncture treatments effectively reduced pain and improved mobility in patients with chronic shoulder pain than standard therapy using NSAIDs and physiotherapy (Molosberger et al., 2010) (3.).

* Sham acupuncture; consists of superficial needling at non acupuncture points.

**Conventional therapy; a combination of drugs, physical therapy and exercise.

References:

(1.) Vickers AJ, Cronin AM, Maschino AC, et al., (2012) Acupuncture for chronic pain: individual patient data meta-analysis. Archives of internal medicine. Oct 22;172(19):1444–1453.

(2.) Haake M, Muller HH, Schade- Brittinger C, et al., (2007) German Acupuncture Trials (GERAC) for Chronic Low Back Pain: Randomised, Multicentre, Blinded, Parallel-group Trial With 3 Groups, Arch Intern Med 167, pp. 1892-8.

(3.)Molosberger, A.F., Schneider, T., Gotthardt, H., Drabik, A. (2010) German Randomized Acupuncture Trial for Chronic Shoulder Pain (GRASP)—a Pragmatic, Controlled, Patient-Blinded, Multi-Centre Trial in an Outpatient Care Environment. Pain, pp. 146-154.