Acupuncture-Related Techniques: What To Do When Acupuncture Is Not Enough

Abstract

Abstract

Acupuncture has been widely accepted as valuable treatment for many pain and sport injuries in the United States and abroad. Medical literature reports varying rates of success for acupuncture treatment that is often as good or better than recovery seen with conventional biomedical therapeutics. However, all acupuncturists recognize that not all of their patients' pain and sport injuries are resolved through acupuncture.

Acupuncture-related techniques may often eliminate pain and restore health and function when acupuncture alone has not succeeded. Techniques that have been generally recognized include moxibustion, cupping, scraping (Gwa Sha), various acupuncture microsystems (auricular, hand, scalp, etc.) and neural therapy. In addition, the current author proposes that prolotherapy is an invaluable acupuncture-related technique that leads to tissue regeneration and functional restoration, and should often be considered as a viable therapeutic modality when acupuncture has failed.

The physiologic basis of joint and tissue regeneration through prolotherapy is presented along with a review of literature to provide an integrative understanding of the nature of tissue injury and repair mechanisms and therapeutic options when acupuncture fails to resolve a patient's condition. Prolotherapy is an invaluable acupuncture-related technique that has sound historical and physiologic bases, and produces enhanced clinical outcomes for many patients who have not experienced healing or recovery through acupuncture.