Whole body pain can be a debilitating condition that affects a person’s ability to work, sleep, and enjoy daily life. While traditional treatments such as medication and physical therapy may offer some relief, many individuals are turning to alternative methods like acupuncture for a more holistic approach. Acupuncture, an ancient practice rooted in Traditional Oriental Medicine, involves inserting fine needles at specific points on the body to promote healing and balance. In recent years, it has gained significant attention as a complementary therapy for managing widespread pain, including conditions like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. This article explores how acupuncture works, its potential benefits, and what to expect from treatment.
Understanding Body Ache
When You Ache All Over
Muscle pain that affects a small part of your body is usually caused by overuse — sore arms from lifting boxes all day, for example. Or it could be a minor injury, like a bruised shoulder after a fall. But when you ache all over your body, it’s more likely caused by an infection, illness, or medicine you’ve taken.
Blood Flow Problem
If you have pain in your arms, legs, or both, your muscles may not be getting enough blood — a problem called claudication. At first, you may notice it only when you exercise, but in time, you might feel it when you sit or walk. This is usually caused by a condition called arteriosclerosis, which is when there’s blockage in the tubes that carry blood to your muscles.
Hypothyroidism
This is when your thyroid gland doesn’t make enough of certain key hormones. It can cause muscle and joint aches, as well as swelling and tenderness. It can make you tired and lead to memory problems, thinning hair, dry skin, high cholesterol, slowed heart rate, and other issues. Your doctor can do a simple blood test to find out if you have it, and if so, drugs can help replace the missing hormones.
The Flu or Other Infections
When a flu virus hits, it brings on fever and congestion, and it can make your muscles ache, especially in your back, legs, and arms. It usually gets better on its own in a week or so, but call your doctor if it doesn’t. You also should see them if you have other health problems and you get the flu or you have a cough that doesn’t go away. Other infections can also give you muscle aches, including COVID-19 and HIV.
Medications
Drugs called statins are used to control high cholesterol, and about 30% of people who take them say they have muscle pain. If this is happening with you, talk to your doctor. They may be able to give you a different medication.
Lupus
This is a kind of autoimmune disease — it causes your immune system, which normally helps protect your body, to attack your tissues and organs. When lupus affects your joints or muscles, it can make them stiff, and it can hurt to move. There’s no cure, but medication and certain exercises can help control your symptoms. Talk to your doctor about what would work best for you.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
This is also an autoimmune disease — it mainly affects your joints and can lead to bone loss. It can cause pain and inflammation all over your body, and your joints may swell into odd shapes. Medication and physical therapy can help with your symptoms, but there’s no cure. In some cases, you may need surgery to repair the affected joints.
Dermatomyositis
This autoimmune disease makes your muscles and joints ache and causes painful, itchy, red or purple rashes on your eyelids. It also makes spots on your knuckles, elbows, knees, and toes, can dry your skin, thin your hair, and cause swollen, irritated skin around your fingernails. It can be triggered by infection, drugs, or cancer. There’s no cure, but your doctor can help you manage your symptoms with drugs and physical therapy.
Fibromyalgia
This condition can cause pain in your joints and muscles as well as problems with sleep, mood, and memory. Scientists think it happens when your brain takes normal, mild pain signals and mistakenly makes them worse. It may be triggered by illness, surgery, or severe mental stress. Medicine can ease symptoms, and exercise and relaxation techniques like yoga may help, too.
Psoriatic Arthritis
This condition is a mix of joint inflammation and a skin disorder. The joints of your hands, fingers, feet, knees, and other places may feel stiff and throbbing. The pain might appear only on one side of the body, or it could be symmetrical on both sides. Psoriatic arthritis may limit your range of motion and leave you tired in the mornings.
Polymyositis
This happens when something — possibly a virus or a problem with your immune system — inflames muscles all over your body, especially in your belly, shoulders, upper arms, hips, and heart. Over time, your muscles can start to break down, and it might be hard to swallow or catch your breath. Your doctor may suggest drugs to ease inflammation or calm your immune system and physical therapy to help you regain muscle strength.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
The main symptom of this condition is extreme tiredness (fatigue) that can’t be explained by anything else. It may get worse with exercise or mental strain, but rest doesn’t make it better. You also may have muscle pain, memory problems, sore throat, joint pain, and headaches, and you may not be able to sleep well. There’s no cure, but medication and physical therapy can help manage your symptoms.
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Bacteria called R. rickettsii cause it, and a tick bite is usually how you get it. Most of the symptoms are flu-like — fever, chills, headache, nausea, insomnia, and muscle aches. A rash that doesn’t itch can show up on your wrists and ankles after a few days, then spread. Antibiotics treat it, and the sooner you take them, the better. If not treated, it can lead to inflammation in your lungs, heart, and brain, then kidney failure.
Lyme Disease
Bacteria from a tick bite also cause this. It can bring on fever, chills, tiredness, body aches, and a headache. Another sign is a “bull’s-eye” rash that’s clear in the middle and grows over a period of days — it can be up to 12 inches across. The rashes — there can be more than one — don’t necessarily show up near the bite. Lyme disease is treated with antibiotics, but some people still have aches and tiredness after finishing the drugs.
Ankylosing Spondylitis
It’s a type of chronic arthritis that inflames the spine and sometimes the hips, knees, and chest too. It causes pain and stiffness, especially in the morning. Serious cases can lead to loss of motion in your back as the bones of your spine grow together. It also might affect the neck. Talk to your doctor if you notice any symptoms because early treatment can help manage the condition.
Polymyalgia Rheumatica
This quickly brings pain and stiffness in your shoulders, neck, upper arms, buttocks, hips, or thighs that can be worse in the morning. You also may have fever, fatigue, weight loss, depression, and no appetite. Doctors think certain genes can make you more likely to get it. Something in the environment, like a virus, also may play a part. Steroids can ease pain and inflammation, and your symptoms may go away, but the condition can return.
Ways to Manage Body Pain
Tracking Your Pain
Pain is not something that you have to “put up with.” Tracking your pain can help you and your doctor develop a plan to manage it.
When tracking your pain, include:
- Location of pain
- Where is the pain located?
- Does it hurt in one place or many places?
- Type of pain
- What words would you use to describe your pain (for example, burning, sharp, stabbing, tingling, loss of function, etc.)?
- Do you also feel numbness and/or tingling?
- Timing of pain
- When does the pain start?
- How long does it last?
- Is the pain constant or does it come and go?
- Are there certain body positions or movements that cause the pain, such as bending over or turning?
- Related symptoms
- What (if anything) makes the pain worse?
- What (if anything) makes the pain better?
- Are you feeling weak in the affected area?
Self-Care Activities to Manage Your Pain
Explore self-care activities that can help you cope with and improve your pain, including diet, exercise, and sleep.
- Avoid alcohol if you’re taking medications for pain.
- Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. Some pain medications can cause constipation.
- Talk with your doctor or care team about physical therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, music therapy, guided imagery, or massage therapy. These may be helpful additions to your pain management program.
When to Report Body Pain
Discuss any concerns with your doctor. Share the symptoms you’ve logged and your self-care activities.
- Ask your doctor when and how to report your symptoms.
- Tell your doctor if you are having trouble doing tasks that you used to be able to do—especially getting dressed, standing up, sitting down, getting in and out of your bed, or getting in and out of your car.
- Report if you develop new pain, your pain gets worse, your pain is severe (greater than a seven on a scale of zero to 10), or your pain does not improve with your self-care activities.
- Ask your doctor what you should do in case of an emergency and when your pain should be reported immediately. These symptoms may include sudden worsening of pain, sudden loss of strength or sensation, difficulty walking, or difficulty controlling when you go to the bathroom.
Acupuncture for Whole-Body Pain Relief in Tokyo
Acupuncture can provide temporary pain relief no matter where on your body you experience it. Keep reading to learn more about how acupuncture helps with pain relief and the areas where it’s most effective.
How Acupuncture Can Help With Pain Relief
Acupuncture is rooted in Traditional Oriental Medicine (TOM) and is based on its understanding of vital energy. According to TOM, this vital energy flows through several pathways in our body called meridians. As it does so, it helps to balance our health and wellness. Therefore, a guiding principle in TOM is that illness, pain and disease occur when there are blockages or imbalances in a person’s energy.
Acupuncture is a standard method of rebalancing this vital energy flow. TOM acupuncture practitioners insert tiny needles into strategic points in the body known as acupoints. These needles access the energy meridians and help rebalance the energy flow, which helps the body overcome pain, illness and disease.
The body has at least 362 acupoints and likely many more than that. However, a typical acupuncture session only focuses on acupoints that relate to where the patient experiences pain. For example, acupuncture for lower back pain involves the placement of needles in that area. In other treatments, such as acupuncture for shoulder pain, meridians in other areas of the body may connect with the problem area. In these cases, the acupuncturist may also stimulate those pathways with acupuncture needles.
Western medicine has developed a somewhat compatible understanding of how acupuncture relieves pain. Although scientists are still seeking explanations, western medical research suggests that acupuncture may release endorphins and other chemicals. Endorphins provide pain relief while the other chemicals improve blood pressure and circulation, both of which are integral to healing.
Acupuncture for Back Pain and Sciatica
Lower back and sciatica pain are two common reasons people seek acupuncture treatment. Acupuncture can enhance the effects of other treatments and improve routine function for patients, helping them get through their days without experiencing debilitating pain.
Sciatica is a condition where individuals experience radiating pain along their sciatic nerve, which runs from the lower spine, through the buttocks and down each leg. When other spinal conditions compress the sciatic nerve it can become irritated and inflamed, and patients experience pain that travels along its path. Patients with sciatica may also experience numbness and tingling from their lower back down to their feet.
Sciatica pain occurs in the lower back, buttocks and legs. Since acupuncture often addresses pain problems in the areas they affect, acupuncture for sciatica pain involves stimulating acupoints there. The needles engage the affected area, reducing muscle tension and increasing circulation. They also trigger a release of endorphins to the affected nerve, promoting pain relief.
Studies have shown that acupuncture can provide immediate relief from back pain over short periods and that acupuncture for sciatica is particularly effective. It provides a temporary solution for these issues, offering patients freedom from pain as they seek more permanent solutions.
It may take several sessions before patients experience noticeable results, depending on the extent of their condition and whether it is acute or chronic. Doctors define an acute condition as any injury or illness that occurs suddenly and is limited in duration. In contrast, chronic conditions are those that develop and worsen over an extended, indefinite time frame.
Acupuncture for Head, Face and Neck Pain
You may be wary of having needles in or around your face and head. However, acupuncture for nerve pain, joint dysfunction or other causes of head, face or neck pain is painless. In fact, many patients find the entire acupuncture process quite relaxing!
Acupuncture for TMJ Pain
You have a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) on either side of your head, connecting your lower jaw to your skull. TMJ pain affects the ligaments and muscles around your jaw joints, manifesting as jaw tenderness, earaches, headaches or facial pain.
Acupuncture relieves TMJ pain by relaxing the muscles surrounding the joint. This process involves the placement of several needles around the TMJ joint. The acupuncturist may also insert needles in areas with meridian connections with the TMJ area, such as the elbow, knees and big toes.
Acupuncture for TMJ dysfunction is most effective when neuromuscular damage is the underlying cause rather than joint tissue damage.
Acupuncture for Trigeminal Neuralgia Pain
The trigeminal nerve carries pain signals from the face to the brain. It begins at the ear and branches out toward your cheek, eye and jaw. Trigeminal neuralgia pain occurs along this nerve and may be especially bad when chewing food, smiling or speaking.
Acupuncture for trigeminal neuralgia involves needle placement in the area between the cheek, eye and jaw. Research shows that it can reduce trigeminal neuralgia pain and shorten treatment periods. It also has minimal risk of adverse effects.
Acupuncture for Other Areas
Acupuncture can help with several other forms of head, face and neck pain, including:
- Dental pain: Acupuncture can ease pain caused by tooth extractions or other dental surgeries. If you’re experiencing lingering pain after such a dental procedure, the analgesic effects of acupuncture can help. It can also reduce inflammation in the affected area and increase blood flow to stimulate healing.
- Migraines and tension headaches: Evidence has shown that acupuncture relieves migraine and headache pain. The best explanation is that acupuncture helps relieve migraine and tension headaches by providing an endorphin release, balanced energy levels and improved blood flow.
- Whiplash: Whiplash causes strained or sprained tissues in your neck, leading to significant neck pain. Acupuncture for neck pain relaxes your muscles and increases circulation, easing the pain and helping the damaged tissues heal quicker.
Acupuncture for Knee Pain
Whether you experience knee pain from arthritis or injury, acupuncture can help by reducing your pain for days or even weeks. The length of time an acupuncture treatment can reduce your knee pain varies according to the extent of the damage.
Acupuncture is especially effective with osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain. The acupuncture needles trigger endorphins and promote cortisol production. Cortisol is a hormone that reduces inflammation and the flow of endorphins, and cortisol can reduce pain sensitivity.
Acupuncture for Foot Pain
Acupuncture can help with several types of foot pain, including plantar fasciitis. Your plantar fascia is the band of tissue that forms the arch of your foot, connecting your heel bone to the metatarsal bones of your toes. Plantar fasciitis occurs when this tissue becomes inflamed, stretched or torn.
Plantar fasciitis can cause pain when walking or standing, interfering with your daily life. Common causes of plantar fasciitis include:
- Wearing shoes with poor cushioning.
- Frequent running or jogging.
- Standing for long periods.
An acupuncturist treats plantar fasciitis by placing several needles on the soles of your feet. This acupuncture method stimulates adenosine release to reduce inflammation. Adenosine is a hormone that also promotes blood flow throughout your body. Acupuncture for plantar fasciitis encourages the blood flow to go to your heels and the soles of your feet, making it particularly beneficial for foot pain.
Acupuncture for Hip Pain
Hip pain from bursitis can improve with acupuncture. Bursitis is a repetitive strain injury. When you strain or overuse your hip, your bursae — fluid sacs surrounding the hip joint — become inflamed. Like any injury with inflammation, bursitis improves with increased blood flow. As it does for plantar fasciitis, acupuncture stimulates the release of adenosine, making it an effective treatment option.
Other hip injuries and conditions that improve with acupuncture include:
- Hip fractures
- Hamstring injuries
- Hip arthritis
- Hip labral tears
- General or nonspecific hip pain
Acupuncture for Chronic Pain
Although acupuncture is a temporary solution to chronic pain, it is safer and healthier for patients than pain-relief medications. You can also book unlimited acupuncture appointments, making it a helpful complementary remedy to add to prescription pain relief. While acupuncture may not be the sole solution, it can help you cope with ongoing chronic pain in your daily life.
Here are some chronic pain conditions that acupuncture can help with:
- Arthritis: Acupuncture is an excellent complementary treatment for people with arthritis. Treatment is typically most effective for knee or spinal OA.
- Carpal tunnel syndrome: Patients have found that acupuncture for carpal tunnel can relieve pain in the hand, wrist and arm. Carpal tunnel begins in the palm side of the hand and extends up the forearm. Acupuncturists treat carpal tunnel pain by inserting needles into the palm and several spots along the wrist and forearm.
- Chemo treatment: Acupuncture can relieve unpleasant chemotherapy symptoms, such as pain, nausea and vomiting. Some patients also find that acupuncture also reduces the anxiety and depression associated with chemotherapy.
- Fibromyalgia: Fibromyalgia is a condition where individuals feel pain in their muscle fibers in several areas of the body. Patients also note symptoms of fatigue, joint stiffness and reduced function. Besides pain relief, acupuncture may also enhance the effect of other fibromyalgia therapies and provide relief from symptoms such as fatigue and anxiety.
- Post-operative pain: Stimulating acupoints near the spinal vertebrae can relieve post-operative pain. In some cases, acupuncturists and surgeons coordinate to insert intradermal needles before an operation. These needles remain in place during the surgery to limit post-operative pain. The endorphins that acupuncture releases have an analgesic effect, reducing the patient’s pain.
What to Expect at An Acupuncture Appointment
If you are making your first acupuncture appointment, you may wonder what to expect.
Consultation
Every patient’s first visit starts with a brief consultation with the acupuncturist. During this consultation, you will discuss:
- Your symptoms.
- When your pain started.
- Relevant aspects of your medical history.
- Any conditions or medications you’re taking that could complicate acupuncture treatment.
In many ways, your acupuncture consultation will mirror any other medical consultation. The goals of the consultation are to discover how the acupuncturist can best help you and verify that you can safely receive acupuncture. Some conditions and situations where doctors may recommend against acupuncture include:
- Bleeding disorders, such as anemia or hemophilia.
- Taking blood-thinning medication.
- Pregnancy, as acupuncture is decided on a case-by-case basis for pregnant individuals.
The consultation is also a good time to tell the acupuncturist about any fears, hesitations or phobias you have about needles. Letting them know well in advance will give them time to answer your questions and prepare any special accommodations.
Acupuncture Session
If everything looks good, the acupuncturist can proceed with your acupuncture session. You’ll decide together if the session will take place at a later date or immediately after the consultation. The acupuncturist will also establish a treatment plan with you. This way, you can know how many sessions you’ll need to have before you should start expecting results.
The acupuncture room will be decorated and organized to maximize your relaxation during the session. You may hear tranquil music, smell calming scents and see dim lighting to create a peaceful, relaxing experience.
To begin an acupuncture session, the acupuncturist will ask you to lie down on a sterile padded table. They will also give you the privacy to remove clothing or change into a gown if necessary. Once you’re ready, they will carefully examine the problem area and ask what kind of sensations you feel as they do so.
The acupuncturist will sterilize the area with rubbing alcohol before inserting any needles. While you may feel a slight pinch when they insert the needles, that is the full extent of any pain you should experience. After they’ve inserted the needles with a gentle tapping motion, you should enter a state of relaxation. The needles will remain for around 20-25 minutes as you lie comfortably on the table. Most acupuncture sessions last 30 minutes to one hour in total.
Conclusion
Acupuncture offers a promising, drug-free option for individuals seeking relief from whole body pain. By stimulating the body’s natural healing processes and addressing both physical and emotional aspects of discomfort, it can be a valuable part of a comprehensive pain management plan. As with any treatment, it’s important to consult a qualified practitioner and consider personal health needs, but for many, acupuncture has become a powerful tool in their journey toward lasting relief and well-being.
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Fuji Wellness:
- Address: 132-0031 Matsushima 1-chome, 21-14, Tokyo, Japan
- Contact: Click here
- Email: sunnyphamsensei@gmail.com
