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acupuncture
granma
Posts: 1,933
Opinions please , does this work ? I'm interested in opinions and experience
0
granma
Posts: 1,933
Posts
I know some people, including my father, who have received a great deal of relief from acupuncture. I know others who have not found it helpful. However, the same can be said for other forms of medicine and treatments too.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I was offered a course on the NH. I didn't believe in it but, as it was free, I thought I would go ahead. It really helped! I was warned that I wouldn't feel any improvement for the first few weeks and this was true but at about the fourth treatment a lot of pain just melted away. The only downside is that my area only allows a 6 week treatment so when the improvement wears off - which it will eventually if you have a long term condition - you have to pay for another course and it is very expensive.
I had acupuncture for a whiplash injury, it had no effect whatsoever.
My sister saw a chiropracter for a bad back after falling down the stairs, and it was nothing short of miraculous. She went in, hunched over, in a lot of pain and barely able to walk. She had been like that three months. She walked out upright and free of pain.
We have the same as Posy, but you can be re-referred and get another course of treatment on the NHS. I found it very helpful on the arthritis in my neck, less so on the Sciatica,sadly.
Had a course over 30 years ago for post stress migraines, worked brilliantly, not had a migraine like that ever since.
Go for it, unlike medication there are no side effects to worry about.
There is no doubt that if you believe that something will work it is much more likely to do so. However, I did not believe in acupuncture at all and went out of a mix of curiosity and desperation. During the treatment I went through the 'This is a load of rubbish and a waste of time ' thing and was almost affronted when it actually worked. Chiropractic is based on a much more rational view of the body and skeleton and, provided you have a condition related to a misalignment of the bones, it is likely to help.
There is no scientific evidence that it works better than placebo, the evidence seems to indicate that it doesn't. Someone may say that they tried it and they got better, but it does not therefore follow that it was the acupuncture that cured them - they might have got better anyway.
IMO acupuncture carried out by someone trained is wonderful.
Being from the "scientific" side of medicine, I was hugely sceptical, but having suffered from a bad back for many years, I eventually succumbed a few years ago, when the pain was at its worst.
I went into the clinic in agony, lay face down and had the needles inserted and apparently was asleep within 20 minutes.
However, be aware, there are many charlatans out there.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Fairly short term, but very useful to gat you over an acute relapse, or, for some conditions which are only short lived anyway.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
like many others I finally went to the GP when low back pain made ordinary living difficult.
She prescribed physiotherapy - this re-aligned the hips and gave many helpful exercises to relieve pain and strengthen muscles - also to re-educate posture. During my treatments the physio also tried acupuncture and microwaves (not at the same time).
The net result is a decrease in the pain, but it has never completely gone. When it threatens to get worse I do the exercises. I am also more conscious of standing and sitting correctly which have been more important.
All of my treatment has been on the NHS - I'm not sure that I would have been prepared to pay over the odds for acupuncture on its own - I think the combination of methods has been very important.
OH has used it in the past for back pain and also shoulder/ neck pain ( too many years using a paint roller ) and swears by it.
A client of mine had tennis elbow for years and she swears one treatment of acupncture sorted it out.