Acupuncture is well-known in Western medical circles as an important strategy in pain relief. Studies have shown that acupuncture can be as effective as arthroscopic surgery in mitigating joint pain, in the relief of back pain, in the treatment of migraines, PMS, arthritis, colitis, fibromyalgia, and a number of other painful conditions. While western medical professionals do not know how to explain this phenomena, well-trained Oriental Medical/Ayurvedic practitioners make a diagnosis based on a complex and varied system of qi, blood, organ, and tissue imbalances.

First and foremost one must consider pain as a communication from the body. If one breaks a leg, or cuts their finger on a sharp surface, the communication is obvious. In cases of chronic pain the body is also telling us something. The trained Oriental Medical practitioner has learned how to read the pulse and palpate the body, to discern the causation of the problem. Blockages in meridians are common causes of pain, whether chronic or acute; and stagnation or deficiency of qi or blood in various meridians and organ systems can be expressed as pain. By opening these blockages, moving stagnation, and feeding energy deficiencies, the practitioner is able to get at the root of the disharmony and at the same time alleviate the symptoms.

While “scientific” belief systems frequently attribute the success of acupuncture to the triggering of endorphin “pain blockers”; this is a linear bio-chemical explanation, and poses, at best, an attempt to proffer a linear explanation for a non-linear modality of healing.