PAIN CONTROL BY TCM

In Western medicine it is quite common to find or be told that doctors are unable to find the real cause of pain in patients even after extensive examination. Patients are often told: 'There is nothing wrong with you', or 'Sorry, we can do nothing about it, and you'll have to learn to live with it' or even 'It is all in your head'. It is poor practice, however, for a doctor to make such comments to patients; they don't have to live in pain. Fortunately, since acupuncture has acquired a very good reputation as a treatment for relieving pain, many physicians are now referring their patients for an acupuncture or herbal evaluation, or patients are starting to investigate the potential of acupuncture and herbal treatment for themselves. 

In terms of pain control, the effects of Chinese herbal and acupuncture treatment include:

•  to relieve pain completely, or give as much relief as possible
•  to reduce pain levels
•  to improve the ability to deal with pain
•  to regulate the emotions
•  to increase the energy
•  to increase the ability to perform everyday functions
•  to enhance the quality of life
•  to reduce reliance on inappropriate medications. 

Points from different channels are, according to TCM theory, energetically connected to specific organs and body structures. The purpose of acupuncture treatment for pain is to use selected points on these channels to activate Qi and Blood circulation, and balance Yin and Yang. During the treatment, moxibustion and point massage are also often applied simultaneously. 

Acupuncture treatment for pain is varied and based largely on what is causing the patient's suffering; the treatments for acute and chronic pain are often quite different. In chronic pain  patients, treatment that had  roved useful for acute pain management may lose its effectiveness, be inappropriate or even be counterproductive. 

The Chinese do not limit the use of Chinese herbs and acupuncture to alleviating pain; they use combinations of herbs and acupuncture to treat the whole range of diseases that are encountered in association with the pain. These include TCM therapies for hypertension, hypotension, allergy, asthma, diabetes, stomach ulcers, depression, infections, etc. It is clear that many diseases respond better to modem medicine, whereas some may respond better to Chinese herbal medicines and acupuncture. However, in the majority of cases Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture may either be a reasonable alternative for, or be used in conjunction with modem medicine. For this reason all TCM schools and universities in China continue to offer courses and training in both TCM and modem medicine at present. During Chinese herbal and acupuncture treatment, it should be kept in mind that essential contact and  ommunication with other specialists must be maintained, for instance with neurologists,  neurosurgeons, orthopaedists, internists, radiologists, and physical and occupational therapists, so that patients receive the necessary support at their time of greatest need.

In China, increasingly acupuncturists are applying acupuncture to diminish pain directly or decrease the amount of drugs needed for the control of pain, even during surgery. This well-known practice indicates that acupuncture potentially has anaesthetic effects. After conducting thousands of experiments on both animals and people, researchers become firmly convinced that acupuncture was indeed effective in its own right for anaesthesia. In consequence, acupuncture has been used quite successfully in place of chemical anaesthesia for many types of surgery in the last 30 years in China. It has been shown to be effective in gastric (YeQiang et aI1984), dental (Lin Guochu et al 1984)and thyroid surgery (Zhuang Xinliang 1984). It is also potentially indicated for those patients unable to tolerate regular anaesthesia. Because of its efficiency in acupuncture anaesthesia, doctors in many hospitals, especially the affiliated hospitals of TCM universities, use acupuncture routinely in cases of thyroidectomy.

The advantages of acupuncture anaesthesia include: 

• fewer side-effects than with chemical anaesthesia
• more cooperation from the patient during the operation
• a lack of disturbance of the brain and memory following anaesthesia
• the patient remaining alert during the procedure
• rapid recovery of functional activities after the operation, etc..

The disadvantages of acupuncture anaesthesia include:

• a feeling of pulling and tugging during the operation
• inadequacy with children and some senile patients
• inability to replace all kinds of chemical anaesthesia
• sometimes a need for local chemical anaesthesia, etc.