Rebuild, Restore, Revive: Physiotherapy's magic touch brings movement to life.
Acupuncture is inserting thin needles at different spots of the human body at strategic points and at varying depths to stimulate sensory nerves in the skin and muscles. The goal of Acupuncture is to treat pain and balance the forces of life that cause health concerns.
The primary focus of Acupuncture is to cure pain and discomfort caused by health issues such as–
-> Dental pain
-> Fibromyalgia
-> Headaches
-> Pain and discomfort due to Chemotherapy
-> Neck pain
-> Lower back pain
-> Osteoarthritis
-> Labor pain
-> Tennis elbow
-> Menstrual cramps
-> Insomnia
To understand the process of clinical Acupuncture, we have to trace its root back to ancient China. The Chinese believed in a life force that flows through meridians or channels through the body. These energy channels are stimulated by inserting thin needles through 361 acupuncture points in the human body. Appropriate insertion of needles can render the desired balance for leading a healthy life.
Scientific studies have proved that most acupuncture points were at certain areas of the body that can affect the activity of multiple sensory neurons. These spots in the human body are also known as receptive fields.
Thus, inserting needles in a specific manner through these receptive fields can affect muscle pain and increase blood circulation in the affected body areas.
Moreover, Acupuncture has proved beneficial for those suffering from chronic pain and provides long-term pain relief.
There are different types of Acupuncture involving different methodologies providing respite to different kinds of pain and discomfort. They are–
The first phase of the treatment will involve a complete assessment of your health and medical records. Acupuncture therapists at Millwoods Physical Therapy Centre follow this standard practice to give the best Acupuncture therapy.
During the therapy, you will be asked to sit or lie down. The therapist will use a one-time usable, disposable, and sterile needle. This standard practice is also followed by therapists at our centre. We recommend that you ensure that this practice is followed by your therapist.
You may feel a slight sting on inserting the needle and experience an ache at the base of the needle.
Ideally, the needles will remain inserted for around 20-60 minutes, depending on your condition and the severity of pain or discomfort.
Your therapist can also apply heat to the needles after insertion.
The number of acupuncture sessions you require will depend on your condition. If you are suffering from chronic pain, you will need 1-2 sessions per week for 3-6 months. However, your acute pain can be resolved after 8-12 sessions.
Acupuncture is a complementary treatment, so before you start seeing an acupuncturist, we recommend you consult your physician for appropriate treatment.
Acupuncture has proved to be very effective in treating chronic pain with little to no side effects.
If your life has become a nightmare because of severe pain and discomfort, consult with licensed Acupuncturists at Millwood Physical Therapy Centre.
Low Back Pain or LBP is a medical condition that effects thousands of people regardless of demographic boundaries. Although highly debilitating and tiresome, it is also highly treatable; people suffering from LBP see long-term pain relief more often than not. Some common alternative ways of treating lower back pain are osteopathy, physiotherapy, and chiropractic. In this write-up, we shall focus specifically on non-invasive physical therapy or physiotherapy methods.
1. Lifestyle Changes (sleep, diet, exercise)
Your daily routine is highly suggestive of how you treat your body and as such lays the foundation of your health-status. The established norms of getting 8 hours of sleep, maintaining a healthy diet full of vegetables and fruits, and exercising, even if it is just stretching or running, are extremely important to fulfil as they ensure that the basic needs of our body are met and our cells can regenerate the way they are meant to.
2. Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a Chinese tradition of natural medicine which involves the penetration of the recipient’s skin at certain strategic points known as ‘acupoints’ to relieve neuromuscular pain, using hair-thin, solid, steel needles. An average acupuncture session lasts for around 20 minutes and around 5 sessions are generally recommended. The authentic concept behind acupuncture relies on the redirection of the body’s energy or qi.
However, treatments are specialized and tailor-made to fit the patient’s health requirements. The goal is to act on “trigger points” which restore balance to the Central Nervous System. The most common apprehension noticed in patients who want to try acupuncture is the fear of pain. However, you would be reassured to know that the prickling sensation felt during needle insertion is negligibly painful and lesser than even normal injection needles.
3. TENS
Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation or TENS is a palm-held device used in physiotherapy which sends out electrical pulses to the area of the body that it’s attached to. It relieves the symptoms of pain by sparking the body’s natural defense mechanisms to pain such as the pain gate mechanism or opioid system. The electrical stimulation is done with varying intensities of voltage and duration, from mild to moderate and 5-30 minutes respectively.
4. Therapeutic Ultrasound
As opposed to electrical energy, ultrasound, as the name suggests, uses sound waves to help alleviate chronic LBP in the lumbosacral region. It differs from TENS only slightly in terms of its goal; while TENS targets pain receptors, ultrasound aims to increase blood circulation to facilitate pain relief. While you will definitely feel much better after your first ultrasound session, it takes around 3-4 sessions for the effectiveness of the treatment to be entirely apparent.
5. Exercises
Exercises are probably the most important part of your low back pain treatment plan that will aid in musculoskeletal adjustments. Your physiotherapist may give you a set of exercises to do diligently, varying from stretches, holds, and rotations to exercises that involve the usage of specialized equipment. Depending upon the particular kind of pain that you face, you may not be able to do certain exercises due to restricted motion; however, the physiotherapy expert guiding you shall be able to work around that.
These are few of the most commonly used methods of dealing with LBP, however, you should always consult a trained physiotherapist before embarking on any method of treatment. If you would like to try physiotherapy treatment in Edmonton, reach out to us at Millwoods Physical Therapy Centre for a customized treatment plan created by professional healthcare providers.
Contrary to popular belief, sciatica is not actually a disease or a specific medical condition. Instead, the word sciatica is used to describe a certain kind of pain: sciatic means hip and sciatic pain is the kind of pain which generally starts radiating from the lower back, traverses the back of the thigh, and eventually reaches the calf. The feelings associated with sciatic pain can range from a shooting pain throughout the leg, lower back pain similar to menstrual cramping, or the excruciating sensation of a pulled nerve or muscle.
Although sciatica is more or less lifelong and can get aggravated at any point of time if triggered, it is still highly manageable and a person with sciatic pain can live a long, healthy, and happy life with proper pain-management. There are however, a few things that you have to avoid in order to remain healthy if you suffer from this kind of pain. Keep reading to find out.
It is an unfortunate fact that people suffering from extreme or chronic sciatic pain are disallowed from most high-intensity workouts. The reason being, the higher the power spent on a particular exercise, the more wear and tear your body undergoes. Therefore, high-impact cardio like long-distance running, jumping rope, burpees, etc. and static positions involving holds such as planks and squats are strictly discouraged due to the kind of bodily erosion they cause, which poses the risk of further nervous damage.
In acute sciatica cases, the digestive tract might sustain some damage from continued pressure in and around the region. In situations like this, it is wise to avoid dairy, extremely cold dishes or beverages, inflammatory ingredients such as chillies, red meat, etc. as coughing and retching makes back pain worse. Moreover, since obesity is one of the leading causes of sciatica in the first place, it is heavily suggested that people going through it maintain a healthy diet which is calorie-adjusted and rich in nutrients, fibre, and protein.
When our body is sleeping, it is healing. All the injuries, harm, and damage that our body has to inevitably endure by the virtue of existence itself is resolved within us when we allow our body time to rejuvenate. Therefore, if we don’t allow it the resting time that it badly needs to return to a state of normalcy and functionality, it will not be able to provide us with the kind of support that we are used to receiving and rely on it for. Ultimately, a lack of long, restful sleep makes one’s body regress into lethargy and illness which is even more debilitating for people who already suffer from chronic pain.
Even though high-intensity exercises are discouraged and physical rest is emphasised for sciatic pain patients, a lifestyle which includes lying down, sitting, or resting for prolonged periods of time is equally harmful as the affected area does not receive proper blood circulation and becomes inflexible due to less mobility. Especially if an inactive lifestyle is combined with being overweight, it becomes increasingly difficult to go about the process of pain alleviation since added layers of fat add extra pressure on the nerves, muscles, or bones that are already damaged to begin with.
Common surgical procedures for back pain associated with herniated discs, bone fractures, ligament tears, etc. are spinal fusion surgery, microdiscectomy, lumbar disc replacement, etc. Although these surgeries are usually highly-successful, they are often necessary. Sciatica pain, even if acute or chronic, and not caused by secondary or rare medical conditions, does not typically require surgery. It should be managed as organically as possible on a day-to-day basis through activities like brisk walking, stretching your body out every morning, staying hydrated, massages, healthy eating, and deep rest, all of which help in natural pain-prevention.
When you do end up facing the occasional issue with back pain, treatments like physiotherapy, chiropractic healing techniques, acupuncture, etc have historically prove extremely efficient if performed by trained professionals. If you are looking for experts who do physiotherapy in Edmonton, Alberta, you’re in luck as Millwoods Physical Therapy Centre has skilled health experts who have years of experience in back pain and sciatic pain alleviation. Instead of ingesting bottle after bottle of pain-medicines, take the healthier route and heal naturally.