Orthopedic & Pain Management

 

Pain Management

 

Pain is often debilitating and it can limit us from living our lives fully, it can get in the way of our ability to perform work, it can sour our mood and can put a strain on relationships we care about.

Chinese medicine has a deep reservoir of treating pain and injuries. Over the history of Chinese Medicine many traditional doctors were also masters in the martial arts. These physicians contributed to what we call “hit medicine.” This method of medicine was designed to heal broken bones and treat physical trauma. Men and women who sustain a pain condition from work or from physical activity can benefit greatly from this aspect of Chinese medicine. Many individuals, both young and old, learn that regular treatments provide strong preventive medicine and contributes to keeping them in top shape.

Orthopedic Acupuncture combines the wisdom of traditional “hit medicine” with assessment style and knowledge of an orthopedic specialist. This specialized technique is used to identify the interconnected muscle groups and tissues that are out of balance and craft protocols specific for each patients pattern. Our Orthopedic Acupuncturist may apply a variety of methods such as Orthopedic Trigger Point Therapy, Electro-acupuncture, Laser Therapy, Cupping, Gua Sha, and Massage, as well as using internal herbal formulas and external salves, lotions, and plasters.

Our goal is not only to treat the pain symptom, but to address the root cause of the pain condition

Common Orthopedic Conditions Treated by Acupuncture

 

  • Lower Back Pain

  • Neck & Shoulder Pain

  • Herniated Disks

  • Rotator Cuff Injury

  • Sciatica

  • Knee Injury

  • Carpel Tunnel

  • Plantar Fasciitis

  • Neuropathy/Myopathy

Electro-Acupuncture

Electro-Acupuncture (EA) is an effective method of treating musculoskeletal problems, similar to a TEN’s unit used in physical therapy. But, where a TEN’s unit uses pads that only touch the skin, in electro-acupuncture current is generated through the acupuncture needles and is able to target deeper muscles and structures. Research into Neuro-Acupuncture has also shown that different pulsating frequencies of electrical stimulation is able to release our natural pain killing endorphins.

Endorphin

Beta-Endorphin  
Enkephalins
Dynorphins
5-HTP
Oxytocin
Dopamine
NOS

Hertz

2/4 Hz
2-4/15 Hz
100 Hz
20-50 Hz
2-15/30 Hz
2-15/30 Hz
2-15/30 Hz

Nerve

Mu
Delta
Kappa
HTP-r
OXTR
D1
Epithelial  

Location

Mid Brain   
Dorsal Horn   
Brain & Spine   
Hypothalamus   
CNS   
CNS & Prefrontal   
Circulatory   

Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT)

At New Harmony Center we like to combine the wisdom of traditional medicine with the innovations of modern science. The use of light for healing has been around since the earliest traditions of natural medicine. The use of LASER in modern medicine was first explored in the 1960s. Since then numerous research has been conducted to understand the benefit of Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT). LLLT has been shown to have a variety of beneficial effects such as promoting circulation, decreasing inflammation, speeding up the healing and regeneration of tissue, enhancing performance and even supporting the immune system. Different frequencies target different tissues at different depths if the body.

810nm
658nm   
543nm
405nm

Depth

Bone, Joint, Ligament   
Muscle & Tendon   
Interstium & Facia   
Skin & Epidermal    

Infrared  
Red   
Green   
Blue

Wave Length

 

Cupping & Gua Sha

 

Chinese Medicine has a number of unique tools to help balance the body and overcome illness. Cupping and gua sha are two such tools to alleviate pain.

Gua Sha is a method of using an hard edged tool to brush the surface of the body at varying pressures to breakup stagnation in the tissues and draw blood to the surface.

Cupping is the method of using suction to pull up on the tissues. It can be thought of as a “reverse massage,” where with a massage the technique is to apply pressure to break up a knot in the muscle, cupping pulls up on the tissue to unravel the knot, pulling apart the different layers of skin, fascia, and muscle. As the space between the layers open up, toxins, stagnate blood, and metabolic waste are drawn out to get cleared away and replaced with fresh blood, fluids, and nutrients.

Athletic Performance

 

Our goal at New Harmony Center is to not only alleviate a person’s pain but to help them to achieve full thriving health and for athletes to enhance their athletic performance. Using the variety of tools and methods we have available, we can work with athletes to construct a program to enhance their performance and speed up their recovery between activities.

As we engage in an activity and put stress on our body, the body responds by releasing hormones like adrenaline that improve muscle performance and increase our ability to concentrate and pay closer attention to the task at hand. These endorphins make us feel energized and clearer. However, as we enter in the exhaustion phase, we start to fatigue and lose strength and endurance.

Many of the herbs in the Chinese Pharmacopeia have adaptogenic properties that prolong the exhaustion phase and stretch out the “sweet spot” allowing us to hang out in that top performance state for longer.