Is acupuncture effective for lumbar muscle strain?

For those who often engage in heavy physical labor or sit in an incorrect posture for a long time, they may experience low back pain. Most of the time, this is caused by lumbar muscle strain. There are many ways to treat lumbar muscle strain, such as massage, acupuncture, and drug therapy, etc. The following editor will introduce how to effectively treat lumbar muscle strain through traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture.

Chronic lumbar muscle strain is a common and frequently occurring disease. It affects both men and women, from young to old, and is one of the common causes of chronic low back pain. The causes of this disease can be divided into a small part due to acute injuries to the waist muscles, ligaments and other tissues without effective treatment or proper rest, but most of them are caused by long-term excessive weight bearing on the waist or long-term poor waist posture. If you carry heavy loads and work too much when you are young, the fatigue of your waist will not be effectively relieved for a long time, which will gradually lead to strain. In old age, your qi and blood will decline day by day, and the symptoms will appear whenever it is cloudy or rainy. Many young people suffer from this disease, mostly because they neglect physical exercise and work at a desk for a long time. These pathogenic factors cause the waist muscles and ligaments to be in a state of tension for a long time, and waist pain appears unknowingly. Generally, the symptoms can be relieved by a little rest or a night's sleep at the beginning, but if not effectively treated, the symptoms of lower back pain will become more and more severe. Long-term cumulative strain can lead to chronic tears of muscles and ligaments and inflammatory reactions. As a result, low back pain becomes persistent and difficult to heal. Patients are even afraid to move and are in unbearable pain.

For patients with chronic lumbar muscle strain, it is important to take care of the waist on a regular basis. The first thing is to pay attention to keeping your waist warm; secondly, correct your bad posture and avoid excessive movement of the waist; thirdly, actively exercise your waist muscles. The most important thing is to try to warm and unblock the stagnant blood vessels and meridians in the waist. As the saying goes, pain occurs when there is obstruction. Pain is caused by weakness. We can use the significant functions of moxibustion to warm the blood vessels, relax the muscles and dredge the meridians to perform physical therapy on the waist.

Moxibustion is very effective in preventing and treating chronic lumbar muscle strain. The key to achieving satisfactory prevention and treatment effects is to select the right Ashi points.

Ashi point is an acupuncture point that has neither a fixed name nor a fixed location. Instead, it uses tender points or other reaction points as the treatment site for acupuncture. To locate the acupoint, lie face down on the bed, relax your waist, and ask someone to press your waist with their fingers from the spine and both sides of the spine from top to bottom one by one to find the acupoint. If you feel abnormal soreness and pain when pressing a certain place, then this is the acupoint.

It is not easy to perform moxibustion on the waist and back by yourself. You can use a commercially available moxibustion box or ask someone to do it for you. When doing moxibustion, you must continue to apply moxibustion to one Ashi point without moving, until the moxibustion sensation spreads to the entire painful area. It would be best if you can moxibustion until you start to sweat slightly all over your body or waist. If you can achieve this degree of moxibustion, you will feel relaxed all over and your waist will be unusually warm and comfortable. As the treatment progresses, the location of the Ashi point will move, so you need to be careful to find it before each moxibustion. In addition, after an Ashi point disappears, a new Ashi point may appear elsewhere. This situation is most likely to occur after the symptoms have been significantly relieved after several moxibustion sessions. Be sure to make timely adjustments. Generally, moxibustion can be performed once every other day.

The most obvious benefit of acupuncture is that it can effectively promote local blood circulation and relieve pain at the same time. When treating lumbar muscle strain through acupuncture, it is best to assist with Chinese medicine massage, cupping, etc. At the same time, you should also maintain adequate rest to minimize further damage to the lumbar spine.