Low back and neck pain are the most commonly seen pain conditions in our Upper East Side acupuncture clinic. In New York City, this is mostly due to long hours of sitting at the computer staring at a screen with poor posture. The first step in alleviating pain conditions involving the neck and low back involve improvement of workstations. In general the center of the monitor should be eye level to prevent slouching. The chair should have a supportive back, feet should be flat on the floor, shoulders dropped with the elbow joint at 90 degrees. Many people work on laptops making the keyboard and laptop impossible to set up at the correct height. In these cases I suggest buying a blue tooth keyboard that can lay flat on the desk with a device that can raise the monitor to eye level.
Acupuncture treatment for low back pain involves a little bit of differentiation. I need to determine which movements are causing discomfort. If there is pain while bending backward that indicates the channels running along the back line are involved, pain with forward bending we may need to check the front of the body. If there is pain while side bending or twisting we will be examining channels that run along the sides of the body. If discomfort is caused by sitting, we may need to work on releasing the hips in the front. When I examine this way, I am determining where the restrictions are within the sinew body. The sinew body is the system consisting of muscles, ligaments, tendons, and fascia. The sinew body has specific acupuncture and soft tissue techniques to promote circulation to the targeted tissue. To learn more about how our New York City acupuncture clinic treats and examines the sinew body, please read our post on how classical acupuncture provides pain relief. Treating in this manner does NOT involve treating acupuncture points as many acupuncturist today use. These techniques were written in the first text of acupuncture, which has largely been unexplored clinically today. In my experience as a NYC acupuncturist, I have seen the sinew body techniques work wonders in relieving pain and improving range of motion.
As I have discussed previously, the channels are the pathways that nourish and feed the organs. When treating with acupuncture, in addition to channel restrictions within the sinew body we may also treat the organ systems as well. Pain which is made worse by standing for long periods indicates the kidney system. To treat the organ systems there are a group of acupuncture points that treat specific organ pathology, one of which is low back pain. There may be other organ systems involved as well including the liver system, gallbladder system, and urinary bladder system. If there is pain which radiates down a limb, we may treat regions of the body that symptomatically calm radicular symptoms.
When low back pain occurs with radiation people often term it sciatica. Sciatica may result from a true nerve impingement coming from L4 & L5 or the source of pain may be located in the hip usually the piriformis muscle. When the piriformis muscle is tight, it may pinch the nerve resulting in feelings of radiation down the leg. There are a number of orthopedic tests to confirm the presence of L4/L5 nerve impingement. If those tests are negative most often, the true source of pain is the result of tight muscles in the hip. Releasing these muscles will help with the radicular symptoms.
Sometimes women have low back pain in conjunction with painful periods and dysmenorrhea. This is another subject entirely, but for this type of pain we are usually examining and treating the kidney and liver systems, in addition, the fascia along the back of the body may have restrictions that need treatment as well. I have written a post on that subject entirely, which you can find here.
If you have questions I would be happy to speak to you (917) 243-4947.