After effects of Acupuncture

[Rocky1]

I had acupuncture yesterday and was fine but today ny back is in agony and feels like it has gone into spasm. Is this normal?

[Bananas5]

Hello Rocky1.

No this isn't right. I take it this was your first time? The body's natural endorphins kick in and give you a wonderful feeling during acupuncture. There shouldn't be any pain afterwards.

Did you do anything unusual after? or something you haven't done for a long time? When you feel well that is often the time people do something more energetic and cause damage and bring on pain.

Pat x

[Rocky1 in reply to Bananas5]

Hi Pat, It's my first time. It didn't hurt when she did it but today feel awful. Just rested after. She did say I might feel pain the next day but it seems a bit much. She didn't use that many needles. I'm so fed up as nothing seems to help my pain at all. I'll see how I feel tomorrow, but am so fed up of going back to the doctor she doesn't know how to help any more. x

[pinknosedcat in reply to Rocky1]

Hi Rocky, just wanted to let you know I also had a really bad reaction to acupuncture. It had absolutely no effect like endorphins etc and made my pain worse. i have subsequently been advised to try a different practitioner but am wary because it's a lot of money just to make you feel worse.

[Bananas5 in reply to Rocky1]

I am very surprised. It doesn't always work but I hope so much you aren't one of those. Did you have it done by your GP or someone from the Pain Clinic? Did you have one in each of your hands - base of the thumb? For some bizarre reason the hands have proved very effective! Are you due to have another session and if so how long to waut. Don't give up yet.

Pat x

[chloe40]

Hi Rocky, I wouldn't say it was normal, I too had an awful reaction to acupuncture. It was for back pain and the procedure which was supposed to be painless, was very painful. The pain kept me awake all night, I remember it well and swore I'd never have it again but everyone is different, I'm sure it has had excellent results for some. You may well feel much better tomorrow, don't give up, just rest today.

[teadrinker]

I feel for you. I never got on with acupuncture. It didn't help my pain, and I was warned that it would stir the pain up after a treatment session, which it did. I used to feel terrible afterwards, really sick and washed out for a day or so. A couple of times I had nasty dizzy spells during the treament, and I don't mind needles so I can only blame the acupuncture process.

I hope by now you're feeling better. I stuck with the prescribed number of treatment sessions (in a hospital pain clinic) because I was really keen for it to work, so I'd suggest that if you can bear it, try it again. But it doesn't work for everyone. I've been reading this week that it doesn't work for every type of pain either. Still, I suppose we have to try these things.

[Rocky1]

Thank you all for replying. Ive spent the day doing hot and cold compress to try and help. I will try it again and see what happens. I think we all get desperate for something to work. Its amazing how stubborn our bodies can be.

[johnsmith]

Pain after back treatment is not straight forward. Sometimes what happens is that we switch off some of our pain receptors to various things that are not right in the back. When the back is treated the pain receptors switch back on and inform the mind that various things are not right.

Lactic acid stored in one place in the back can defuse from the place where it has been stored to other places after treated. The new places will respond with pain where as the place it has been stored will ignore the lactic acid problem.

The pain may take a few days to totally disappear as the lactic acid is totally cleared from the muscles. Muscles can become a little dysfunctional when exposed to lactic acid.

Pain can be useful in that it says beware there is a problem. The problem originated from one place, but after treatment that is effective there is a re-distribution of muscular tension which because it is different than what you are used to plus the healing original fault which now hopefully is functioning better can feel painful.

There is always the problem that there was a mishap with the treatment so you need to speak to the therapist to get here take on the situation. Un-sterile needles can cause infection.

[pinknosedcat in reply to johnsmith]

Hi john, I have a question about lactic acid. i thought that lactic acid causing muscle pain has been debunked. have a look at some sports phsio websites. they reckon the pain that can follow exercise is actually tiny muscle tears. I don't know, i'm no expert and am now just confused. I thought lactic acid is caused by the muscles need to absorb more oxygen, and if you overpoduce it gets transported to the major organs. It all seems like quite complex chemistry. Muscle spasms aren't the same thing though are they? What's the difference? please don't think I'm being critical, I am genuinely confused, i've read so many things, often peer reviewed and they all seem to be contradictory.

[johnsmith in reply to pinknosedcat]

Hi pinknosedcat

You are right to be confused. The topic of muscles and pain is complex and often requires a lot of background experience and knowledge to fully understand. Ones understanding is constantly needing to be upgraded according to the results of research that keep coming out.

The width of a capillary is the width of one blood corpuscle. When a muscle contracts it closes of the capillary and when it lengthens the capillary opens again. The contraction and relaxation of a muscle can act as a muscle pump moving the blood though capillaries. If a muscle contracts and does not relax then blood flow though a capillary is made difficult and if the muscle is very contracted blood flow though the capillary is prevented.

If the blood flow though a capillary ceases then nutrients cannot reach muscle and waste products cannot be removed. Waste products would include lactic acid.

The are two main types of muscle that concern us (there are others) Fast muscle and slow muscle. Fast muscle can generate a lot of power and has very little endurance. Slow muscle has very little power but has lots of endurance. Muscles do things by contracting. However a muscle is strongest at its longest length and as it contracts it gets weaker and weaker.

I have having Alexander Technique lessons for over 35 years. In 1980 (approx) I had a very very vigorous Karate workout. Two days after that workout every muscle in my body ached. It was quite painful in some places. I saw my Alexander Teacher for my regular lesson of 30 minutes. I left that lesson with no pain or discomfort what so ever. My Alexander Teacher at the time enabled my muscles to lengthen out. This allowed all the waste products trapped in the muscles to be flushed out as a result of improved circulation. If I had pain due to muscle tears I would not have been able to leave that lesson with evidence of no experience of pain.

Over the years since then I have found that unfamiliar muscle exercise leaves its mark with aching. A bit of help lengthening out my muscles and the pain completely disappears.

A sports phsio is not an expert in lengthening muscle. Many do not know how to do this. They know about muscle cramp, disc problems and exercising to recover from injury. I would also expect them to know about massage. Minor muscle tears will probably cause pain, but how do tell the difference between a contracted muscle which remains contracted and a muscle tear. A physio in the NHS very rarely does massage and would not know from experience the relief you can get from using their hands to lengthen out a contracted muscle.

The issue of contracted muscles can be confusing. Muscles consist of muscle fibers, propioceptors, nerves for instructing muscle fibres to contract. Good muscle tone requires that all muscle fibres have the right level of contraction. This in the less than superb athlete does not happen. It is possible for one set of muscle fibres to be too relaxed and another set of muscle fibres to be over contracted to try and compensate for the too relaxed muscles. You are now in a feedback loop. The muscles need to work harder so they contract harder. However, the more contraction the weaker the muscle fibres get. You know have a situation where pain can can develop.

The development of pain from a set of muscle fibres which are over contracted can result in pain not in the place where the over contraction is taking place, This is because nerves can be affected by the pressures from waste products and compression that over contracted muscle produces. Nerves may signal pain in a very different place than the place where the cause exists.

I will stop at this point to let you digest what I have written and to formulate any questions you may have.

[Banie]

I had the same reaction. I had a stiff neok and what felt like a trapped nerve in my left shoulder but no pain as such. Had acupuncture and it flared up the day after and was excruciating for weeks. The pain was in my shoulder, all over my arm and sometimes in my chest.

Carried on having gentle physio and using heat pad and ice pack and it was so bad at times.

As it started to feel like it was easing up after weeks of acute pain, I had more acupuncture in my head. It has flared up bad again. I’m in agony.

I guess I’m a super sensitive reactor to it but I’ve had acupuncture before and loved it, however, not for nerve pain or to treat a bad back.

Obviously nerve pain and acupuncture don’t mix well for me.

The nervous system is like electricity that is similar to a linked network. Scares me now.

Just wanted to share in case it helps anyone else. :-))