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Pain Management

 

Acupuncture for Pain Management in Gainesville, FLpain management in Gainesville, FL

Acupuncture treatment for pain is one of our most popular services. Acupuncture is incredibly effective at relieving both chronic and acute pain of all types. Whether the pain is caused by an injury, disease, or old age, our Gainesville, FL acupuncture therapy can provide effective pain management even for conditions that have proven unresponsive to conventional therapies and medications. And beyond simply relieving pain, Deep Root Medicine’s acupuncture treatments also help eliminate tension, restore range of motion, and improve strength.

 

What Types of Pain Can Gainesville Acupuncture Treatment Address?

Our Gainesville, FL acupuncture clinic can help with a wide variety of painful conditions. Some of the most common issues we successfully treat through acupuncture therapy include:

  • Lower back pain
  • Arthritis
  • Painful Joints: Knee, Elbow, Neck, Hips, Shoulder, etc.
  • Muscle pain
  • Migraines/ headaches
  • Sciatica
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Tendonitis
  • Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

This is far from an exhaustive list of the conditions we treat, so consult with the Gainesville acupuncturists at Deep Root Medicine to find out how we can help manage your particular pain.

 

Pain’s Elusive and Debilitating Nature

Because pain is a common symptom of many disorders, pain management is central to any medical practice. However, pain is often incommunicable — while a physician can ask you about the type, duration, location, and intensity of the pain, the actual experience of it can be beyond description. Chronic pain can come and go, or it can be constantly present in the body. Even low-to-moderate levels of intermittent pain can markedly impair our ability to function and fully live life, while constant pain can severely limit mobility, destroy our social life, inhibit sleep, and even lead to debilitating mental states like depression.

 

The Roots of Pain: Obstruction and Stagnationtesting flexibility in Gainesville, FL

“Pain always comes from obstruction.” This old axiom from traditional medicine really rings true. When there’s pain, what should be moving is not moving, or it’s impeded from moving properly or fully. Such stagnation can arise from physical trauma, illness, or from changes in range of motion and capability that come with aging. Acupuncture, herbal medicine, and bodywork all have a place in treating pain, especially chronic pain, and our practitioners are highly experienced in using each of these modalities for pain management.

There are three strategies at work when treating pain, and traditional medicine is particularly effective because it can incorporate each of these strategies simultaneously. The first strategy involves immediately reducing the subjective experience of pain during your treatment as well as for a period of time following your visit. With each repeated treatment, the duration of pain relief increases.

The second strategy involves determining which aspects of your life are most disturbed by the pain—mobility, sleep, work, etc. — and reducing the level of impact pain has on these functions. The third, and perhaps most important, strategy is using acupuncture to shift your relationship — both physically and emotionally — to the pain itself.

 

An Ongoing Cycle of Tension

Chronic pain often generates fear, which leads to physical and emotional tension, as the body contracts in an effort to resist re-experiencing the pain. While it’s natural and even healthy for the body to clench and recoil at the reintroduction of pain during the acute phase of injury or illness, if this experience continues beyond a short period of time, such tension can actually increase the experience of pain and lessen the likelihood of its cessation.

Although the feeling of emotional tension is fairly obvious, the physical body’s response to tension is less pronounced and can lead to serious problems if not treated. In fact, when the tension becomes powerful enough, stress tightens capillary beds in a sympathetic nervous system response, and circulation to all but the most vital areas is inhibited. This can cause muscles, limbs, and even the whole body to become undernourished and chronically clenched, producing a self-reinforcing cycle of tension, impaired circulation, and immobility.

 

Managing Emotional Pain

Pain isn’t only felt within the body. As many of us have experienced, depression, heartbreak and grief can be just as painful and debilitating as the most severe types of physical pain. Many of the same physiological processes and mechanisms that produce physical pain contribute to psycho-spiritual pain. Unlike most forms of contemporary medical treatment, traditional medicine recognizes the connection between body, mind, and spirit, and works to provide pain relief at all three levels. Given this, our therapies are equally effective at treating emotional as well as physical pain.

Treat Your Pain With Gainesville Acupuncture Therapy

Don’t let pain disrupt your life. Schedule a diagnostic appointment with the Gainesville, FL acupuncture specialists at Deep Root Medicine, so we can develop a course of therapy to alleviate your pain and get your life back on track.