Can Acupuncture for Injuries Actually Get You Better Faster?

If you’re an athlete, you are all too familiar with injuries. Whether it’s a twist on the golf course or a sprain on the track, sports injuries are not just painful, they can derail all your hard work and training. If you’re an acupuncture advocate like me, you know that acupuncture for injuries can be your secret weapon when dealing with sports injuries.

But injury can and often does happen totally unrelated to sport activities. You could twist an ankle playing with your kids, strain your back lifting a heavy object, or tear a rotator cuff reaching for something in the back seat of the car.  Sciatica pain can even occur from simply sitting in the wrong seat. A fall, bump or twist the wrong way can leave you with months of pain and keep you from doing the things you love. When you have what seems like a minor incident, you’re likely to take it easy, maybe ice for a while and hope the problem will go away on its own.

Boosting the Body’s Natural Healing Process

The body has a miraculous way of healing itself, but it does not always do so optimally. That’s why even the smallest injury benefits greatly from some help. Take sprains and strains, for instance – typically small micro tears to the muscles and tendons. They heal on their own but will leave micro scarring, which means the scarred tissue no longer has blood flow and the same strength and flexibility of normal tissue. That area is permanently impaired and more susceptible to injury in the future.

We’ve all had an experience where we keep re-injuring the same area again and again. This is the reason why. Improper healing often leads to life-long problems. Acupuncture for injuries like these increases blood flow and stimulates healing in the area. In turn, this speeds up the healing process and can actually avoid scarring. It’s even possible to break up scar tissue that might have begun forming with micro massage and scraping.

Acupuncture for Injuries Minimizes Pain

Bruising and contusions also benefit greatly from acupuncture. It’s important for the body to remove dead blood cells from the injured area so that it can move into the anti-inflammatory and pro-tissue repair phases of the healing process. Acupuncture for injuries speeds up the removal of clotted blood and helps initiate tissue repair by increasing blood flow. It also stimulates the production of fibroblasts – connective tissue cells that help heal wounds. It works just as well for burns, too, speeding up healing to minimize scarring. At the same time that acupuncture is doing all of these things to help the body heal quickly and thoroughly, it’s also activating pain-relieving neurotransmitters and endorphins to minimize pain.

Acupuncture for injuries can absolutely get you better faster, while reducing your discomfort and helping to prevent recurrences. Not just for athletes and weekend warriors, acupuncture can be the secret weapon to treat just about any bodily injury. The most important thing is don’t wait, come in right away. The sooner you get in for acupuncture after an injury, the faster I can get you back on your feet. After two or three treatments you will heal faster and better than if you just let the injury heal on its own.