Can Acupuncture Help Lower Back Pain?

Understanding What's Really Causing Your Pain

Lower-back pain is one of the most common reasons people seek treatment. But "lower-back pain" is not one single condition. Two people can both walk into our office saying, "My back hurts," yet the reasons for their pain can be completely different.

Lower-back pain may involve tight muscles, muscle spasms, irritated nerves, sciatica, herniated or bulging discs, arthritis, spinal stenosis, or a combination of several problems. That is why treating lower-back pain begins with an important question: What is actually contributing to your pain?

Why Consider Acupuncture for Lower-Back Pain?

When we use acupuncture for lower-back pain, we aren't simply treating the name of the diagnosis or what appears on an MRI. We are looking at the person in front of us.

Where does the pain begin? Does it travel? Are the muscles tight or spasming? Is there burning, tingling, or numbness that may indicate nerve involvement? What movements make the pain worse or better? How is the problem affecting walking, sitting, sleeping, working, and exercising?

Acupuncture may be used as part of a conservative approach to help reduce pain, decrease muscular tension and guarding, calm irritated nerves, and improve function. The goal isn't necessarily to change what appears on an MRI. The goal is to change how you feel and how well you function.

Not All Lower-Back Pain Is the Same

The way your pain feels can give us important clues about what may be happening.

• A severe muscle spasm may make it difficult to straighten up, get out of a chair, or turn over in bed.
• An irritated nerve may produce burning, tingling, numbness, or shooting pain that travels into the buttock or down the leg.
• A herniated disc may irritate a nearby nerve and produce both lower-back and leg symptoms.
• Someone with spinal stenosis may find that standing and walking aggravate symptoms while sitting or bending forward provides relief.

Sometimes several of these problems occur together. Understanding these differences helps us develop an individualized treatment approach instead of treating every person with lower-back pain exactly the same way.

Acute vs. Chronic Lower-Back Pain

It is also important to consider how long you've been hurting. Acute lower-back pain may develop suddenly after lifting something, exercising, making an awkward movement, or seemingly for no reason at all. Many acute episodes improve over time.

Chronic lower-back pain is generally defined as pain lasting 12 weeks or longer. Chronic problems can become more complicated because the original problem may be accompanied by persistent muscle guarding, restricted movement, nerve sensitivity, and changes in how someone uses their back.

A person who injured their back three days ago may therefore require a very different approach from someone who has been living with lower-back pain for three years.

Muscle Tightness and Lower-Back Spasms

Sometimes the muscles themselves are a major contributor to lower-back pain. Muscles may tighten or spasm following overuse, lifting, prolonged sitting, an awkward movement, an injury, or irritation of the surrounding joints and nerves.

Acupuncture may be used to help decrease pain and reduce muscular tension and guarding. As the muscles begin to relax, movement may become easier and the cycle of pain followed by protective tightening may begin to decrease.

Herniated and Bulging Discs

The discs between the vertebrae act as cushions within the spine. When a disc bulges or herniates, it can sometimes irritate or put pressure on a nearby nerve. This may produce lower-back pain along with numbness, tingling, burning, weakness, or pain traveling into the buttock or leg.

Acupuncture cannot physically push a herniated disc back into place. Instead, treatment focuses on the symptoms and surrounding tissues that may be contributing to the patient's discomfort, including pain, protective muscular tension, and an irritated or sensitized nerve.

Sciatica and Irritated Nerves

Sciatica is commonly used to describe pain that travels from the lower back or buttock down the leg. It can feel like a deep ache, burning sensation, electrical pain, tingling, or sharp shooting pain.

When treating someone with sciatica, we don't only focus on where the pain is felt. We also look at what may be irritating the nerve and whether surrounding muscular tension or other factors are contributing to the problem. Acupuncture may be incorporated into a conservative treatment approach aimed at reducing pain, relaxing surrounding muscles, and calming irritated nerves.

What About Spinal Stenosis?

Spinal stenosis occurs when spaces within the spine become narrowed, either within the spinal canal itself or in the openings through which nerves exit the spine.

Acupuncture cannot remove bone, reverse arthritis, or physically widen a severely narrowed spinal canal or foramen. But having spinal stenosis doesn't necessarily mean that every component of someone's pain is coming directly from the narrowing. A patient may also have an irritated nerve, muscle spasms, muscular guarding, or other painful soft-tissue problems occurring alongside the stenosis. These are some of the factors we may attempt to address with acupuncture.

When significant structural narrowing is causing progressive weakness, major loss of function, or other neurological problems, additional medical or surgical evaluation may be necessary. The purpose of acupuncture isn't to pretend that the stenosis isn't there. It is to determine whether there are components of the patient's pain that may respond to conservative treatment.

Often, More Than One Thing Is Going On

The body doesn't always divide back problems into neat categories. A patient may have arthritis and a bulging disc on an MRI while also experiencing severe muscle spasms. Another person may have spinal stenosis combined with an irritated nerve producing pain down the leg.

One problem can then trigger another. An irritated nerve may cause surrounding muscles to tighten protectively. Tight muscles may restrict comfortable movement. Moving differently because of pain can place additional stress on other muscles and joints. Part of our treatment strategy is attempting to interrupt that cycle.

Look Beyond the Pain Score

Pain levels are important, but they don't tell the whole story. When determining whether someone is improving, we also want to know what is changing in everyday life.

Can you walk farther? Sit through dinner more comfortably? Put on your shoes more easily? Sleep through the night? Get through your workday with less discomfort? Is the pain traveling less distance down your leg? Are muscle spasms happening less frequently?

These improvements can be just as meaningful as seeing a pain score decrease. Ultimately, we want to see you functioning better.

Improvement Should Build Over Time

One acupuncture treatment usually isn't enough to tell us how much someone may improve, particularly with a problem that has existed for months or years. Instead, we look for a pattern over a course of treatment.

Perhaps the first treatment gives you several hours of relief. After additional treatments, the relief may begin lasting longer. Maybe the pain isn't traveling as far down the leg. Perhaps you can stand longer, sleep better, or walk farther before symptoms begin.

We want to see improvement building from treatment to treatment. That progression helps us determine whether acupuncture is providing meaningful benefits and whether continuing care makes sense.

When Acupuncture Is Not Enough

Acupuncture is not the appropriate stand-alone treatment for every person with lower-back pain. The following require prompt medical attention:

• Progressive leg weakness
• Significant loss of function
• New bowel or bladder problems
• Numbness around the groin or saddle area
• Fever associated with severe back pain
• Certain traumatic injuries

Likewise, if someone is not responding appropriately to conservative treatment, additional evaluation may be necessary rather than simply continuing the same treatment indefinitely. Knowing when acupuncture may help and when a patient needs additional medical care is an important part of treating lower-back pain responsibly.

We Treat the Person, Not Just the MRI

The MRI can provide valuable information, but it is one piece of a larger puzzle. We also consider your symptoms, medical history, physical examination, daily limitations, and how your body responds to treatment.

Most importantly, we want to know how the problem is affecting your life. Can you work? Exercise? Walk? Sleep? Play with your children or grandchildren? Do the things you want to do without constantly thinking about your back?

That is why our approach can be summarized very simply: We don't simply treat the MRI. We treat the person experiencing the pain.

Could Acupuncture Be an Option for Your Lower-Back Pain?

If you are struggling with lower-back pain, sciatica, muscle spasms, a herniated disc, or spinal stenosis, the first step is determining what may be contributing to your symptoms and whether acupuncture is an appropriate option for you.

At Integrative Acupuncture Center, we look beyond the name of the diagnosis. We evaluate your symptoms, how your pain affects your everyday activities, and how your body responds to treatment. Our goal isn't simply to lower a pain score. Our goal is less pain, better movement, better function, and helping you get back to the activities that matter to you.

If you would like to find out whether acupuncture and Chinese medicine may help you, call Integrative Acupuncture Center at (201) 444-7150 or email acujosh@acupunctureYES.com. The office is located at 69 West Ridgewood Avenue in Ridgewood, NJ.