ACUPUNCTURE or ACUPUNCTURE INJECTION THERAPY for KNEES, ELBOWS, and Chronic Pain Anywhere!
At Acupuncture & Eastern Integrative Medicine, we offer a treatment that merges the ancient wisdom of Chinese medicine with modern day techniques to bring you the best in pain relief and healing. It’s called Acupuncture Injection Therapy or AIT (aka Acu-Point Injection Therapy) It blends the use of the acupuncture points (acupoints) with therapeutic injections for an effective way to treat a wide variety of pain.
Many famous athletes use acupuncture and AIT: NBA superstars like Mickael Pietrus and Kobe Bryant, Pitcher for the Orioles like Jason Hammel, and Olympiads like Kevin Overland, Dee Dee Trotter, Yin Jian, Daniel Kowalski and snowboarder for the USA team, Mark McMorris, to name a few.
A number of treatments and practices already exist that incorporate the use of acupoints for the best results. For example, trigger point therapy, PRP, and even Steroid injections all make use of acupuncture points and pathways – often ‘by accident’, but, use one of the same mechanisms of action – we call this the ‘cushioning’ effect. The big difference is 1) the cost of AIT is a fraction of the cost of the others, with 2) no downsides of danger of eroding the joint (in fact it nourishes with hydration and nutrients like B12) and can be as effective and/or more long lasting, and 3) LESS pain or NO PAIN – by using a very small guage needle (30 guage = hair-like in size) with expert administration, we can avoid the old fear of needles to ever haunt our patients again!
While Acupoint injection therapy locates and treats painful ashi or trigger points, it also encompasses the therapeutic philosophy on which all of Chinese medicine is based. This means that Dr. Nancy, here at Acu & EIM, takes into account your overall health, any imbalances, and the source of your pain before choosing the points to treat.
We most commonly use a combination of sterile, Saline-based homeopathic and B Vitamins (FDA approved, of course). The B vitamins are an important component in cellular growth and reproduction, the formation of blood and protein, and in tissue repair. B vitamins are used in our treatments when you have had a long-term tender points, muscle knots, or chronic inflammation. This liquid component of the Acupuncture treatment creates a type of ‘cushion’ effect and helps to protect the healing tissue while the nutrients bring oxygen, blood, and anti-inflammatory properties to the site to enhance healing.
Research shows that AIT is an effective treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome, and tennis elbow (research example: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7870184/) , menstrual cramps (research example: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5pc7b9qf) and a wide variety of joint pain. However, clinically, we have seen it an overwhelming success for knee and ankle injuries, also. It is especially helpful for the athlete that needs to get back in the game quickly and an acceleration to the normal acupuncture treatment.
Many see long lasting or complete results with just one injection per week, for just one or two weeks, followed with bi-monthly or monthly acupuncture treatments and most enjoy complete release from pain in a fairly short amount of time! Monthly or quarterly maintenance of acupuncture treatments is always recommended for the ultimate in preventive medicine and keeping in top form.
If you want to know if Acupuncture or AIT is right for you, give us a call today.
