Pain is a condition that many people deal with daily. While many people turn to conventional Western medicine for a solution to their pain, this often creates another, more serious problem, like addiction to pain medication. For this reason, more medical practitioners and institutions, like the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), have started integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and alternative pain therapies such as acupuncture for pain management with great success. Furthermore, a new trend has begun among some of the larger insurance companies, such as Aetna, United Healthcare, and Cigna, which now include acupuncture among their covered benefits. (Click here to see if we accept your insurance.)
Additionally, Medicaid programs expanded their coverage after an opioid task force urged officials to explore alternative pain therapies. In 2020, Medicare began covering acupuncture for chronic lower back pain. Medicare Part B (medical insurance) covers up to 12 acupuncture visits in 90 days for chronic low back pain. If the patient shows improvement, 8 additional sessions may be granted.
Many people are discovering alternatives to opioids with Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). Within CAM is the 2,200-year-old practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) – a practice becoming popular and replacing older pain therapies so effectively, even VA Hospitals are starting to use this almost exclusively for pain patients.
What is Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)?
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a broad term that covers many different modalities, all used under the same umbrella employed by Chinese practitioners. These modalities include (but are not limited to) acupuncture, herbal medicine, cupping, gua sha, tui na, qi gong, moxa, and more.
TCM practitioners can use the many tools in their toolbox to assist patients with not only chronic pain but also acute conditions, as well. TCM practitioners come in all forms, from straight herbalists or acupuncturists, as well as both combined, varying from master’s level education up to doctorate. To ensure one sees a board-certified licensed practitioner, the Arizona Acupuncture Board of Examiners website has a search tool where one can find a reliable list of these in their area.
For instance, the most common pain an acupuncturist will see is back pain – more specifically, lower back pain. Studies have shown that acupuncture can be great for nerve pain and can even help to restore damaged nerves, ending pain for good rather than masking it with a “pain reliever”. This is done via acupuncture needles, stimulating blood flow to damaged areas, thus restoring nerves. So, a patient can come in with pain anywhere, and a TCM doctor can provide respite without any of the unwanted side effects that come with either over-the-counter, opioid, or benzodiazepine medications.
Are there any side effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine?
This depends on the modality used to bring relief. In the case of acupuncture, soreness at the needle insertion sites may cause bruising. However, the main side effect of acupuncture is drowsiness, relaxation, and a good night’s sleep, which leads many patients to discover that acupuncture is a great remedy for chronic insomnia and other sleep-related issues.
If herbs or homeopathic remedies are used as directed for patients, there should be minimal issues besides the herb’s desired effect. Sometimes this means detoxification, or in other words, extra elimination of waste from the body.
Cupping, as the world saw from US Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and other stars, can create reddish or purple circular bruises (though they are more like hickeys) on the area cupped. Most often, there will be no negative side effects at all.
What are the other uses for Traditional Chinese Medicine?
Besides sleep and pain, nearly all patient issues can be addressed (though not always cured) in a single visit. A well-versed acupuncturist, like Drs. Fontes and Garcia, can wield needles like an extension of their own bodies.
Wise Chinese Medicine practitioners, like Drs. Fontes and Garcia, can predict what a patient’s tongue or pulse might be like just from hearing the patient’s chief complaints and can match an herb or formula to them before the intake is complete. From allergies and asthma to urinary tract infections and everything in between, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has something for everyone.
So, if Traditional Chinese Medicine is so versatile for so many issues, why do medical doctors fail to recommend it?
This is the unfortunate issue in the United States. The gold standard for practices here is the placebo controlled double blind study, which is ridiculously hard to do with acupuncture specifically, as it is truly an individualized treatment. Acupuncture plays the poster child for Traditional Chinese Medicine practices in this way, in that it is likely the most common modality used with patients, and therein is the stumbling block. Each person is different, and there is no guarantee their bodies would respond in the same way to the needles. Much like the side effects, some may feel very drowsy, some might have soreness at the insertion site, and some may feel no side effects at all.
If even the side effects can vary so dramatically from person to person, how does one expect the same results to occur when being needled as the next person?
Worse, the US standard for studies also involves understanding the mechanism of action of the modality being used. While this may be possible with herbs, acupuncture still is somewhat of a mystery to current scientific studies. This is likely why one may not hear about how great acupuncture can be from their doctor (even when it is!), just because they cannot prove how or why it is. In the estimation of many Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners, this is equivalent to not understanding Spanish and thus believing all Spanish speakers to be speaking gibberish because they do not understand this different language.
So, the next time stress, IBS, eczema, depression, hypertension, arthritis, or other chronic ailments start to get the better of you, contact us.
Call for an appointment today:
(602)307-0888
