Acupuncture can cure back pain

The insertion of needles to heal - an idea practised for hundreds of years

through the Chinese by means of acupuncture - has become getting used in a different way to

relieve discomfort.

Within an innovative technique that probes deep into muscles in spasm, experts

are achieving startling leads to patients with both lengthy and short-term

problems.

Intramuscular stimulation (IMS) is showing so effective that clinical

tests are because of start soon at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.

The therapy, which utilizes anything sophisticated than sterile needles,

aims to unwind nerves and muscles which have gone into spasm consequently of

damage because of injuries, degeneration or disease.

Developed within this country by consultant anaesthetist Dr Rajesh Munglani,

medical director from the Discomfort Relief Service at Addenbrookes, IMS has become

routinely practised in the clinic by osteopath Robin Shepherd.

Unlike acupuncture, which taps into lines of one's flow or 'chi', IMS

creates the bone and joint system.

Chronic discomfort is frequently triggered by muscle contraction. IMS opens these

spasms through the manner of 'needling'.

Needles are pressed deep in to the affected muscle tissues.

Because the needle

permeates, it 'irritates' muscle, triggering a computerized response and

leading to muscle to contract even more and 'grab hold' from the needle

tightly - an action which encourages nerve being within the muscle to

relax.

The greater muscle is stimulated, the greater it subsequently relaxes.

Since the needles are extremely sharp, they cause 'microtraumas', or small

will bleed, in to the muscle. These will bleed trigger a gentle inflammatory process a

feature being the discharge of healing chemicals including prostaglandins.

This inflammation, which takes as much as three days, starts to heal

muscle - having a corresponding decrease in discomfort - consequently of

elevated bloodstream flow towards the area and enhanced muscle elasticity.

It is dependant on exactly the same osteopathic concepts of tightening and relaxing

muscles, but has the capacity to treat muscles in a much much deeper level.

Osteopath Robin Shepherd describes: 'IMS permeates far much deeper in to the

muscles than every other treatment Up to four inches, for instance, inside a

butt. Once the needles have been in position and understood through the muscles, I'm able to

stimulate them even more by twisting them, tightening the muscles a

a bit more before it relaxes.

'Patients the treated area seems like tooth pain or perhaps a bee sting. They

might be sore for any couple of days, however they start to have the benefits.

'IMS is most likely probably the most effective way of the relief of muscle

spasms that's available, and it is now my primary type of treatment.' Used early

enough, he states, it might even prevent the requirement for surgery.

He adds: 'IMS is very helpful for chronic discomfort because little else

really touches it. But it's enormously advantageous, too, in treating

frozen shoulders, tennis elbow and RSI-type injuries.'