A good friend of mine was visiting my office recently, she knew what I did but never really thought about how it could help her. At one point during our visit she was telling me how she had been getting injections for neck pain for a while but it wasn't helping much. I told her I thought she should consider Dry Needling. That brought on some great questions: "What exactly is dry needling? How would that work for me? Does it hurt?"
After explaining it a bit, I treated her neck and during the treatment she says: "you know, this does not hurt at all; I have to be honest, I really thought it would hurt. This is like completely new medicine to me, I didn't even know this existed." This ended with her being somewhat amazed by how much better she could move without pain afterwards.
I hear and see this same response daily and it never gets old.
After explaining it a bit, I treated her neck and during the treatment she says: "you know, this does not hurt at all; I have to be honest, I really thought it would hurt. This is like completely new medicine to me, I didn't even know this existed." This ended with her being somewhat amazed by how much better she could move without pain afterwards.
I hear and see this same response daily and it never gets old.
What is Dry Needling?
At it's most basic level, Dry Needling is the use of tiny filiform needles inserted into the body to stimulate healing. We often think about using medication or injections to get the body to heal but with Dry Needling rather than putting in outside medication, we stimulate your body to release its own "medication" to heal damaged or painful areas.
How does this work?
When a needle is inserted, your body senses that a new lesion has occurred. This "lesion" is so tiny that it does not cause a noticeable amount of actual tissue damage but it does start the whole healing process where your body begins to send blood, oxygen, and healing agents to the area for healing.
This process causes changes throughout the body, in the muscles, nerves, vascular system and in the brain. These effects are part of the body's self-healing mechanisms and include the facilitation of tissue repair, anti-inflammatory reactions, tissue regeneration and pain modulation. The combination of these effects make Dry Needling a very effective pain treatment.
Sometimes when our body is injured, it gets "stuck" somewhere in the healing process and isn't able to completely heal the damage. In other cases, our body is able to heal the damage but we still feel pain because our brain still associates certain movements or body parts with pain since it has "mapped" this pain pattern. The great thing about Dry Needling is that we can address both of these pain problems. Putting the needle into the body not only stimulates that healing process we talked about but also stimulates nerves that can help to activate or deactivate the areas of the brain that are responsible for how we feel and interpret pain.
What's it feel like?
Most of the time the treatment is completely pain free. Usually when I do this process, patients report that either they barely feel it or it feels like I tapped them with a tooth pick. Occasionally patients will feel a tight muscle pulse or twitch. This is the muscle activity normalizing and it relaxing quickly.
How can it help you?
One of the reasons I feel Dry Needling is a good option for some, is it can help a variety of pain conditions in many ways and unlike other pain treatments it has very few side effects.
If you have any musculoskeletal or nerve pain or are an athlete that just needs to heal an acute injury faster, Dry Needling may be something to consider. I see it to be very effective for things like headaches, neck pain, muscle strains, low back pain, arthritis, some shoulder conditions, TMJ, tennis elbow, knee pain, plantar fasciitis, and many nerve issues.
If you have any questions concerning Dry Needling treatment or if you think it may help you please contact us at (337) 504-5144 or at [email protected]
PS: I am going to have more posts on the science and evidence behind Dry Needling soon so if you are a science nerd like me check back soon for updates.
How does this work?
When a needle is inserted, your body senses that a new lesion has occurred. This "lesion" is so tiny that it does not cause a noticeable amount of actual tissue damage but it does start the whole healing process where your body begins to send blood, oxygen, and healing agents to the area for healing.
This process causes changes throughout the body, in the muscles, nerves, vascular system and in the brain. These effects are part of the body's self-healing mechanisms and include the facilitation of tissue repair, anti-inflammatory reactions, tissue regeneration and pain modulation. The combination of these effects make Dry Needling a very effective pain treatment.
Sometimes when our body is injured, it gets "stuck" somewhere in the healing process and isn't able to completely heal the damage. In other cases, our body is able to heal the damage but we still feel pain because our brain still associates certain movements or body parts with pain since it has "mapped" this pain pattern. The great thing about Dry Needling is that we can address both of these pain problems. Putting the needle into the body not only stimulates that healing process we talked about but also stimulates nerves that can help to activate or deactivate the areas of the brain that are responsible for how we feel and interpret pain.
What's it feel like?
Most of the time the treatment is completely pain free. Usually when I do this process, patients report that either they barely feel it or it feels like I tapped them with a tooth pick. Occasionally patients will feel a tight muscle pulse or twitch. This is the muscle activity normalizing and it relaxing quickly.
How can it help you?
One of the reasons I feel Dry Needling is a good option for some, is it can help a variety of pain conditions in many ways and unlike other pain treatments it has very few side effects.
If you have any musculoskeletal or nerve pain or are an athlete that just needs to heal an acute injury faster, Dry Needling may be something to consider. I see it to be very effective for things like headaches, neck pain, muscle strains, low back pain, arthritis, some shoulder conditions, TMJ, tennis elbow, knee pain, plantar fasciitis, and many nerve issues.
If you have any questions concerning Dry Needling treatment or if you think it may help you please contact us at (337) 504-5144 or at [email protected]
PS: I am going to have more posts on the science and evidence behind Dry Needling soon so if you are a science nerd like me check back soon for updates.
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