According to the National Institute of Health, an estimated 100 million people in the United States suffer from chronic pain. You yourself may be feeling pain right now: a headache behind your eyes, shoulder pain, or even your hips may be hurting. But what exactly is pain? And how can we get relief?

The NIH defines pain as a feeling triggered in the nervous system which can be sharp or dull, and may come and go. Acute pain does not last very long and goes away as the body heals, whereas chronic pain may last for six months or more. Along with the discomfort, pain can lower your self-esteem, cause depression and anger, and can interfere in your daily life. Western medicine treats pain mainly using pain relievers, physical therapy, and surgery if necessary.

However, there is growing recognition in the Western medical field that acupuncture offers significant pain relief with virtually no side effects. In fact, it is one of the main therapies recommended on the NIH website for pain management.

You may be wondering how acupuncture can possibly help with pain. To understand this, we must first recognize that it uses a different paradigm (you may have heard of the terms ‘chi’, as well as ‘yin’ and ‘yang’) to diagnose and treat the body. In an official report, “Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials”, the World Health Organization has listed the following conditions that have been shown through controlled trials to be treated effectively by acupuncture: low back pain, neck pain, sciatica, tennis elbow, knee pain, periarthritis of the shoulder, sprains, facial pain, headaches, dental pain, rheumatoid arthritis, postoperative pain, and colic.

Chinese medicine views pain differently than Western medicine. A basic Chinese premise states that “when chi is stuck, pain follows.” The main principle in treating pain is to move chi. An acupuncturist may do this by placing acupuncture needles in specific points. The needles used by acupuncturists are sterile, solid (not hollow), and hair thin. These needles are so thin you can literally tie a knot in them! The insertion of the needle will be mostly painless (some people may feel an occasional pinch.) Occasionally, your practitioner may gently stimulate the needle to call the body’s attention to the area, which can sometimes generate a feeling of fullness, or a slight dull ache in the area. This is typical, desirable, and is no cause for alarm.

Acupuncturists can supplement the therapy with medicinal herbs, or recommend gentle exercises that complement the treatment. Chinese medicine also uses two other forms of treatment, known as cupping and gua sha. Cupping is the placement of glass cups over the skin after creating a vacuum, and gua sha is a massage technique in which a tool is rubbed over a trouble area. These therapies gently invigorate the muscle layer to bring up any stagnant blood, and to stimulate blood and lymph flow to the area. It effectively alleviates pain, and with consistent treatment can assist in preventing further outbreaks of discomfort.

In addition to the alleviation of pain, an acupuncture session may benefit you in the following ways: it can significantly reduce your stress level, increase your circulation, lower your blood pressure, and increase your ability to enjoy sleep, food, and life in general. It is a very safe, gentle and non-invasive therapy that has benefited the lives of millions (or maybe even billions) of us over the last five thousand years.