The Stenosis Patient's Best Friend, An Alternative Medicine Practitioner

Integrative neurology combines the knowledge of medical neurology (the study of the brain and nerves) with complimentary techniques like acupuncture, chiropractic and herbal therapies. There are many different reasons why a person develops lower back, hip and leg pain. The most common are spinal stenosis, sciatica, pinched nerves and neuropathy. Despite billions of dollars spent on research of these conditions, no one single method has emerged as the superior treatment for them. Thankfully, they do typically respond well to a combination of therapies. Stenosis, sciatica and most of leg pains involve the nerves in the back and lower extremities; Integrative Neurology is an ideal approach for treatment. The symptoms may be similar, but the cause of those symptoms varies greatly. Determining where and why the nerves are injured is the most important step to long lasting relief. Only then can effective treatment be instituted. For example stenosis and disc herniation require decompression therapy. Adding acupuncture can often help damaged nerves to repair while suppressing pain. Supplementing the diet with specific nutrients may also speed up the healing process. A specific follow-up exercise program based on a patient's MRI results offers the best chance for long lasting improvement. Integrative Neurology is about offering many different treatment approaches to neurological conditions, combined individually for each patient, all under one roof. It is the optimum approach for patients suffering from back, hip and leg problems from stenosis, sciatica and neuropathy.

There are a number of alternative medicine treatments that can be very helpful in the treatment of spinal stenosis and its symptoms. In this article we consider acupuncture and how acupuncture might be an effective therapy for people suffering from stenosis of the spine.

Acupuncture has been practiced for more than 3000 years. When acupuncture practice was originally developed, many centuries ago, it was based on the concept of energy. Historically the developers of acupuncture believed it worked by moving energy known as "Qi" (pronounced Chee) throughout the body. According to traditional acupuncture theory, if too much energy accumulated in the body (or not enough energy reached a body part) the tissues would be damaged and disease would result. Acupuncture needles were inserted into injured tissues for the purpose of moving energy into or away from stressed tissue. Once energy balance was restored the tissues could heal and repair. We now know that acupuncture works through the nervous system. Let's say for example that a person is suffering from back pain as a result of spinal stenosis. There is a specific circuit that deals with pain signaling in the body. The nerves that carry pain signals from the back to the brain will be overactive. There are also many competing circuits that when stimulated will block pain signals from reaching the brain. A skillful acupuncturist can selectively activate the pain blocking circuits effectively shutting off the pain signals going to the brain. This modern concept of acupuncture has been demonstrated in studies using sophisticated technology called fMRI and Magnetoencephalography. There are a number of other studies that compared cortisone injections with dry needling (acupuncture). In these studies patients obtained better pain relief from acupuncture treatment than from the injection. Acupuncture thus works, for conditions like spinal stenosis, through the body's built-in pain suppressing machinery.