Month: May 2018

“It Was Just The Straw That Broke The Camels Back!”

On By austinacupuncturejasonIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Greetings!

For 17 years, I’ve spent my days connecting and listening to my patients.

I hear one phrase repeated daily, over and over and over, almost like a Tibetan Mantra.

Last Wednesday I heard it 5 times! I counted.

Any guess what the phrase is?

……Close, but no. Heck, who has time to guess.  I’ll tell you. The phrase is…

“All I did was”…

“All I did was… bend over to pick up the baby.”

“All I did was… get out of the car”.

“All I did was… rake leaves”.

“All I did was… put my clubs in the trunk of the car”.

Maybe, sometime in your life you’ve said something like this yourself when you first noticed your back hurt.

Truth is, when you say to me, “All I did was…” you’re telling me what was “the straw that broke the camels back”.

Whatever you were doing when your back went out wasn’t “really” what put you in agonizing pain. If it was, then every loose piece of paper lying on the floor should come with a caution sign.

Whatever it was that you were doing at the time was probably a minor activity which shouldn’t have caused any pain what so ever. But it did.

Your back doesn’t care whether you’re young or old, athletic or a couch potato, heavy or light, the straw doesn’t care either.

“So, how do you fix it?”

Here’s some free medical advice…

Find the tight area and gently stretch it, use ice for only the first 24 hours if the area is inflamed or swollen. But after that, use warm heat only. No more ice!!! Call me if that doesn’t work so we can do some quick acupuncture to fix you up and prevent it from happening again. The important thing is… do something!

What I’ve learned from back pain patients is that it sometimes takes weeks or even months to fully go away on its own. I’ve read studies estimating that a wretched back takes about 16 weeks to fully recuperate if you do nothing to treat it.  That same study also pointed out that prescription muscle relaxants and pain relievers do not shorten the length of time it takes for the back to heal itself; It just muffles the pain until you take the next pill; you still have 16 weeks if you go the prescription drug route.

There is no reason to wait…  it’s a quick & easy fix with acupuncture, but if you wait for it to simply “go away on its own”… it may be a while.

Acupuncture, on the other hand, has been proven time and time again to shorten the whole thing. In many cases, offering instant relief. It’s usually not an instant miracle cure for most people (what is?), but with a couple sessions of acupuncture you can see significant improvement from even the most severe chronic pain.

Plan on needing a few treatments; some people come just a couple of times and some people come about a dozen… it just depends on the person. Either way, we’ll know pretty quickly how well you are responding.

So next time you hear someone say those words… “All I did was”…

Have them call us at 434-8700 any time between now and the end of the month. Their first acupuncture treatment will be completely free thanks to you. (New patients only)

 

 

Try Acupuncture Before More Invasive Care; It’s The Best Value In Healthcare

On By austinacupuncturejasonIn Conditions We Treat, UncategorizedLeave a comment

In many communities acupuncture is becoming a first line treatment for pain. Especially with today’s epidemic of opioid addiction, acupuncture offers a real alternative for pain relief. Acupuncture has also been shown to reduce costs, improve outcomes and increases patient satisfaction with their overall healthcare experience.

Even from a public health viewpoint, acupuncture should be a major component to our healthcare system.  Recent studies have shown that acupuncture lowers patient expenditures, lowers overall patient “out of pocket” spending, decreases the need for higher cost procedures and saves insurance companies money.

So not only has acupuncture been clinically proven to effectively reduce pain in the majority of cases, but it also saves patients, providers and payers money. For example, individuals with back pain cost the healthcare system 60% more (overall) than patients without back pain. This is largely due to expensive and largely ineffectual diagnostics and surgical procedures. Acupuncture has been shown in many studies to reduce the need for these more costly procedures.

One recent study showed that lack of complimentary services, such as acupuncture, cost insurance companies $355 per enrollee per year. If we were to conduct a “thought experiment’ and multiply that by every patient in America, we find that making acupuncture a routine part of the healthcare system would save $115 billion dollars per year.

So if you or anyone you love is dealing with unresolved chronic pain, suggest acupuncture. It is painless, it is effective and it will save them some serious money.