For those not overly familiar with the conservative therapy world, acupuncture may seem a little bit like hocus-pocus voodoo, or a very outdated practice. Let us assure you, that could not be further from the truth! Until more recently (we’re talking the last 10 or so years) there was not a lot of high-quality evidence to support the use of acupuncture for migraines. Now there is.

While acupuncture originated as a component of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the type of acupuncture practiced by Dr.Jenn at our Oakville acupuncture clinic is a version modified to fit the principles and practices in the western world. The acupuncture points are the same in both versions, but the theory is a little bit different. The TCM practitioners use acupuncture to balance energies within the body for migraine headaches. The contemporary medical acupuncture approach is slightly more direct, inserting the needles into muscles, joints and/or around nerves affected in the injury, such as neck, scalp and fascial area for migraine.

Can Acupuncture Really Help Migraine Headaches in Oakville?

Sticking needles in a painful area may seem counter-intuitive. Migraine headaches can be completely debilitating. They have a huge negative impact on quality of life. So what do you have to lose? Try acupuncture!  You’ll be shocked at how painless it is.

Read How Acupuncture Can Help Migraine Pain

What types of differences can you hope to experience from starting acupuncture treatment for migraines? The biggest benefit is a decreased frequency of migraines. In fact, scientific studies have showed that acupuncture treatment may be just as beneficial as some common preventative medications that are often prescribed to migraine suffers! Acupuncture can help decrease the frequency of migraines by up to 50% in some cases!

In the healthcare world, we rely a lot on research to direct our practice. So when research proves that a certain therapy is beneficial, it really excites us healthcare geeks. The efficacy of acupuncture treatment was tested, in multiple studies, against no acupuncture and commonly perscribed prophylactic medication, and guess which one was found to be the most effective? You guessed it – acupuncture! 

Learn About Acupuncture Treatment with Dr. Jenn

Despite being practiced for hundreds of years, the ‘proof’ that acupuncture works is relatively new. Practitioners have been successfully treating all sorts of conditions with needling techniques for a long time, and many have clinical experience that has proved the technique to be effective. Only recently has acupuncture been recommended as a first-line treatment of migraine to compliment other conservative treatment options

Acupuncture is safe, and does not come with the side effects that medication does. It is extremely cost effective, with most insurance plans cover the acupuncture provided by Dr. Jenn at our clinic. Acupuncture treatments can often be directly billed to most insurance providers.

How Does Acupuncture Work to Improve Migraines?

There are a number of ways that acupuncture improves migraine symptoms:

• Pain Relief :  Acupuncture can trigger the release of endorphins (our body’s natural painkillers!)
• Improved Blood Flow :  The insertion of needles will immediately start to enhance circulation to the affected areas.  This stimulates and focuses the healing response on where it needs to be!
• Muscle Relaxation :  Increased blood flow into muscles helps to alleviate tension, which are often a source of migraine pain.
• Stress Reduction :  Acupuncture helps to regulate the nervous system, which is beneficial to migraine sufferers.

Oakville Acupuncture Session for Migraines with Dr. Jenn Garven

Your first medical acupuncture appointment will involve both assessment of your injury and treatment.  Dr. Jenn will work with you to find the most comfortable position to sit or lay in while the needles do their work! 

Acupuncture treatment for migraines at Nottinghill Family Wellness Centre typically involves the insertion of 8-20 needles. Each injury/condition is unique, and the acupuncture treatment will be tailored to each individual patient. Acupuncture is a pain-free experience. Our patients often describe a small prick, or feeling of mild pressure as the needle is being inserted, but once the needles are inserted to the required depth they don’t cause any discomfort at all.  During an acupuncture treatment needles will typically remain inserted for 12-15 minutes.

Read About Acupuncture For Migraine Here

For migraine headaches, the specific points used are located in the head, neck, shoulders, scalp and hands.  There are some acupuncture points located at the base of the skull that provide excellent relief of migraine pain.  Needles are inserted around the suboccipital muscles that are often responsible for causing pain behind the eyes and in the temple region.  Releasing these muscles via acupuncture is highly effective for relieving migraine-related pain. 

It may be surprising to learn that one of the most powerful points for alleviating headaches is located in the hand.  This one needle can relieve headache pain immediately for some people.  It’s a true headache powerhouse!

Electroacupuncture is a variation of acupuncture that applies electrical stimulation to the needles, which helps to boost the therapeutic effect and often provide a superior result. Each treatment is provided while keeping patient comfort as a top priority.  For migraine headaches a minimum of six treatments is recommended. Migraines are a chronic condition, and those type of conditions take a little bit of time to influence.

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How our Oakville Acupuncturist chooses the needle points?

Acupuncture needles can be inserted at a number of locations in the body to help improve your function and decrease your pain.  Some of the needle locations might not seem to make sense, but let’s discuss why they do!  For the purposes of this blog post, we will use the example of a hamstring strain and how it can be treated using acupuncture.

To start – there is the direct approach.  Your Oakville acupuncture provider can pop needles right into the sore muscle.  If this muscle is pulled or torn, the needles can stimulate the healing of the tissues and can have an immediate effect on the pain.  If the muscle is in spasm, the needle can help alleviate the tension and help the muscle relax.

The next area that a practitioner might choose to insert needles is along the spine.  But why would our Oakville Acupuncture team do this?  Each muscle/tissue is innervated by one or more spinal segmental nerves.  For the hamstrings, our lowest segments provide the innervation (right at the very bottom of our spine before it meets our pelvis).  By targeting the nerves right after they exit the spinal column we can have an effect on the muscle.  Isn’t that cool?!

How acupuncture works with your body

But wait, now the practitioner is putting needles at a different level of the spine.  We just discussed that the segments responsible for moving the hamstrings are at the base of the spine, but these needles are being inserted at a higher level?  For a lower limb problem Dr. Jenn can insert needles into the mid-lower levels and impact the efficiency of the blood flow to the injured area.  By stimulating and promoting blood flow to the injured area we can promote healing.  Increasing the blood flow to the area increases the nutrient supply that helps tissues heal.  You would be surprised how significant an impact this can have on your recovery!

LEARN MORE ABOUT ACUPUNCTURE

Your acupuncturist might also choose some more traditional acupuncture points that can have a global effect on your pain.  For example, there are 4 points that are strong pain relievers – two points in the hand, and two points in the feet.  For a lower limb injury the practitioner might choose to include the foot points, and for an upper limb condition, they might choose to include the hand points.  In Traditional Chinese Medicine these points are known as ‘The 4 Gates’ and are strong pain killers.  Additionally, there is a point in the outside of the lower leg that is great to helping relieve any type of musculoskeletal pain. Check out Dr. Jenn’s acupuncture for knee pain blog. There are various other interesting points in the body that are known for alleviating other symptoms including menstrual dysfunction, stress/anxiety and nausea.

OUR OAKVILLE ACUPUNCTURE PROVIDER DR. JENN

Oakville Acupuncture: Needle points

Lastly, there are some wonderful acupuncture points in the ear that can have a system-wide effect on your body.  It sounds weird, but trust me and give them a try!  These points can help manage anxiety and depression, improve mood and help dampen an overactive system that often occurs when we are in pain.  With these points, we use smaller needles to make insertion painless.

Can you tell I love acupuncture?  There are so many options within an acupuncture session that can help make the treatment effective.  If you’re curious if acupuncture can help you, visit me (Dr. Jenn) at Nottinghill Family Wellness or call 905-827-4197. We can Directly Bill most Insurance plans!

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Chronic Ankle Sprain Treatment

Have you suffered multiple ankle sprains?  Do you roll your ankles easily?  Is there some swelling that just won’t clear out and makes your ankles look puffy? Are you suffering from pain from  an old ankle sprain and looking for the best treatment options? Are you finding that your ankles feel weak and unsteady walking on uneven ground?   If so – acupuncture might be the answer to finally clearing up those old ankle injuries!

Acupuncture For Ankle Sprains and Swelling Oakville

People who have had multiple ankle sprains on the same ankle, especially if the sprains were quite severe, likely have a lingering deactivation of the muscles around the ankle.  Acupuncture can help stimulate these muscles and help them function at their optimal level again.  By stimulating points in the front and back of the leg, in the ankle and in the foot we can really have a significant impact on the functioning of the lower leg/foot complex. Learn more about what a acupuncture treatment includes at our Oakville clinic.  It is also possible that you’ve experienced damage to the ligaments (bone-to-bone connections) and/or tendons (muscle-to-bone connections).  Acupuncture can help strengthen these connections and heal the injured tissue. Learn more about Dr. Jenn and how she can help with acupuncture treatment in Oakville here.

Broken Ankle treatment Oakville and Acupuncture

If you suffered a broken ankle and had to wear a boot, or were in an ankle brace for a long time the top of the boot/brace can have a negative impact on some of our nerves – specifically the superficial fibular nerve.  This nerve can get squished by the compression of the brace and can lead to pockets of swelling that stick around for a long time! Looking for icing instructions for your painful swollen ankle.

Ankle videos from our Oakville Acupuncturist

If you’ve worn any sort of brace or boot and have noticed that months and years after the injury has ‘healed’ that you still notice puffiness in the outside of your ankle and top of your foot, your superficial fibular nerve might be affected!  There are a few excellent acupuncture points that target this nerve and can help clear out persistent ankle swelling. Think your ankle pain could be coming from your shoes?

Think your ankle pain could be coming from fallen arches? Get in today for your free gait scan for a pair of custom orthotics.

Ankle Exercises can be found here.

If you have rolled your ankles more than once, chances are there is some lasting damage to the deep ligaments in the ankle.  It is possible to insert a needle right into the ankle joint!  This can actually re-stimulate the healing process that inevitably slows down over time.  Inserting a needle can increase blood flow to the area and bring nourishment to the tissues to promote further healing.  Acupuncture is the only modality that can be inserted directly into the joint to promote healing and this makes it one of the most effective treatments for ankle sprains.  Acupuncture can help alleviate pain (even if its been occurring for months or years), increase the range of motion, decrease swelling and help ensure that the nerves and muscles are functioning optimally.

MORE HERE ON ACUPUNCTURE AND SWOLLEN ANKLES

Oakville Acupuncture Treatment for Old Ankle Sprains!

There are a lot of acupuncture points that are excellent at treating ankle and foot pain.  If you have any questions about using acupuncture to treat new or old ankle injuries give us a call at 905-827-4197 or:

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Lower back pain will affect 80% of people at some point in their lifetime.  Acupuncture for lower back pain at our Oakville clinic is one of the more effective treatments we have to help!  Lower back pain can range from an annoying ache to a full-blown disabling pain.  Some low back pain stays focused in the lower back, while other lower back pains can radiate into the legs.  Pain can be dull and achy, or it can feel like a hot poker is being jabbed into your back.  One of the most effective treatments for the wide spectrum of lower back pain is acupuncture.

How Does Acupuncture in Oakville Help Lower Back Pain?

There are a number of ways that acupuncture can influence pain in the lower back.  Inserting needles into the affected areas of the low back helps to improve blood flow, and therefore promotes healing.  Acupuncture can help reduce muscle tension and release painful trigger points.  Acupuncture can dampen pain by helping to stimulate endorphins, which are the body’s natural pain killers. Acupuncture also helps to reduce inflammation, which is often a big contributor to pain.

Questions about Acupuncture in Oakville? Check out our Acupuncture FAQS

Acupuncture Treatment for Lower Back Pain: The Muscles

In an Acupuncture For Lower Back Pain Treatment, the acupuncture needles are inserted along the spine to affect the nerves as they exit the spinal cord.  These nerves travel all the way to the feet innervating the muscles of the lower back, glutes and legs.  By targeting the nerves as they leave the spinal cord we can affect areas much further away from the spine, even as far as the feet!  Acupuncture is one of the only conservative treatments that can directly impact the nerves.  This is helpful because our nerves are what carry our pain signals and activate our muscles!

Inserting needles into the glutes is an amazing way to release muscle tension and decrease pain.  Oftentimes, weak and/or tight glute muscles can exacerbate back pain and acupuncture can help!  Acupuncture can stimulate and ‘wake-up’ the nerves, leading to more effective muscle activation, decreased pain and less dysfunction of the lower back and pelvis. Whether the muscles are too tight or too weak, acupuncture can help.  How amazing is that!?

Another muscle that is easily treated by acupuncture is the QL.  The Quadratus Lumborum muscle is often a source of pain for many patients with lower back issues. Tightness in this muscle can cause pain in the low back, or top of the buttock.  A tight QL muscle can also start to impact the lower back vertebra, or the sacroiliac joint.  Dr. Jenn can use acupuncture to loosen up this muscle, and help restore function to the surrounding joints.

Another problematic muscle that is the culprit of many patients with low back pain is the Psoas Muscle or hip flexor. Our acupuncture team has seen a rise in painful hip flexors since more and more people work from home and sit for most of the day.  The seated position creates a short hip flexor muscle, and can lead to painful spasms.  Acupuncture treatment will use acupuncture needles to loosen up the hip flexors that get tight from sitting all day!

Acupuncture for Low Back Pain:  The Joints

Lower back pain can be caused by the facet joint of the lumbar spine if they become stuck or stiff.  When these joints become dysfunctional, the the nerves of the spine, which exit the spinal canal in very close proximity to these joints, can also be affected.  A ‘stuck’ joint can therefore cause pain in the low back, or pain anywhere along that specific nerve pathway. Acupuncture treatments to those areas can help decrease the sensitivity of the pain causing structures (the joint) and decrease the resulting inflammation around the nerves.  This leads to a great reduction of pain!

The sacroiliac joints are the big joints that join the pelvis to the sacrum (the bottom of your spine).  These joints can be incredibly painful when they are restricted.  Acupuncture treatment to these joints, and the surrounding musculature that attaches into the joints, provide a great amount of relief and restoration of function.

Electroacupuncture for Lower Back Pain:

Acupuncture for lower back pain is highly effective.  If you add a current through selected needles, it can take the acupuncture for lower back pain to the next level.  Electroacupuncture is a modern variation of traditional acupuncture, where a gentle, consistent current is applied to the needles in order to boost the therapeutic effect.  The procedure involves hooking up a few needles to a current via tiny alligator clamps.  Dr Jenn describes the stimulation as feeling like a small pulse, or heartbeat, in the muscles.  It feels pleasant and had the potential to amplify the healing response.

If you’re experiencing acute or chronic lower back pain, acupuncture can help you!  Come visit us at Nottinghill Family Wellness and ask Dr. Jenn, how acupuncture can get rid of your back pain.  Call us at 905-827-4197 to start acupuncture for lower back pain today.

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