Acupuncture
Acupuncture is an alternative medicine that treats patients by insertion and manipulation of needles in the body. Its proponents variously claim that it relieves pain, treats infertility, treats disease, prevents disease, or promotes general health.
Acupuncture can be a very useful adjunct to physiotherapy as a tool to reduce pain. It can be used in combination with physiotherapy or on its own. Although acupuncture is a form of ancient Chinese medicine in which fine needles are inserted into the skin research has been performed in the western world evidencing the importance of acupuncture in certain conditions.
Common conditions we treat with acupuncture are:
- Acute and chronic low back pain and neck pain
- Nerve pain such as sciatica
- Acute painful joints such as frozen shoulder
- Arthritis
- Tendon related problems such as tennis elbow
- Headaches and migraines
Treatment is performed with very fine sterile single-use stainless steel needles.
Acupuncture is available on the NHS and is recognised by NICE to be effective in the treatment of low back pain, but availability is very limited and most patients pay for private treatment.