Acupuncture for Low Back Pain: A Comprehensive Guide

Can individuals dealing with low back pain find the relief they are looking for by incorporating acupuncture to reduce muscle spasms?

Introduction

Around the world, many individuals, young and old, have dealt with low back pain, which has an impact on their lives and affects their routines. Since low back pain is a multifactorial musculoskeletal issue, it can range from acute to chronic, depending on the severity and environmental factors that are in play. The lower back or the lumbar spinal region has thicker joints and helps stabilize the upper body portion’s weight. However, it is more susceptible to injury, and it causes the surrounding ligaments, soft tissues, and muscles to be overstretched, tight, and weak. When a person is in excruciating pain from the effects of low back pain, it can impact their day and cause them to be miserable. Today’s article focuses on how lower back pain is associated with pain-like symptoms like muscle spasms and how treatments like acupuncture can help reduce muscle spasms associated with lower back pain. We talk with certified medical providers who consolidate our patients’ information to provide numerous treatments to relieve low back pain correlated with muscle spasms. We also inform and guide patients on how treatments like acupuncture can help minimize the pain in their lower back. We encourage our patients to ask their associated medical providers intricated and important questions about the referred pain-like symptoms they are experiencing from low back pain that is affecting their daily routine. Dr. Jimenez, D.C., incorporates this information as an academic service. Disclaimer.

 

Low Back Pain Associated With Muscle Spasms

Do you feel radiating or localized pain in your lower back after a long workday? Do you feel stiffness in your lower back region after stretching in the morning? Or have you noticed you are more tense in the different areas of your back and looking for relief? While it is a common problem that many people experience, low back pain can occur to many individuals worldwide and can significantly impact a person. As a major public health concern, low back pain globally transcends through ages, occupations, and socio-economic backgrounds, causing pain-like symptoms to develop over time. (Emorinken et al., 2023) Numerous factors can lead to low back pain and the symptoms that can occur in the lumbar region. Since low back pain can affect many individuals worldwide, this musculoskeletal condition can cause activity limitations in people. It can progressively increase spine degeneration, affecting the joints, bones, and discs. (Hauser et al., 2022) Some of the symptoms that correlate with low back pain include:

• Stiffness
• Gait instability
• Numbing or tingling sensations in the extremities
• Myofascial referred pain
• Muscle spasms

 

 

The painful effects of low back pain can cause muscle spasms in the lumbar region as many people continuously make repetitive motions that cause the surrounding muscles to become overworked and develop trigger points to cause muscle spasms. When a person goes to a doctor to treat their lower back pain, they undergo a physical examination to evaluate their lower extremities’ strength, sensation, and reflexes. These examinations help doctors determine the proper protocol for low back pain through inspection, palpation, and range of motion of the lumbosacral musculature to identify point tenderness, restriction, and muscle spasms. (Will et al., 2018) These identity markers allow doctors to devise a personalized plan to reduce the effects of low back pain and help individuals regain their health.

 

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Acupuncture Effects On Low Back Pain

When people with back pain are looking for treatment, they are looking for something affordable and can work with their busy schedule. Hence, non-surgical treatments could be the answer to reducing low back pain. Numerous non-surgical treatments can help individuals with specific pain-like symptoms that correlate with various factors. Each treatment, from chiropractic care to traction therapy, is personalized for the individual. Now, one of the oldest forms of non-surgical treatment is acupuncture. Originating from China, acupuncture incorporates solid thin needles at specific body points to balance the energy flow in the body that highly trained professionals perform. The effects of acupuncture can help stimulate the release of adenosine at the sight of needle stimulation while increasing local blood flow to the affected area to promote natural healing. (Mu et al., 2020) So, how does acupuncture help individuals reduce low back pain? 

 

 

Since low back pain can cause a socio-economic burden many people are affected by, acupuncture can help reduce pain and disability in the affected muscle areas while improving the person’s quality of life. (Baroncini et al., 2022) Acupuncture for low back pain benefits individuals by releasing endorphins and other neurohumoral factors that change brain and spinal cord processing. At the same time, acupuncture can also increase microcirculation and reduce the inflammatory effects of low back pain. (Sudhakaran, 2021) Acupuncture can also be part of a person’s personalized treatment plan, as physical and massage therapy can help strengthen the affected muscles caused by low back pain. When people dealing with low back pain are finally getting the relief they need, they can get their quality of life back through small changes to better themselves. This allows them to be more mindful of the various factors that can cause their bodies pain and prevent them from returning over time.

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References

Baroncini, A., Maffulli, N., Eschweiler, J., Molsberger, F., Klimuch, A., & Migliorini, F. (2022). Acupuncture in chronic aspecific low back pain: a Bayesian network meta-analysis. J Orthop Surg Res, 17(1), 319. doi.org/10.1186/s13018-022-03212-3

Emorinken, A., Erameh, C. O., Akpasubi, B. O., Dic-Ijiewere, M. O., & Ugheoke, A. J. (2023). Epidemiology of low back pain: frequency, risk factors, and patterns in South-South Nigeria. Reumatologia, 61(5), 360-367. doi.org/10.5114/reum/173377

Hauser, R. A., Matias, D., Woznica, D., Rawlings, B., & Woldin, B. A. (2022). Lumbar instability as an etiology of low back pain and its treatment by prolotherapy: A review. J Back Musculoskelet Rehabil, 35(4), 701-712. doi.org/10.3233/BMR-210097

Mu, J., Furlan, A. D., Lam, W. Y., Hsu, M. Y., Ning, Z., & Lao, L. (2020). Acupuncture for chronic nonspecific low back pain. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 12(12), CD013814. doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD013814

Sudhakaran, P. (2021). Acupuncture for Low-Back Pain. Med Acupunct, 33(3), 219-225. doi.org/10.1089/acu.2020.1499

Will, J. S., Bury, D. C., & Miller, J. A. (2018). Mechanical Low Back Pain. American Family Physician, 98(7), 421-428. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30252425

www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2018/1001/p421.pdf

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