From the American Stroke Association Website:
“May is American Stroke Month, which is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s annual campaign to increase stroke awareness and to educate Americans that stroke is largely preventable, treatable and beatable. While stroke is the number four cause of death and leading cause of disability in the U.S., many Americans do not think of stroke as a major health concern.” I would add that the awareness of stroke-related treatments is also lagging. Yes, do educate yourself on the preventable risk factors of stroke like high blood pressure, smoking, and poor diet. Also arm yourself with knowledge of possible treatment strategies like acupuncture for stroke rehabilitation. No one ever plans to have a stroke. The most resilient and successful people throw every effective treatment at it that they can. Have questions about acupuncture for stroke rehabilitation? Contact me or schedule a consultation. At Fort Collins Acupuncture, I have been treating patients using acupuncture for 15 years. The number one ailment I see people for is pain management. And the top of that category, the most painful thing people want acupuncture for is back pain. And it's no wonder!
Your back muscles are involved in nearly every movement you make. Typing, walking, turning over in bed, driving (Lord help you if you drive a stick shift), bending, even laughing... when your back hurts all those regular activities can be a misery. Acupuncture really can help. Acupuncture has been scientifically proven effective for many conditions including headaches, migraines, neck and lumbar problems, arthritis, and sports injuries. This New York Times blog reviews a recent meta-analysis of radomized acupuncture studies. Thirty doctors analyzed the raw data from 29 high-quality acupuncture medical studies. The lead author, Dr. Andrew J. Vickers from Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, summarizes the conclusion, “We think there’s firm evidence supporting acupuncture for the treatment of chronic pain.” Acupuncture for back pain really does work. Contact us today at www.fortcollinsacupuncture.com. The World Health Organization published a review of acupuncture results from around the world. The results? It works, especially for pain management.
Quoting from the report, titled Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials, it says: “Generally speaking, acupuncture treatment is safe if it is performed properly by a well-trained practitioner. Unlike many drugs, it is non-toxic, and adverse reactions are minimal. This is probably one of the chief reasons why acupuncture is so popular in the treatment of chronic pain in many countries. As mentioned previously, acupuncture is comparable with morphine preparations in its effectiveness against chronic pain, but without the adverse effects of morphine, such as dependency. Even if the effect of acupuncture therapy is less potent than that of conventional treatments, acupuncture may still be worth considering because of the toxicity or adverse effects of conventional treatments. For example, there are reports of controlled clinical trials showing that acupuncture is effective in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, although not as potent as corticosteroids. Because, unlike corticosteroids, acupuncture treatment, does not cause serious side-effects, it seems reasonable to use acupuncture for treating this condition, despite the difference in effectiveness.” I couldn't have explained it better myself. Get relief from your chronic pain. Come see me today. I grew up in Fort Collins but went to acupuncture school in San Diego at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. In California, acupuncturists are primary health care providers, trained to serve as gatekeepers. We are the one point of contact for their patients as they navigate the health care system. While regulations in Colorado are very different, my training and knowledge of the whole body have not changed. I am very comfortable serving as a complement to your primary care. Because I can “talk doctor” and understand Western diagnoses, I am happy to coordinate with your physician to best meet your needs.
I believe that acupuncture is an integral part of a modern health care system. It is an excellent therapy for pain management of all types (back, neck, headaches, migraines, injury), for digestive disorders, for stroke rehabilitation, insomnia... the list is long. Why not contact me and see what I can do to help you? One patient, a medical doctor, said this: “I decided to try acupuncture for my chronic headaches. It worked like a charm. Scott was attentive, caring and knowledgeable. He ushered me back to a pain-free existence. I highly recommend him.” -- DV, M.D. Pain-free existence can be yours too. Schedule an appointment today. A 2004 study in the British Medical Journal states, "Acupuncture leads to persisting, clinically relevant benefits for primary care patients with chronic headache, particularly migraine.”
I love it when physicians call my results persisting and clinically relevant! More than that, I love helping people get up from their darkened rooms and venture back into the world. If you are suffering regular debilitating migraines, please schedule an appointment. My double-whammy approach of Chinese herbs with acupuncture for migraines is 80% effective. You can't beat those odds. Acupuncture is often used for pain management or stress reduction, but you probably didn't know that it is a powerful tool for stroke rehabilitation. After a neurological event like a stroke, nerves are often damaged. It can be tough to coordinate muscles. Many people find it difficult to walk, talk, eat and generally get through the day.
700,000 Americans a year suffer strokes and treatment options tend to be limited. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes, the goals for post-stroke rehabilitation are to help patients find the best possible long-term outcome. Reversing the effects of the stroke isn't usually attainable, they say. And yet, I have aided patients with tremors or drooping eyelids. I have helped people with difficulty walking, speaking, and talking. In many cases, these ailments were completely resolved for my patients. They walk, talk, eat and drive now without the limitations that previously held them back. Acupuncture works by shunting energy to the spot in the body that is suffering. Traditional Chinese Medicine calls that qi – pronounced chee. Essentially it creates the environment in which the body can heal itself by clearing away blockages. If you or a loved one might benefit from a consultation about acupuncture for stroke rehabilitation, please call me or email me. I can help. Perhaps the last thing you want to do when your back is flaring up is go have needles poked into it. When movement is a trial and sneezing makes you want to cry, it's an understandable impulse to lay down and never get up again.
Yet, acupuncture is an excellent treatment for pain. It works by stimulating blood flow to the problem spot. The stimulation brings energy into the knotted mess and helps it unclench. Many patients have been able to use less pain medication, or completely stop taking it after they came to me. If back pain troubles you, consider acupuncture. It really does work. See more conditions we treat at Fort Collins Acupuncture here. So often people in pain come away from doctor appointments with little more than a fistful of pills. There is no question that immediate pain relief is, indeed, a valuable thing. However when temporary pain becomes chronic pain, a two-week prescription can turn into a lifelong haze.
That's where I come in. I have helped many, many patients manage chronic pain and relieve the symptoms that lie at the root of the problem. Back pain, neck pain, injury pain, migraines, seasonal headaches, I've treated them all. And in doing so, I have noticed that the majority of patients were able to scale way back on pain medications. Some dropped their meds completely. The World Health Organization has stated "acupuncture is comparable with morphine in its effectiveness against chronic pain, but without the adverse effects of morphine, such as dependency." Pain-free existence can be yours too. Schedule an appointment today. If you haven't ever tried acupuncture before, you may wonder if it really works. If you ask around you'll get mixed reactions from people. For some, it's the a panacea. It's the reason they can wean off of pain medications or it fixed a chronic health problem. For others? Meh. Not so much.
This milquetoast reaction from my early patients is the reason I delved into better pain management techniques for acupuncture. In my early years of practice, I found that the precepts taught in acupuncture grad school only work some of the time. So much of Chinese medicine is a “treat the ankle for a headache approach.” That use of ancillary points will work for some people sometimes. But in my experience so far, it's almost always better to treat the problem where it actually is. When I treat a patient with shoulder pain, I want to know exactly what tissue is hurting. Rotator cuff muscle? Ligament? I want to know what exactly is hurting you, then I treat that tissue directly. This physical medicine approach gets results. It is incredibly effective for back pain, neck pain, and migraines. Acupuncture for pain management really does work at Fort Collins Acupuncture. If you have pain, come see me. I can help. Find more information at my website: www.fortcollinsacupuncture.com Or schedule an appointment. I am the Pain Guy. (Not to be confused with being an actual pain in the neck. I'm really not – ask my wife.)
I treat pain more than anything else. Migraines, neck pain, back pain, sports injuries, pain due to aging and arthritis... As my practice has evolved, I have helped thousands of patients with pain. I started providing acupuncture to Fort Collins in 1999. Over the years, I have begun to see that acupuncture works best when the concepts of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) are combined with Western medicine. When you train as an acupuncturist, they tell you to figure out which channel the pain is on and use specific points for pain on that channel. That's a marginally effective approach, at best. It really doesn't work that well. After exploring and realizing it wasn't that helpful to my early patients, I started to integrate a physical medicine approach. I look at the specific tissues that are involved. For example, is it ligament in the shoulder or is a rotator cuff muscle that hurts? If it's a muscle, then you treat the muscle. If it's a ligament, then you treat the ligament. Those are very different points and different treatments. This blend of eastern and western is what makes me the Pain Guy. If you have pain, come see me. I can help. More information at my website: www.fortcollinsacupuncture.com Or schedule an appointment here. |
Scott Blunk, LAc.
An NCCAOM-certified and licensed acupuncturist and herbalist, Scott is passionate about acupuncture and herbal care. Categories
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