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Citation
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Niemtzow RC, Callison M, Lau B, Ingram B, Armstrong I, Leahy H, der Muhll AV. Med. Acupunct. 2023; 35(5): 210-219. |
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Abstract
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I think the aspect of reducing inflammation or in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) methodology, to clear Heat, importantly is to not use acupuncture at that site of an active inflammatory process. This is something where TCM explains to never needle into the area that is excessive. Just from my own clinical practice, trying to needle into an area that is pretty hot and inflamed just exacerbates the area.
I think the pros to acupuncture in that case is to needle adjacent points, muscles that'll have stability and integrity for an ankle sprain. For example, the peroneus longus and the tibialis posterior that, in fact, will probably help with the integrity of that ankle. As far as trying to clear the edema and the inflammation, there are many points that we can use. For example, the distal points, the Ting Well points and such, to be able to help drain some of that edema.
Bleeding, cupping and bleeding, and needling distally is another area that we could discuss that helps incredibly in positively changing secondary response inflammation and by-products. In my mind, it's like a pressure valve releasing some of the oncotic pressure, which is a manifestation of the secondary response, when bleeding or needling distally seems to diffuse this inflammatory process.
The takeaway here is not to needle into the actual area of inflammation, because that does aggravate the area, but to use adjacent points to be able to help to clear the edema and the inflammation.
Language: en |