How long does an acupuncture last for lower back pain? Many people want to know how long the effects of acupuncture lasts for lower back pain?
To answer you need to know the 4 major factors can affect successful treatment of lower back pain using acupuncture.
Factor #1: Severe pain or chronic pain?
If you are treating a severe pain or a chronic back pain like sciatica, if the pain is a daily occurrence expect to expect to feel a lot of relief within the first 12 to 36 hours of the first visit, with a return of pain. Or expect to have small results the first visit and better results the second and third visits. You see during the intense flare up, the pain will reassert itself but you continue treating it until the pain starts to reduce. It is quite appropriate to treat two or even three days in a row, to reduce the pain levels. Over time the subsequent treatments help bring down the pain.
Factor #2: How often are you getting treated with acupuncture for lower back pain? – The need for gaining momentum
Time after time again, I need to remind patients that it is unrealistic to expect one session of acupuncture to undo months and months of hurt. Think of how much physical therapy you might have had to undertake to treat this, how many times you’ve taken pain relievers to reduce the pain, how you might have even bought an expensive pillow or mattress in the hopes it would simply stop the pain (it can), but the time frame that the pain relief expectation needs to be allowed for. Acupuncture works by increasing the blood flow to a painful area. By increasing the blood flow to the painful area, it brings your own natural anti-inflammatories and red blood cells to help reduce the pain and reduce the spasm in the muscle and heal the injury. It also treats the nerves that are sending the pain signals off the charts! Acupuncture signals shut down these painful sensations that are stimulating the back pain. Acupuncture prods and pushes your body to work more effectively to reduce the pain that you’re having. So how often you are getting treated with acupuncture for lower back pain, helps determine how long session effects for lower back pain last.
Factor #3: How long your sessions last you tell us your “rate of response”
Usually acupuncture treatments for lower back pain last between 12 to 36 hours. Getting “momentum” with each treatment means that each acupuncture visit visit works on the next, pushing down the pain before the pain has achance to reassert itself to the same levels. Even if the pain gets back to the high intensity, the accumulated effect of the acupuncture visits will push the pain down. It may not be an instant start but it will have pain relief when you are finished. The body can reduce the pain-relieving substances that cause the pain. Done frequently enough your pain relief starts to increase incrementally. The key is getting enough sessions in to get the momentum going so the pain starts to drop. As the treatments are performed regularly, the pain will drop down. If the time when your pain relief stretches out, and your painful times feel less intense you are on the road towards recovery. Even if the pain isn’t totally eradicated, but the pain intensity is, you are on the right path. If the pain isn’t going down fast, you need to stick with it. At some point your rate of response gets better and the treatments that might have lasted 8 hours now last 20 hours.
I know when you are in pain, you are impatient and want the instant results, but bodies heal differently. As you continue treatments, the faster you get out of pain from the previous session, and the longer your body holds onto the relief.
Factor #4: Sticking with your acupuncture treatments!
You see when a patient comes in to see me, they are scared, they lack control over their body, and the pain scares the heck out of them. I know, I see it in their faces. The facial expression tells the story of a person fearing to use his or her body as it was intended to be used- without pain. All they know, however, is the invisible misery that they carry around locked inside of them. I say invisible, because it’s not like you have a bandage with blood on it that other people can see. Physical pain is silent, inconspicuous. Unlike a firework show, pain isn’t pretty. Your pain can keep you locked up in a vice, with no one else able to see it. Being in pain can feel lonely as it can isolate you from others.
Treatment for acupuncture has to send a clear signal to the pain. Regular and consistent treatments get better effects from the acupuncture treatments. This means for severe pain 3X times to 4X times a week for the first 1 to 4 weeks may be warranted. It may be all that is needed. Pain that reduces can be treated at a lower frequency, say for example, twice a week and then down to once a week to clear away any lasting pain.
But most people treat their lower back pain as if they are going to a visit to their special restaurant – once a week. The ambiance of the restaurant can linger long after your food has been digested, but when it comes to treating your severe, lower back, it is different. Acupuncture needs to be done consistently enough, and it will give you better results and get you out of your lower backpain faster, if you go more consistently in the beginning. Meting out treatments once a week for severe lower back pain, will not get you the pain alleviating effects you are after. Rather than “save up” your treatments, my recommendation to you is to go all in on treating your back pain. Treating closer together will get you a better result. After treating so many people and making recommendations like this, it is an important factor that people who have never tried acupuncture, don’t take into account. They seem to feel that it’s a one and done phenomenon for severe or chronic lower back pain.
For many, acupuncture, feels so new and “out there” that patients don’t always take these recommendations seriously. The few that do walk out with a renewed confidence in their ability to move and go about their chores- pain free!
How long does an acupuncture session last for lower back pain? That depends on these factors mentioned above. The main takeaway is if you want to get the best results for tenacious pain, devise a plan with your acupuncturist and stick to it (pardon the pun). The more acupuncture visits done upfront, the fewer acupuncture visits are needed on the back end. Each person’s pain condition has to be judged on a case by case basis.
I love it when patients ridden with pain have their eyes light up when they experience relief from acupuncture. Patient’s tell me that all their doubts about acupuncture melt away, along with their pain. Getting patients pain relief is an exhilarating feeling for me, because I love helping to make a positive difference in someone’s life, one person at a time.
Are you in pain? Do you want a non-drug approach to treating your pain? I would love to see if I could help you. Please call me at 201-444-7150 or email me at integrativeacupuncturecenter@gmail.com. I look forward to helping you.