Pain Management - Tamie Taniguchi Bilazzo, Lic. Ac., M.A.O.M., Dipl.C.H., A-CFMP

Acupuncture is very effective without having a nasty side effect when it comes to pain management. Low back pain, Sciatica pain, Hip Joint pain, Upper back pain, Neck pain, Shoulder pain, Tennis Elbow, Wrist pain, Arthritis on Fingers, Knee pain, Leg pain, Groin pain, Twisted Ankles, Plantar Fasciitis, Migraine headache, TMJ, etc…

There are many ways to treat this pain. If you go to see your general practitioner, he/she will send you to see the specialist who might give you cortisone shots (3 x max) with 3 x week physical therapy. If you go to see a chiropractor, he/she will align your spine to treat your problems. If you go to see ND, he/she will run multiple tests and give you supplements. What I can do are all depends on what you are coming to see me for, find the trigger (causes), analyze and assess the information you gave me and treat by acupuncture treatment (you do not have to if you do not need), nutritional & lifestyle pieces of advice, dietary changes (if I find the food is the trigger), supplementation if it is necessary which could be pharmaceutical supplements, homeopathic medication, Chinese Herbal medication, Essential Oil therapy and if I suspect your gut is the culprit, I might run the functional medicine testing either urine or stool testing. I can not stress enough the importance of finding the Root Cause!

For supplements, try collagen and bone broth soup/protein powder (I use Paleo protein powder from Design for Health – make sure you see “bone broth” on the front label, not Paleo Meal.) This is the great article about collagen and gelatin written by Dr. David Jockers.

Chronic Pain – the real trigger point may not be coming from where you think it is!

UPPER BACK PAIN:

This is the classic one I see in my clinic all the time. If you are suffering from the pain on the Right Side between the spine and shoulder blade – the treatment your practitioner will give you ease the pain but very likely it will come back because the root cause is from the phrenic nerve go thru underneath the layers of muscle. The root cause? Liver and Gallbladder issue. If you do not have Gallbladder, you need to pay more attention to the food intake and recheck your lifestyle. Taking ox bile, beets tablets, Taurine (amino acid) with the meal will help to loosen up the thick bile (made in the liver) pushed from the gallbladder. I had a patient recently came to see me for 30 years of chronic right side neck pain went 100% gone within 3 weeks changing her diet, take the supplements to loosen up the bile, doing the exercise (watch video) to push up liver, and quit her 2nd job. Here’s the short video!

LOW BACK PAIN:

Many patients come in for the low back pain to seek acupuncturists. But many times I have noticed that the patients believe they have sciatica pain based on the pain location but very often it is not caused by tight back muscle or piriformis muscle pressuring the sciatic nerve.

These are the list I see the root cause of nagging chronic low back pain NOT from the low back but coming from elsewhere.

Gluteus Minimus Muscle – This is the deep muscle causing the pain in the buttock, hip, posterior and lateral thigh and sometimes radiates into the calf. Most of my patients said, “I have sciatica pain just not improving!” You do not sciatica pain but you have hip joint pain. Hip pain while walking, pain while rising from a chair, and getting in and out of the car. This location of pain might have caused by sitting on a thick wallet in the back of the pants pocket. Acupuncture shines for treating this muscle pain with one to two treatments if your pain is acute!
Non-Relaxing Pelvic Floor Dysfunction – For women, it may be coming from the pelvic floor. Uterine fibroid, ovarian cysts, endometriosis, UTI, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, Ectopic Pregnancy, Octavian Torsion, or most types of gynecologic cancer. all-cause the nagging low back pain. It is wise to find what is causing the pain. You may take a note on what kinds of pain you are having, the time you have the pain, duration of the pain, what makes it better or worse before you go to see the specialist. This is the simple stretches to support the pelvic floor and other exercises to relax the pelvic floor.
Iliac Crest Pain Syndrome – Illiac Crest if the largest pelvis bone to hold the back, hip, and abdominal muscles. Illiac Crest Pain Syndrome occurs when those muscles, very often caused by weakened abdominal muscles by gaining weight in the abdominal weight area. If you are experiencing pain in the low back on the one side wrap around the hip to IT band (Iliotibial band), you very likely have this syndrome
Weakened Abdominal Muscle called Psoas Muscle – Both major and minor Psoas muscles are tucked into the below the abdominal muscle so that when the psoas muscle gets shortened, the pain will be radiated into the back and the groin and ovary region. For women, before you head out to see an ob-gyn doctor, you may do the simple psoas exercises to stretch the psoas muscle. This exercise relaxes the pelvic floor helps to stretch the psoas muscle.
Kidney Stones – this type of back pain comes in waves that around 30 min to 60 min. The pain might radiate toward the groin area. Notice you have blood in your urine or experiencing nausea, vomiting, or fever. There is a natural therapy to pass the stones. Stone Breaker, Chanca Piedra for example. But make sure you are well hydrated all day long in order to flush the stones. Apple cider vinegar, Lemon juice + Olive oil mix, will be the big plus as well as having enough fiber with your diet. Please read the high oxalate foods articles below.
Appendicitis – It will cause the nagging low back pain but also pain on the lower right part of the abdomen with the lack of appetite, fever, and sometimes vomiting.
IBS – I see often IBS patients complain about the nagging low back pain caused by cramp abdominal region worsed by stress or eating the wrong foods.

HIP AND KNEE PAIN:

Please read this article about Cortisone infections were found to speed up joint disintegration – BU School of Medicine

THUMB, INDEX FINGER, AND WRIST PAIN:

You feel the pain when you move your thumb! Do:

Buy one of these wrist braces
Pour 2 cups of Epsom salt and warm water into the bucket and soak your arm-wrist-hand for 15 min. Epsom salt will relax the injured tendon and tightened up muscles in the area
Massage Supinator Muscle (see the attachment point picture)

For anybody suffering from ANY PAIN, I suggest:

#1. Choose the therapy you think it helps your pain – chiropractic, acupuncture, and others to navigate you to the right path for your recovery. The practitioner knows how to exercise properly and gives you what you can do at home will be very helpful.

#2. Purchase high-quality Curcumin (Turmeric Extract), Systemic Enzymes (not enzymes for digestion), Quercetin, to bring down the inflammation. Sometimes taking or applying the high-quality CBD oil works like a miracle. Burn or swelling, try to cut the aloe vera plant and apply it over the affected area. It soothes the pain by taking inflammation down. There are many junk supplements sold online. Be careful.

#3. Cut down inflammatory food which includes simple carbohydrate food like sweets, bread, baked goods, pasta, pizza, and avoid eating nightshade vegetables includes peppers, white potatoes, tomatoes, and eggplants especially if you are having joint pain. This is a little more detailed about what to avoid. You may check your diet to see if you are eating high Oxalate foods or high in Lectin. High oxalate foods often the root cause of kidney stones but also cause joint pain. You can measure the oxalate level in serum or urine. I use GPL’s Organic Acid Test. How to lower the oxalate level? Avoid the high oxalate foods and take Calcium & Magnesium Citrate 3 x day with foods. Food high in Lectins are tomatoes, beans, nightshade vegetables, squash, peanuts, lentils, corn, grains, A1 milk (dairy from Holstein cows in the U.S.). A1 milk contains the lectin-like protein casein A1. Dairy from cows raised in most of Europe and Japan are called A2 milk. A2 milk casein does not contain lectins. It is from a different breed of cows called Jersey cows mostly eat grass not so many grains like Holstein cows do in northern America. Why do I know so much about lectin? Ever since I moved to the U.S. I get sick from drinking even 1 tsp of A1 milk but I can drink 3 glasses of A2 milk when I get home in Japan. It took a while to figure out what’s the cause. It was a big mystery for me for years. I do not have any problem eating dairy while traveling in Europe. I have met a lot of patients like mine over the years.

#4. Apply Wintergreen Essential Oil (I like pranarom brand). Make sure to dilute with a carrier oil.

EYE DISORDER:

From eye strains to both dry and wet macular degeneration, take 20 mg of Lutein and zeaxanthin combination once a day. Progressive Laboratories makes 20 mg of Lutein and 4 mg of Zeaxanthin combo and Pure Encapsulations makes 10 mg of Lutein and 2 mg of Zeaxanthin combo and cut down high oxalate, lectin contained foods as well as gluten and dairy.

Swollen Eyelid and Styes – do chamomile hot compress over the eyelid 3-5 times 10 min. each duration. You do not need the antibiotics to cure this bacterial infection (Styes). You can put 10 teabags full of chamomile to one cup of water and boil. Place the clean cloth (smaller sized towel) to soak and squeeze to take the extra liquid out. Place over the eyelid. If you have an eyemask (used for cold and hot), microwave for 1 minute and place over the wet towel to keep the heat in for 10 minutes.

Plantar Fascitis exercise. Dr. Ben Kim posted every single exercise you can think of – free on YouTube.

First of all, you may do this COOL trick. If this work, believe or not, your problem is in the gut. Those trillions of bacterias are acting up.

Please visit HERE for pain-related articles. More content that includes specific exercise videos will be added to this page soon!

How Acupuncture Relieves Pain by Chirs Kresser Lic. Ac.

Pain-related articles listed on Pain Institute

LPS (Lipopolysaccharides) and Pain

How does acupuncture Treatment work for Pain Management?

lavender-ice-feature1big Essential oils of Lavender and Peppermint can help a headache![/caption]