Acupuncture in Didsbury, Manchester

Acupuncture, sometimes referred to as Dry Needling, is a therapeutic technique aimed at alleviating pain and enhancing the healing process.

Integrating Osteopathy and Acupuncture for Effective Relief and Management of Neck Pain and Headaches.

Medical acupuncture is an invasive procedure in which an acupuncture needle is inserted into a specific target soft tissue in order to improve or restore function and/or control pain. In order to distinguish medical approaches from the traditional Chinese approach, practitioners sometimes refer to what they do as medical acupuncture or refer to techniques such as dry needling - the insertion of a solid filament needle into trigger points.
When you feel pain, a signal is sent from the muscle to the brain, which activates Primary Afferent Nocioceptors causing a continuation of pain instead of dissipating. This is called the painful Reflex Arc.
A Reflex Arc can lead to the development of muscle spasm which can lead to the onset of trigger points and the associated muscle  spasm can last for weeks, months or even years.
The introduction of a physical stimulus in the form of an acupuncture needle results in a healing process by relaxing the muscle spasm/ trigger point. 

Is it Painful? 

Dry Needling is not painful, some people may experience slight discomfort but this lasts rarely more than 30 seconds. 

The healing process can cause many sensations; heat, tingling, numbness, a dull ache or just the slight pinch upon entry of the needle, but in comparison to some deep tissue massage, the sensation is relatively painless.

Conditions that can be improved with medical acupuncture:

• Tension headaches and migraines

• Lower back pain

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) only recommends it for the treatment of these conditions. However, NICE works within a framework of balancing clinical and cost-effectiveness (Cookson et al 2001), so it’s rulings does not exclude findings of clinical effectiveness in other areas. The effectiveness of acupuncture is constantly being evidenced by medical trials, and advances made in trial techniques, so understandings are not set in stone.

Studies have shown that medical acupuncture can also help with…

• Neck pain

• Shoulder pain

• Knee osteoarthritis

*Treatment is used in conjunction with Osteopathy.

To find out more, contact me on 07897 016 713 , or fill out the contact form.