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SPRAINS AND STRAINS
Strains, commonly called "pulled muscles", are minor injuries to muscles that
are caused when a muscle is overstretched. Symptoms include stiffness, soreness,
and tenderness that occurs several hours after the injury. There may be slight
swelling of the injured muscle. Strains can vary in severity, but usually heal
on their own with rest.
Sprains are more serious and more painful than strains. They are injuries to
ligaments and they take longer to heal. Symptoms include mild to severe pain at
the time of injury, tenderness and swelling of the joint, decreased range of
motion to the joint, and bruising. Sprains also vary in severity and usually
require attention to relieve the pain and swelling and speed the healing of the
injured tissues. Because serious sprains may weaken ligaments, they can lead to
recurring injuries.
"Pain is what prompts most athletes to
seek help from an acupuncturist. Injuries that seem to respond well to
acupuncture include sprains and strains, lower back pain, tennis elbow, and
tendonitis"
-- F. Kennedy Gordon, MD,
a sports medicine specialist in New Jersey who performed acupuncture on
Olympic athletes training for the 2002 Winter Games.
Acupuncture, topical herbs, and/or internal herbs can be used to relieve
swelling and pain and speed the healing process. In addition, strengthening the
tissues can help to prevent future injuries. There is a long history of martial
arts injuries being treated with Traditional Chinese Medicine and whole books
have been dedicated to this.
One hundred and twenty cases of soft tissue injury were evaluated both
subjectively and objectively for pain after acupuncture and it was concluded
that: "Acupuncture treatment on soft tissue disease based on TCM syndrome
differentiation theory is thus shown to be effective."1
1 Yuan CX, Xing JH, Yan CY. Observations on clinical therapeutic effect in
treating soft tissue injuries by acupuncture, with pain threshold and
electromyography as parameters. J Tradit Chin Med. 1989 Mar;9(1):40-4. |
