Joint Pain

With over 230 moveable and semi-moveable joints in your body, it is no wonder that joint pain is so common. There are many causes of joint pain, ranging from degenerative changes such as osteoarthritis to infections to muscular imbalances to inflammation and more. There are also many kinds of joint pain without known cause—termed idiopathic.

Here are some interesting facts about the bones and joints in the human body:

• Can you believe that giraffes have the same number of bones in their necks as humans? Giraffe neck vertebrae are just a lot longer.
• The human hand alone has 27 bones.
• Bones can be extremely strong. In fact, a pole vaulter can absorb up to 20,000 pounds of pressure per square inch on his thigh bones (femur) when he lands.

Shoulders

We conclude that the combination of acupuncture with shoulder exercise may offer effective treatment for frozen shoulder. (Sun KO, Chan KC, Lo SL, Fong DY. Acupuncture for frozen shoulder. Hong Kong Med J. 2001 Dec;7(4):381-91.)

Jaw

“Very good evidence exists for acupuncture as an alternative treatment for TMJ dysfunction. A number of well-designed trials found that acupuncture can help provide long-term pain relief for this condition.”– University of Maryland Medical Center

Tendonitis

In a study published in the British Journal of Rheumatology in 1994, researchers performed acupuncture on 48 people who had suffered tennis elbow for at least two months. Overall, people who received acupuncture said their pain decreased by 55%, versus only 15% for people who received a placebo treatment (subjects thought they received acupuncture, but did not). (A Molsberger and E Hille. The analgesic effect of acupuncture in chronic tennis elbow pain. The British Journal of Rheumatology, Vol 33, 1162-1165.)