Acupuncture is well known in the Western world for its effectiveness in treating pain. In this episode we take a multilayered look at orthopedic acupuncture.
While acupuncture is often considered to be an “energetic” medicine, our guest today takes us deep into the structural, neurological, chemical and functional aspects of why things hurt and what you can do about it.
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Show Highlights:
4:06 Why the long intake for a simple “pain” problem?
7:45 Often there is something in our background that we think is irrelevant, but in fact sets us up for the problems we have.
12:46 Why is acupuncture so good for treating pain?
20:54 Sometimes the issue is not the pain, but the uncertainly of what that pain means and what might happen in the future.
26:04 Using shotgun and laser approaches to treatment.
30:34 What is the right amount of treatment?
32:58 One of the issues with chronic pain is that the brain disconnects awareness from parts of our anatomy.
38:22 What about using braces for sore or painful joints, as in carpel tunnel syndrome?
41:48 How is your work different from that of a PT or chiropractor?
52:35 Why is it that sometimes a first treatment will bring about a big change, but subsequent treatments only seem to result in incremental changes?
Josh Lerner started practicing martial arts in 1983, which led to a lifelong study of Chinese and Japanese language, religion, martial arts and medicine. After receiving an MA in Japanese Literature, he enrolled in the Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Seattle, WA, graduating with an MTCM in 2001. He has been in private practice in the Seattle area since then.
Starting in 2006, he began an in-depth study of orthopedic conditions, sports medicine and traumatic injury with a number of outstanding teachers, beginning with Tom Bisio and Frank Butler’s Zhenggu Tuina system, and eventually including teachers of trigger point theory, various osteopathic techniques, and the sports medicine acupuncture program of Matt Callison. Josh is also an instructor and clinical supervisor at the Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine, where he teaches tuina, qigong, trigger point theory, and the treatment of traumatic injury.
Clinic website & contact information:
Visit Josh’s website at www.wellspringacupuncture.com
Wellspring Acupuncture
3510 Shattuck Ave S
Renton, WA 98055
425-226-6790
Other resources:
Back in Control, by David Hanscome, MD. This book goes into how our nervous system adapts to chronic pain, how that adaption can keep the pain in place, and what to do about it.
