Chronic Pain and Neuropathy

Are you experiencing pain most days? Do you find it hard to remember a time when you didn’t have pain? Have you tried every prescription drug to relieve your pain without significant relief? Or are you wanting a safer and healthier long-term option? Let Mend help you find relief through Chinese medicine and acupuncture treatments.

Chronic pain is defined as having pain that has lasted longer than 3 months. The most common pain conditions we treat are:

In most cases, people who suffer from chronic pain will also have issues with sleep, depression, anxiety, and/or digestive dysfunction. Chinese medicine and acupuncture treatment help balance the body, which is why patients very often leave feeling better than when they came in for reasons other than just their pain relief.

A chronic pain disorder we see often is fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia causes pain in the muscles and ligaments. It is most common in women between their mid-30s and mid-50s. In addition to muscular pain and stiffness, this ailment can also cause fatigue, sleep problems, depression, and an inability to think clearly.

Though there is no cure for fibromyalgia, Chinese medicine and acupuncture treatment can help relieve symptoms.

The causes are unknown, but there are plenty of potential causes. It could possibly be the level of a cerebral spinal fluid called substance P, which transmits pain impulses to the brain. People with fibromyalgia have substance P levels three times higher than those without it. Heightened levels of this substance could explain why fibromyalgia patients are hypersensitive to pain. Other possible causes are lack of deep sleep, genetic predisposition, stress, dopamine dysfunction, deficient growth hormone (GH) secretion, psychological factors and physical trauma.

Pain, numbness, or tingling in your hands, feet, or heels can be very debilitating. Modern medicine treatments, which typically involve masking the pain, offer poor options for conditions such as peripheral neuropathy and plantar fasciitis. Our goal at Mend is to reduce pharmaceutical intervention. Chinese medicine has so much to offer those who are suffering without hope of relief.

Peripheral neuropathy is nerve damage usually in the hands and feet, resulting in weakness, pain, burning, or numbness. It is most commonly caused by diabetes, but can also be a result of injury, shingles, chemotherapy, or unidentified causes. This nerve damage is most often progressive and can lead to a significant reduction in mobility and therefore, in quality of life.

At Mend, we are here to help manage symptoms through treatments like acupuncture. The goal of acupuncture treatment is to re-establish proper blood flow to the feet, help repair the damaged nerves, and relieve pain. How extensive or chronic the neuropathy is can determine how long the course of treatment would be. A treatment plan will be determined after your first examination and intake. No matter the treatment plan, know that we aim to awaken your feet so you can feel the ground, walk without concern, and live a better life!

Acupuncture isn’t the only neuropathy treatment option, though. Other therapies are often combined with acupuncture to enhance results and encourage healing – herbal medicine, proper supplementation, clean eating, moxibustion, and transdermal botanical infusion treatments for the hands and feet. After a full assessment of your body and health history, we will add in the appropriate therapies to help you get the best results.

Plantar fasciitis is inflammation of the thick band of tissue (ligament) attaching the heels to the toes. It often results from a strain injury that causes small tears in the ligament or fascia on the bottom of the foot. This is commonly seen in runners and athletic people, but it can happen to just about anyone. It is often experienced on one foot at first and can progress to pain in both feet.

People often ignore plantar fasciitis if the symptoms come on gradually, especially because, at first, the pain will go away after you take the first few steps in the morning. But this condition does not tend to go away on its own and often progresses to pain whenever you are on your feet.

At Mend, our treatment utilizes a different approach from other modalities that aggressively massage, scrape, or roll over the bottom of the feet and heels. The problem with those approaches is that there are often little tears in the fascia, causing a lot of the pain. Being too aggressive on those tears, then walking on our feet and never being able to rest the injured area fully, tends to make it feel much worse.

Instead, we use acupuncture to relieve the pain, promote blood circulation to the feet and heels, and reduce excessive inflammation so the body can heal. The duration of treatment will depend on how extensive or chronic the neuropathy is. This can be determined by your first examination and intake.

And just like for neuropathic pain, we combine herbal medicine, proper supplementation, clean eating, moxibustion, and transdermal botanical infusion treatments with acupuncture treatments to enhance results and encourage healing.

Whether you’ve been searching for neuropathy treatment or chronic pain management, Mend Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine can help you get on the path to healing and pain relief. We are located in Gilbert, AZ, and are here to get you healthy and happy through our natural and effective methods. Contact us at (480) 788-1757 or schedule your appointment online today.