Acupuncture with Local Anesthetics: Treating the Nervous System
By Dr. Renae Haldeman · New to some of these words? See the glossary.
Acupuncture by itself is an effective way to help the body heal. A needle placed in the right spot can make the body respond and heal itself. Now imagine putting a strong injection into the acupuncture point. Just as a torpedo can break a smaller ship in half, an injection into an acupuncture point can break up disease in the body. Here at Renaissance Health Centre, we do this by injecting procaine (a numbing medicine, also known as Novocain) into acupuncture points. You may have heard this therapy called by other names, such as neural therapy, prolozone injections, or acupoint injection therapy.
Local anesthetics (numbing medicines), like the procaine used in acupoint injection therapy, change the environment around the cells. This helps block pain and the irritating feelings in the area being treated. Procaine gives the nervous system a signal, and the nervous system answers by starting a healing reaction in the body. This therapy became better understood and more common in the 1960s.
You might ask, “What can be treated with acupoint injection therapy?” We can treat scar tissue, sudden menstrual pain, muscle pain, a pinched nerve, even phantom pain (pain that seems to come from a body part that is gone), and more!
A woman had been suffering from the lasting effects of shingles for a few years. She came to the office hoping for relief. The itching in her side would not stop! She had itched for over three years. After only one acupuncture session with acupoint injection therapy, her itching stopped.
A busy mother with an autoimmune disease also had hip and lower back pain. She just wanted a break from the tightness in her lower back. After her second injection session, she went on a long walk and felt her hips and lower back completely let go of the tension they had been holding.
One woman was about to start her period and had cramping low in her belly. She had an injection into a popular acupuncture point for the menstrual cycle, and she described the feeling this way: “It felt like my body just woke up. I felt a rush in the movement of my blood and right away the cramp settled and I had no more pain.”
Simply adding a procaine injection to an acupuncture treatment can add a huge benefit to healing the body. (A video that explains this therapy is linked below.)
How It Works, in Simple Terms
Local anesthetics block tiny “gates” (called sodium channels) on nerve cells. This stops pain and other signals from being sent along the nerve. Procaine (Novocain) is broken down in the blood. Lidocaine (Xylocaine) is another medicine used in the same therapy, and it is broken down in the liver. Procaine and lidocaine are two of the most common numbing medicines. Besides acupoint injections, they are also used in dentistry, minor surgery, and epidurals.
Procaine, acupuncture, and other kinds of skin stimulation all use the body’s reflex pathways. They set up a healing signal in the nervous system, and the nervous system answers by starting a healing reaction. This changes the electrical charge in the area and the environment around the cells. By changing the electrical, heat, and pressure signals, the treatment can remove irritating signals and help the body return to its normal electrical balance.
Source
- Video: youtube.com
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This article is educational and is not medical advice. Individual results vary. Please talk with a licensed healthcare provider about your own health.