Amp Up the Healing With Electroacupuncture By Matt Maneggia,
L.Ac. I
always chuckle a bit at the look of terror that spreads across my patients’ faces when I first tell them I’d like to hook up some of their needles to electricity. I’m sure images of Dr. Frankenstein flash through their minds with high voltage coursing through their bodies. “Why don’t you give me a lobotomy while you’re at it,” they often joke. While I totally empathize with the initial shock (pun intended), electroacu- puncture is actually a very safe, very mild, dare-I-say pleasurable experience that is highly effective.
What is Electroacupuncture? Since many people have experience
with TENS units, I often start here in my explanation of electroacupuncture. TENS units are those devices where sticky pads are applied to the skin and a small elec- tric current is delivered through the pads. Physical therapists often use these, as well as chiropractors post-adjustment. In this therapy, the small electric current causes subdermal muscle fibers to fire on and off; causing tiny, rapid waves of muscle con- traction and relaxation.
If you weren’t already convinced
that your body is an amazing feat of bio- engineering, it turns out that dry human skin is actually a very effective insulator of electricity. Therefore, TENS units deliver the therapeutic effect almost literally “skin deep.” With electroacupuncture, however, even though the devices we use are very similar to TENS units, we are able to deliver the electrical current both deeper into the affected tissue and to a much more precise and focused area.
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What is an Electroacupuncture Treatment Like?
A treatment using electroacupuncture starts out exactly the same as a regular acu- puncture session. The licensed acupunctur- ist (
L.Ac.) diagnoses the root cause of a pa- tient’s symptoms from a Traditional Chinese Medical perspective and determines the unique combination of acupuncture points that will best address that specific patient’s health concerns. The patient usually lies down on a massage table and the
L.Ac. inserts a number of tiny, hair-thin needles through the skin. Upon insertion of those little needles, the patient’s central nervous system kicks off a cascade of physiological, biochemical and biomechanical responses.
When electroacupuncture is added to the equation, the
L.Ac. will attach thin wires to 2 or more needles using tiny al- ligator clips. The practitioner will then turn up the electricity very, very slowly until the
patient first starts to feel a sensation. This sensation can feel like a small vibration, a buzzing or tingling feeling, or a mild muscle contraction. Once the sensation is established, the
L.Ac. will generally turn the electricity up (again very slowly) until a more substantial sensation is present. Personally, I tell my patients to say “when” at the point where the intensity of the sen- sation is about a 4 or a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10 - the point at which there is no discom- fort, but if I turned it up any more it might start to become uncomfortable.
At this point, depending on the condi- tion, the
L.Ac. may adjust the frequency of the electric current. For example, when the patient’s symptoms straddle the line between pain and neuropathy, I usually set the frequency to alternate between a higher one (around 100 Hz) to a lower one (around 3 Hz). This sensation generally feels like a “buzzing” followed by a “tap- ping” back and forth for the duration of the
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