Healing knee problems using acupuncture | 针灸治疗膝盖损伤有奇效

“I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee.”

---Healing knee problems using acupuncture

In the last article I mentioned that acupuncture is probably the best method to treat knee injuries. This is not out of the blue. Many patients ask me many almost rhetorical questions like “I have bony spur, can you remove it?”, or “my joint is worn-down be so thin, can you change it?”, or “my joints are narrowing, can you make them wider?”---Well, I can never answer these questions to everyone’s satisfaction, all I can tell them is, “If your knee joints stop hurting, would you care anymore about bonny spur and cartilage? If you cannot walk because of the pain and now you can walk again, would you care about all these medical terms?” Acupuncture is the best way to treat join problem, this is because acupuncture has been proven indeed very effective.

Two weeks before the New Year’s Day, a granny came to our clinic. She recently came back to Vancouver from China. She had deformed joints and osteoarthritis of the knee for many years, and recently due to frequent travel and her age, the condition had become worse. She was in so much pain that she could not walk, or turning around in bed. If she wanted to move, she could only drag her legs around in agony no matter how she moves. When she came to me, she had barely slept for a week. I checked her over, and I saw that both of her knee joints were swelling to be “O” shaped, and the right joint was especially serious---the swelling was around the whole knee joint, and it swelled one third times bigger than normal. Her skin had rashes from using pain relief patches for too long. I thoroughly estimated her condition and made healing plans. After four days of acupuncture treatment, the swelling on her joints were significantly relieved, she could finally sleep well. After that, she came in for treatment two to three times a week, and on Jan 6, she had eight sessions already. Now she could walk much easily, almost without using her crutch anymore. I have seen many cases like this one, and no patients cares about “bonny spur” or “degeneration” once their pain was healed.

Of course, besides acute injury, the knee arthritis is also possibly a chronic problem. Therefore the problem may not be healed in several sessions. The healing process may take time.

Now here is something interesting for you: do you know that besides sore eyes and fatigue, using mobile phone and computer for long time may also affect the knees?

This week a young girl in her twenties came to my clinic for hair loss problems. Her job consisted of working in front of computer for seven to eight hours a day, and when she went home she spent more hours in front of computer or using smartphone. When I checked her, I found that her knees already had early signs of arthritis. Why did it happen? Let me explain next time.

In my clinical experience, the two points I use most often for knee arthritis are Yang Ling Quan GB34 and Yin Ling Quan SP9. These two points can quickly reduce swelling and sooth pain, and can also strengthen the eyes that are damaged from using computers. Let us explore these two points next time too!

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膝盖中了一箭怎么办？

---针灸治疗膝盖损伤有奇效

在上次的文章中，我们曾经读到过针灸是最好的治疗手段之一。这并不是一件耸人听闻的事情。很多病人会问：“我已经长骨刺了，你能把骨刺去掉吗？”或是“关节已经变薄了，你能改变吗？”或是“关节间隙变窄，你能增宽吗？”等等许多想当然的问题。面对这些提问，我很难给一个全面满意的回复，我只能回答他们，如果你原来疼痛难忍的膝关节不痛了，你还在乎关节软骨和关节骨刺吗？如果你原来不能走路，现在恢复可以走路了，你还在那些所谓的病理名词吗？我说针灸是最好的膝关节治疗手段，是因为针灸有确实的疗效。

在元旦前两周的时候，诊所来了一个老太太，她刚从中国回到温哥华。老太太患有骨性膝关节炎和关节变型多年，现在由于年纪，加上旅途劳顿，关节炎明显加重。症状有：疼痛难忍，难以行走，夜间加重不能翻身，甚至在任何角度拖动任何一条腿都可引起剧烈疼痛。来检查时，她已经不能入睡一周。在检查时，我看见她的双腿关节均呈“O”型，右腿尤其严重——围绕膝关节周围可见肿胀，使关节比正常大出三分之一。此外，她的皮肤表面由于长期涂用止痛贴而引起发红。我给她针灸治疗四天后，肿胀即明显减轻，夜间睡觉也没有障碍了。我们每周治疗两到三次，至本月六日正好是八次。现在病人走路已经明显轻松，可以部分拿掉手杖了。这样的病例我常常见到，当病人在没有了病痛时，也没人会在意“骨刺”，“退变”这些单词。