Accupuncture for PN? Any Harm?
 

I have tried a few acupuncture sessions to try and settle my nervous system down -hoping all the nerve sensations from my injury would settle more.

Has anyone tried this ? They do use it for PN

Any harm to the nerves? They do put one in my shoulder and side of neck both sides...Thanks

Acupuncture helps some people.

The only risk is if they place a needle right into a nerve.
We had one poster a while back who claimed this happened to him.
So I looked it up and, yes, it can happen, because nerve pathways vary from person to person sometimes. So needle placement in one of those with different locations may have an injury. But really there are not many posts or sites, claiming injury on the net.

I investigated acupuncture for a couple of conditions, including PN, despite my fear & loathing of needles. What I gathered is that it's a temporary fix at best for PN; a few days relief of some pain, but certainly no cure or lasting effect/treatment. Didn't seem worth the expense & ordeal for me, but I wouldn't dissuade anyone from trying it if they really wanted to.

Doc

I agree with Smith. Whatever advantages, big or small, are temporary.

I used it for the pain I had in my right foot, 20 years ago, long before I got PN. I used it for a mortons neuroma. It worked great, shrunk it, stopped pain....ONLY so long as I paid the bucks to do it 3 times a week. When I stopped, it grew back rapidly and pain returned. Finally did surgery.

Can't hurt to try, though I think it is temporary if any relief comes. The way it works is it disrupts the pain receptors.

I have a friend who swears by it for his PN, gets a treatment once a week and it helps with his pain. I agree with the previous posters, it helps symptoms and isn't a cure. But getting some level of relief can be worth it, in my opinion, that's why I get massage once or twice a month.

A pain doc I'm seeing has said he's seen folks have good results with Chinese five-element acupuncture, and has recommended an acupuncturist for me to try. He also thinks it's good for general health. I gather the results can vary depending on the person you work with, so even though I've tried two others, I'm going to give this one a try also.

Interesting to see this post today as I was about to start my own thread on this subject.

I've just finished about 3 months of once or twice weekly acupuncture sessions. My sensory polyneuropathy is not accompanied by pain, only numbness and tingling. So I can't speak to acupuncture's efficacy in relieving pain.

I can attest however that it had absolutely no impact on my PN. Zip. Zero. This despite the best efforts of the two acupuncturists, who were very well educated and skilled in various aspects of Chinese medicine and were in addition lovely people.

I hope others have better results, but if someone were to ask me about relieving the numbness associated with neuropathy via acupuncture I would advise them to use their time and money elsewhere. If it helps some people with pain, that's great to hear.

David

I have not had acupuncture but have had acupressure. Same concept. No needles. It did help somewhat, but relief was temporary. She stopped taking insurance and it was really expensive.
It never hurts to try something. As is said many times here, results from treatments seem to be different from person to person.

I agree. And we all know also that the placebo effect is real. My testimony is solely my own, and I think (I hope) that I went in with an open mind, even though my neurologist had said that although he felt acupuncture was helpful for certain specific conditions, mine was not among them.

Back to the drawing board!