Chronic neck pain is one of those mysterious ailments that in many ways points out the deficiency of Western Medicine. It is a condition that is characterized by pain in the neck that is not necessarily related to a known traumatic incident. Although it is supposed that inflammation of the muscles and ligament of the neck is responsible, it is not generally known what is causing this to occur. So, in Western Medicine, it is considered enough to stop at the symptom. Chronic neck pain becomes a diagnosis.
This same limited approach is used with the use of ?osis? and ?itis? when naming conditions. These two suffixes mean ?a condition of? or ?inflammation of? respectively. When coupled with the Latin or Greek name for a part of the body, you get a disease name that actually describes the symptom. Traditional Chinese Medicine regards symptoms as merely guideposts toward the actual causes of conditions. A recent clinic study that used acupuncture points for neck pain treatment gives an example of how this kind of thinking is shallow.
This study used 135 patients ranging in age from 20 to 80 that had been suffering from chronic neck pain. One group was given a total of eight thirty minute acupuncture sessions using acupuncture needles. The second group was given placebo treatments using a device that is capable of electro-stimulation. The electro-stimulation group did not actually receive any stimulation although they were told that they would be. Both groups were told that they were going to be testing needle acupuncture against electro-acupuncture.
They were allowed only Tylenol for pain, and then asked to rate their pain levels on a daily basis using a scale of 0-100. The study showed that both groups reported reduction in pain levels during the study. The reduction was considered minor, and there was no significant difference in the improvement between the groups. The conclusion was that the needling of acupuncture points for neck pain produced no better results than a placebo treatment.
The problem with the study was the acupuncture points that were selected for use. The researchers used 8 points that they said were used in the treatment of neck pain under the principles of ?Western? acupuncture. All of the points were the same for all of the patients. Anyone with even the most basic understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine and real acupuncture treatment would see the fallacy of this approach. Human beings are not machines rolling off an assembly line. Each is totally different. It is most likely that each of those patients had a unique set of conditions that was causing the neck pain, and each would have received a different treatment. There are no set of acupuncture points for neck pain that would be right for every case.
