Muscle spasms can be a response, which occurs as the body takes steps to protect itself after an injury. Other neuromusculoskeletal causes could be arthritis, fibromyalgia or muscle strain. Without treatment, chronic muscle spasms can result in permanent damage, so treatment is important. Acupuncture is an alternative treatment that is becoming more popular in sports medicine, exercise rehabilitation, and treatment of injuries and chronic conditions. This post is about Chiropractor West Palm Beach: Acupuncture Helps Muscle Spasm and Stiffness.
What is a Muscle Cramp?
A muscle cramp is an uncontrollable and painful spasm of a muscle. Any muscle can be affected, but the muscles of the thigh, calf and foot are particularly prone. This involuntary contraction (“charley horse”) of a muscle occurs suddenly and then does not relax. You will have sudden, tight, and intense pain caused by a muscle locked in spasm.
Additionally, there’s fasciculation, or muscle twitches, which are usually not painful the way a sudden cramp may be. And cramps and fasciculation are the result of muscles contracting involuntarily.
Causes of Muscle Cramps
Many truly pathologic (caused by disease) causes exist, such as hypoparathyroidism, vascular insufficiency (circulation problems), and various kinds of trauma for muscle cramping. Nevertheless, many incidents of muscle cramping have no known obvious cause.
Cramping can be due to vascular disorders such as atherosclerosis (thickening or hardening of the arteries), intermittent claudication (narrowing or blockage in the main artery taking blood to your leg) or thrombophlebitis (a blood clot (thrombus) inside an inflamed vein).
Muscle Cramps and Positioning
Perhaps there is a position you are in when the cramping occurs? For instance, you may be doing repetitive plantar-flexion of your (extension of the ankle so that the foot points down and away from the leg) foot while sleeping or exercising which may “shorten” your muscle. Then when there is further voluntary or involuntary contraction of the already shortened muscle, cramping occurs. Ladies who wear high heeled shoes regularly may have this problem.
Acupuncuture Research on Muscle Soreness following Exercise
Firstly, results of one study demonstrated the beneficial effects of selected acupuncture points in reducing both pain and stiffness. This was the findings following 24 and 72 hours of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) after exercise.
Secondly, Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is pain and stiffness experienced following exercise. It can occur after any type of exercise. DOMS can be seen in “week-end”, experienced and professional athletes. Interestingly, it typically happens after eccentric (lengthening of muscle) loading during exercise. Furthermore, it is classified as a grade I muscle strain. There is muscle tenderness and stiffness with movement. Additionally, there is a reduction in muscle strength, range of motion, localized swelling, and an increased level of intramuscular enzymes (proteins within muscle tissue involved in biochemical reactions). Damage to muscle fibers from injury, disease, or intense exercise causes these enzymes to leak into the bloodstream.
Thirdly, Patients receiving acupuncture reported 79% less pain and 41% less stiffness 24 hours afterwards in one study. And after 72 hours, the patients receiving acupuncture reported 80% less pain and 62% less stiffness than the group not receiving acupuncture. Moreover, some athletes found greater difficulty in recovering from stiffness than pain after exercise. The conclusion of the study said, “Therefore, treatment should be aimed at reducing both pain and stiffness”. (1)
Acupuncuture Research on Muscle Cramps due to Disease
First, Pain resulting from muscle cramps happens often with hemodialysis. Dialysis is a process of filtering the blood of a person with kidneys disease. Dialysis, wh is life-saving, causes muscle cramps. This is due to the unnatural muscle metabolism. Unnatural muscle metabolism, often termed Protein-Energy Wasting (PEW), is a frequent complication for dialysis patients. Acupressure improves muscle metabolism through the releasing of energy/pressure. And a study was performed with the purpose of determining the impact of acupressure on muscle cramps. So utilizing acupressure may result in decrease of muscle cramps in patients undergoing hemodialysis.
Second, Some experts believe that stimulation of points in acupressure prevents the transfer of acute stimuli and increases the level of endorphins in the blood, and thus, causes pain relief. It appears certain peptides are released as a result of acupressure and have multiple properties including anti-pain and can partly justify the mechanism of acupressure for pain control. Peptides play an important role in pain regulation.
Third, as acupressure helps dialysis patients, acupuncture helps very ill patients. For instance, for post stroke patients and postoperative pain due to visceral surgery acupuncture is effective. Numerous studies have shown acupuncture to be effective at reducing spasticity and enhancing muscle strength following stroke (3).
Chiropractor West Palm Beach: Acupuncture Helps Muscle Spasm and Stiffness
Acupuncture has been used for over 4000 years to treat pain and other health problems. The acupuncture treatment stimulates the imbalanced pathways along the meridians. Mainly, the goal is to activate the body’s natural healing abilities. It’s often used as part of a broader approach to healthcare and to help inflammatory diseases/disorders.
Acupuncture has a beneficial effect when treating many diseases and painful conditions. Therefore, is thought to be useful as a complementary, alternative and integrative therapy for muscle spasm and stiffness.
Meiri Chiropractic offers acupuncture for muscles spasm, stiffness and many other ailments. Dr. Natalie Meiri is a chiropractic physician, board certified in acupuncture with over 20 years of experience. Call today for your acupuncture treatment at 561-253-8984.
References:
The Effect of Acupuncture on Reducing Pain and Stiffness of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) following Eccentric Loading Exercise
Steve D Bailey*
(2) The effect of acupressure on muscle cramps in patients undergoing hemodialysis
Kolsoom Mohmadi 1, Nahid Shahgholian 2,✉, Mahboubeh Valiani 3, Hossein Mardanparvar 1
PMCID: PMC5301059 PMID: 28194192
(3) Effects of Acupuncture on Enhancing Muscle Strength: A Systematic Review
Steve D Bailey* Foot Knee and Back Clinic, U