Surgery is a powerful tool in the modern medical tool kit and used today in a wide range of applications. Surgery for musculoskeletal conditions is called orthopedic surgery, and is used to treat musculoskeletal trauma, degenerative diseases, sports injuries, infections, tumours, and congenital disorders (disorders we are born with). This includes surgeries such as hip or knee replacement, spinal surgery or fusion, carpal tunnel release, or repair of tendons, ligaments, or cartilage. However, there are many, many other surgeries that are performed for a variety of reasons, such as to help relieve or prevent pain, to reduce a symptom, to improve some body function, or to diagnose conditions.

With surgery comes certain post-operative side effects and risks. Some of the major concerns with surgery is dealing with post-surgery pain and the side effects of pain medications, as well as making a complete recovery from surgery and regaining our former mobility and functions.

Doctors rely on powerful medications to relieve pain during and immediately after surgery, including opioids and anesthesia. Opioid pain medications can cause side effects such as nausea, vomiting, dizziness, pruritis (itch or a sensation that makes a person want to scratch), constipation, and sleepiness, symptoms which can cause difficulty in the recovery and interfere with our day-to-day life. Use of opioids and their side effects may also delay post-operative recovery.

Acupuncture is an excellent option for post-operative recovery and has been shown to be very effective in the treatment of both post-operative pain and the side effects of opioid medications. Acupuncture is probably best known for the treatment of pain and it is indeed very effective for relieving pain and reducing the need for pain medications. Pain limits your ability to breathe deeply, cough, walk and perform the activities necessary for a speedy recovery, and acupuncture can help to manage the pain so that recovery can happen more quickly. Acupuncture can also treat the side effects of pain medications including dizziness, upset stomach or nausea, loss of appetite, pruritis, urinary incontinence, and digestive problems, making it an effective option for post-operative recovery.

Acupuncture can also help with the body’s recovery following surgery. While surgical techniques have come a long way, surgery still remains a type of trauma that the body must recover and heal from afterwards. Acupuncture helps to boost the immune system and to restore proper functioning to the body, and in post-operative care can help the body to recover and regain health more quickly. Acupuncture can also help with inflammation, decrease swelling and improve mobility and range of motion after surgery. This is important to recovery in order for a person to regain their full abilities and have full use of the body in the months down the road from surgery. Acupuncture may also help reduce adhesion formation and reduce scarring and scar tissue as the body heals from surgery.

Research shows that acupuncture can indeed be very effective for post-operative recovery when surgery is followed by a series of acupuncture treatments, and it can also be beneficial to perform acupuncture a day or two before surgery. This ensures that the body is in a healthy state going into surgery in order to ensure a complete and healthy recovery!

Diarrhea is characterized by loose, watery stools, bloating, and abdominal cramps or pain, as well as more frequent trips to the washroom. Acute diarrhea is something that nearly everyone has likely experienced at one time or another and usually lasts only a couple of days. Chronic diarrhea, however, typically lasts longer and can be a discomfort and disruption to our lives.

Diarrhea can be caused by foods we eat, medications we take, viruses, bacteria, or parasites, surgery, or digestive disorders such as Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, or ulcerative colitis. Our digestive system takes a lot of stress because in our busy lives we often eat poorly or eat on the go or when we are stressed.

Acupuncture and Chinese medicine can help with diarrhea. In Chinese Medicine there are six patterns that can lead to diarrhea. For all of them, the main cause is a disruption in the normal function of the spleen and stomach because of their roles in digestion. Acute diarrhea is often brought on by poor diet, external cold, heat, or damp climate or living conditions, or emotional stress. Chronic diarrhea is most often caused by a yang deficiency of both the spleen and kidneys, which in turn impairs the spleen and stomach’s ability to break down food into something useful, and then transport the useful part throughout the body.

The first three types of diarrhea are often acute, causing a sudden onset which will also include other symptoms depending on the cause. A cold-damp pattern of diarrhea will be accompanied by abdominal pain, fever, aversion to cold, stuffy nose, headache, and general aches and pains. Damp-heat pattern diarrhea will be accompanied by abdominal pain, urgency, burning sensation, irritability, and thirst. The third acute pattern is called “retention of food”- this is common when people have eaten poorly or have eaten far too much undigestible food or poor-quality food. This causes diarrhea with abdominal pain, rumbling digestive sounds, fullness in the abdomen, burping, acid reflux, and loss of appetite.

Chronic diarrhea makes up the other three types of patterns. Liver and spleen dysfunction pattern diarrhea will be accompanied by distention and congestion in the chest and rib side, burping, poor appetite, abdominal pain, diarrhea brought on by depressed moods, and frequent irritable or angry moods. Deficiency of the spleen and stomach pattern diarrhea is accompanied by chronic loose stools, frequent bowel movements after eating heavy, oily or greasy foods, loss of appetite, bloating after eating, and fatigue after eating and throughout the day. Kidney and spleen deficiency pattern is due a lack of yang, or warming, energy. The yang energy is what supplies the warmth and the ability to “cook” the food in our stomach as well to transform it into something useful and transport it throughout the body. When this function is impaired due to deficiency, there is early morning diarrhea, a cold sensation in the abdomen with pain and rumbling just before bowel movement, a feeling of always being physically cold, and a sore low-back and knees.

Acupuncture helps to strengthen these weakened organs and resolve imbalances in order to improve the transformation and transportation of food. A real positive of acupuncture is the ability to differentiate the cause of a person’s diarrhea, and so to treat it effectively and fully resolve the problem. With the digestive system functioning properly, diarrhea and other digestive problems are relieved. Also, a strengthened digestive system and healthy functioning means that future digestive upsets are less likely to occur.

Constipation is a frequent gastrointestinal problem that can cause a lot of discomfort and put strain on the digestive system. Being constipated means not being able to have regular bowel movements but it can also include having difficulty passing stools, hard stools, or a feeling of blockage or of incomplete passage after a bowel movement. Fortunately, constipation is usually temporary, but chronic constipation can cause further problems or can be a sign of an underlying disorder.

A number of factors can cause constipation, including not drinking enough fluids, eating a poor diet or not enough fiber, not enough physical activity, illness, long term use of laxatives, or as a result of certain medications or diseases.

In Western medicine, the solution for constipation in most cases is simple and involves eliminating the factors that are causing the problem. In other words, eating lots of dietary fibers (vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains), drinking a lot of fluids, getting regular exercise, and taking time for the toilet and not ignoring the urge for a bowel movement. However, in some cases, constipation can be a chronic problem that isn’t easy to resolve in spite of our efforts. This is where acupuncture can help.

In Chinese medicine, constipation results from a stagnation of internal heat and dryness resulting in a lack of fluids, or stagnation of the flow of energy due to different factors such as emotional upsets, deficiency of qi-energy or blood from internal injury, strain, stress or a lack of physical exercise. 

Constipation is classified into five categories that inhibit the proper function of the large intestine, as well as the spleen, stomach and kidneys. In order to understand what type of constipation we are dealing with, we look at other symptoms that a person may also be experiencing along with the constipation. Heat constipation will have added symptoms of flushed, red complexion, fever, thirst, dark, scanty urine, halitosis, abdominal distention and sometimes even pain, and elimination every several days. Qi stagnation type will have symptoms of frequent belching, rib distention or pain, reduced food intake, and abdominal distention. Qi deficiency type will show a difficulty in elimination with the desire to go, lack of strength to move the bowels, stools will be neither dry nor soft, shortness of breath, fatigue, spontaneous sweating. Blood deficiency constipation will have other symptoms of dry hard stool, pale complexion, dizziness and vertigo, palpitations, pale lips and nails, pale tongue. With cold type constipation there will be difficulty eliminating, large quantities of urine, pale complexion, dizziness and vertigo, cold limbs, a preference for heat and aversion to cold, abdominal coldness and pain, and cold achy low back and knees.

It is interesting that Chinese medicine has such specific differentiations for constipation, whereas Western medicine sees all of the different types of constipation as the single same problem. Once again, it is this very specific diagnosis that makes acupuncture so effective. Because we are pinpointing where exactly the problem lies, we really get an understanding of what pattern of imbalance is causing the constipation to occur. From there it is a matter of targeting the imbalance and correcting it in order to restore the body’s normal, healthy functioning. This in turn, helps to resolve not only the problem of constipation and improve digestion, but also help with the various and seemingly unrelated symptoms that tend to go along with the constipation.

Heart palpitations are the sensation of rapid, fluttering, or pounding heartbeats. Common causes of heart palpitations include anxiety, stress, exercise, caffeine, nicotine, fever, hormonal changes in women (due to pregnancy, menses, or menopause), and certain medications. Heart palpitations may sometimes be a sign of an underlying disorder such as hyperthyroidism or abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia). Heart palpitations are often harmless, although in Chinese medicine they are usually a sign of an underlying imbalance that may lead to potential health problems down the road.

Chinese Medicine sees different causes for palpitations. The symptoms that accompany the palpitations often point to the underlying disease pattern. Here are some of the different patterns which may cause heart palpitations:

• Prolonged emotional upset such as apprehension, fright or excessive anger may cause dysfunction of the liver and kidneys, or cause a disruption in the body’s balance of yin and yang. As a result, the energy of the heart and gallbladder can become weakened and the mind becomes scattered. In this case, the palpitations may be accompanied by restlessness, timidity, insomnia, excessive dreaming, feeble, rapid or slow irregular pulse and emotional unrest such as anxiety, panic, or phobias.

• Undernourishment of the heart caused by prolonged illness, anxiety and overstrain, or deficiency of blood due to blood loss, can also lead to heart palpitations. In this case, the heart palpitations may be accompanied by fatigue, pale complexion, insomnia, poor memory, and dizziness.

• Prolonged illness, overwork or overstrain or childbirth can deplete the body and lead to kidney yin deficiency. When kidney yin is deficient, this causes an excess of heat or fire to flare up and disturb the heart and mind, resulting in palpitations. Palpitations in this case may be accompanied by agitation, restlessness, insomnia, dizziness, lower back pain, tinnitus, and sweaty palms and feet.

• A serious or longstanding disease may consume and weaken yang qi-energy so that the heart and blood vessels are not properly warmed and nourished. Heart palpitations due to deficiency of heart yang would be accompanied by restlessness, shortness of breath, chest distress, pale complexion, and cold limbs. In addition, deficiency of spleen and kidney yang can create fluid that will obstruct heart yang and cause heart palpitations with dizziness, a feeling of fullness in the chest, nausea, salivation, and edema.

Heart palpitations are an example of how Chinese medicine takes into account all symptoms that a person experiences in order to make a very detailed diagnosis, which in turn allows the acupuncturist to make a much more effective and tailored treatment plan. Often a symptom may have very different causes in different people. As we can see, heart palpitations can be due to lifestyle factors such as stress and overwork, or it can be due to a prolonged illness or chronic condition, both of which can weaken the body and disrupt its normal functioning.

With acupuncture, we aim to strengthen and correct the body so that it is functioning in a more healthy state. This helps to resolve the many symptoms that can result, in this case heart palpitations, but also things such as our sleep, energy, immune system, digestion, and emotions. With acupuncture treatments, not only can we resolve the heart palpitations, but the patient will typically also see an improvement in other symptoms and in overall health.