Postherpatic Neuralgia Overview

                One of the most painful conditions that Chinese Medicine successfully treats is Postherpatic Neuralgia. Nearly 200,000 people in the U.S suffer from it each year. The emphasis in on “suffer”.

The pain can be excruciating, lasting for months to years. Most people describe it as a constant, severe stabbing or burning pain. The pain can make people unable to sleep, eat, or bear the weight of clothes on their skin,

                Postherpatic Neuralgia is the pain resulting from damaged nerves following a bout of Shingles. Shingles is an outbreak of the same virus that causes chickenpox. The virus can lay dormant in nerve roots and can become activated by a compromised immune system, stress, and certain medications. The activated virus produces small, painful fluid-filled blisters along a nerve path typically wrapping around the trunk. It can, however show up on the face, arms, shoulders, legs and feet. It mainly occurs in those over 50 years of age.

Traditional medical treatments include powerful topical pain relieving patches, creams or gels, strong narcotics, nerve blocks, steroids, and possibly antidepressant medications. All of these provide little and usually short-term relief. Most of these treatments have their own side-effects that can make them undesirable.

What can Chinese Medicine Do for Postherpatic Neuralgia?

Chinese Medicine is a comprehensive medicine and includes acupuncture, herbal medicine, physical therapy, nutritional and lifestyle therapy. It has been providing patients with real and lasting relief from postherpatic neuralgia and has the ability to do so without the harsh side-effects of traditional western medicine.

Chinese Medicine Treatment for Postherpatic Neuralgia

After a thorough health assessment, which may include pulse and tongue diagnosis, the practitioner will develop a personalized treatment plan utilizing one or more modalities. The number and frequency of treatments will vary for each individual and will depend upon the severity of the symptoms and the patient’s overall health.

Each practitioner has a unique style. Some may treat around the painful area, while others may treat only on the hands and feet or the scalp to balance the body.  Most likely an herbal formula will be prescribed and can come in the form of capsules, granules, teas, and/or external applications.

The important thing is to see the treatment plan through. One or two treatments or doses of herbs will not be enough to help most people with postherpatic neuralgia. Chinese Medicine works with the body’s ability to heal itself and if treatment is discontinued too early the body can revert back into the old painful pattern.

Chinese Medicine can be a safe and effective treatment for Postherpatic Neuralgia. If you are suffering with this condition and have found little help with western medicine, this may be a solution for you!

We hope you have found this information useful. If you are interested in more information about Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine in San Diego and its environs, please visit 

Joy Acupuncture Health Centre online at www.joyacupuncture.com,      

  2602 First Ave., Suite 103 San Diego, CA 92103, 619-322-4492

Patients ask me this all the time. Well, at least some variation of this question. They are amazed to experience pain relief by placing the needles far away from the site of their pain.

How can this be? The secret is in the Acupuncture Meridians, how they are inter-connected and balance each other. The Meridians are like channels that run up and down the body transporting the “Vital Air” or Qi to all the organs and tissues of the body.  When all parts of the body have adequate and free-flowing Qi, we experience health and lack of pain. However, when this flow is inadequate and/or stuck we have dysfunction and pain.

This style, The Balance Method, uses other Meridians to balance those in dysfunction. I liken this to fixing a door that drags on the outer edge. The best fix usually is found by adjusting the hinge on the opposite and upper side. You could trim the dragging edge, but it doesn’t really fix the problem and most likely it will drag again as the upper hinge is still loose.

To perform this style a practitioner first has to be well trained in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine theory. She has to know precisely how the Qi flows in the body and choose the Meridians which can balance those having pain or dysfunction.

Needles are placed in the chosen area that is most tender. The original painful area is checked to see how much pain relief or increased Range of Motion has occurred. If improvement is less than 50% additional needles may be used. Needles are left in for 30-45 minutes while the person rests. Often my patients take a snooze while being treated.

Here are a few examples of using the Balance Method at Joy Acupuncture Health Centre:

A)      I treated a patient with Transverse Myelitis, a very painful nerve condition that weakened and left her leg with severe and constant pain. I placed several needles on her opposite upper and lower arm to treat her leg very effectively. She told me she felt a comforting warmth in the leg area and her pain decreased by 50% in 10 minutes! This pain relief lasted for several days and we continued treatment until the pain was reduced by 90% and stayed that way for several weeks at a time.

       Another patient came to me with severe Low Back Pain. Chiropractic therapy had reduced the pain initially, but was not working with this flare-up. I put four needles in each hands and her pain was completely relieved for the first time in a month. We repeated this treatment until she stabilized. She now comes in once a month or so to maintain her progress and take a great nap.

C)       Another patient sought treatment for chronic neck and shoulder pain. After placing about 6 needles in her ankle and lower leg she was amazed to have about 75% pain relief and dramatically increased range of motion.

This style is great for treating pain. It usually works very quickly and dramatically. It is, however, not a one treatment fix.

Often it has taken a long time or a severe rauma to get to this point of dysfunction and pain. This is not undone is one visit. The dramatic results are indicative of the body’s ability to heal itself, but often several treatments are needs to stabilize a condition and then maintain this progress.

I often suggest two treatments a week for three weeks, then a reassessment. Sometimes we will continue with twice a week treatments, but if enough progress has been made we may reduce to one treatment a week. The goal is to have the pain reduction or elimination last between treatments. At first the relief may only be a couple of hours or one day. After repeated treatments, though, it is possible to have several pain free days, and even a complete elimination of the pain!

Jocelyn Joy, MS, LAc.

If you have been to only one Acupuncturist or Practitioner of Oriental Medicine you may think that we all are the same. Not so! Just take a look at a few of the different styles and techniques that are practiced here in the United States:

1)      Meridian Balancing (Master Tan’s Balance Method)  This is a unique style of acupuncture which uses just a few needles to balance the affected area or meridian that is in pain. Needles are placed away from the affected area or distally.

2)      Motor-Point Acupuncture (Master Callison’s Enegetics of Structural Balance) Another unique style which uses the western concept of using motor points of agonist and antagonist muscle groups to regain structural balance in the affected area.

3)      Japanese Style Acupuncture – A style of very light and gentle acupuncture with very few needles that move the energies of the body very deeply to regain health.

4)      Five-Element Acupuncture – Practitioners focus on dealing with the underlying causative factor of your condition and your unique constitution to resolve health issues.

5)      Master Tung’s Style - This system, developed by Master Tung, is a precursor to Master Tan’s Balance Method. Points are chosen distal to the problem and results can be quick.

6)      Laser Acupuncture-  A small laser is used to stimulate acupuncture points instead of needles.

7)      Traditional Chinese Acupuncture- This style is most common in the United States. It uses 10-20 needles with mild to strong stimulation.

8)      Trigger Point Acupuncture- A combination of Trigger Point Therapy and Acupuncture, highly effective for musculoskeletal pain.

 The next three styles use a micro-system. This is based on the theory that every part is a reflection of the whole, a   notion that because we all stem from one cell, each area of the body contains part of the whole.

9)      Korean Hand Acupuncture- A unique style of Acupuncture that uses points on the hands and fingers.

10)  Auricular Acupuncture- Points on the outer ear are used to treat the whole body.

11)  ECIWO (Embryo Containing the Information of the Whole Organism)- A very interesting style that uses

             points along the second metacarpal to affect the whole body.

  So armed with this new knowledge ask your practitioner which style or styles she practices.  She will most likely be happy to discuss it with you! Please note I use the styles in black, depending on the case.

I have been practicing Chinese Medicine for over 8 years. During that time I have seen it work wonders for many thousands of patients.

People have come to me with ailments that Western Allopathic Medicine was not able to deal with and found real and lasting relief. I am passionate about Chinese Medicine because it helps people find natural, safe and effective relief for many modern conditions. 

That said, I want to be clear about Chinese Medicine’s limitations based on my experience.

1) Chinese Medicine cannot, will not, and does not override your body’s warning systems that something is wrong and needs emergency or surgical attention now! I have seen this over and over, and it never ceases to amaze me.

a. One of my patients who has IBS came to me during flare-ups of severe abdominal cramping. I often used acupuncture to reduce her pain and cramping up to 80%. One time though nothing worked. I urged her to go to the emergency room, she did and the doctors had to remove most of her small intestine as it had twisted upon itself and it was no longer working properly.

b. A patient who enjoyed parasailing came in after an injury to his shoulder. All the usual interventions did not produce any increase in range of motion, strength or decrease in pain. I told him to see his doctor and get an MRI. He did, and his doctors actually put his case in medical journals because they successfully repaired all four rotator cuff muscles as they were torn so thoroughly.

2) Chinese Medicine cannot, will not and does not miraculously cure you if you are consistently working against it.

We all want something to work immediately, and if we don’t have to change anything so much the better. Unfortunately that is NOT how Chinese Medicine works. As the saying goes; ‘If you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you have gotten.”

I see this mostly in my workaholic, Type-A businessmen and women, as well as Type-A athletes. 

a. The most striking case was a woman who was a marathon runner. She found running to be a great way to reduce her stress. Unfortunately she also developed shin splints. She came for treatment and I urged her to not run while getting treatment for at least 4 weeks so the injury would heal properly.

Since her motto was “No pain, No gain”, she kept on running. Her leg would feel good for about a day after treatment, then she would run 7 miles and it would hurt again.

Eventually she stopped treatment because she felt it wasn’t working well enough. She kept running and her shin splints became a stress fracture which kept her off her feet and in a great deal of pain for over 8 weeks!

If you keep overdoing it; over exercising, overworking, drinking too much, sleeping too little, living on adrenaline Chinese Medicine has a limited ability to help you.

This is why practitioners often make suggestions about how to eat better, manage stress better, slow down.

 Doctors of Chinese Medicine know that the tools they have are able to help the body do what it naturally does, seek health and balance. But if patients keep doing what they have always done, they will keep getting what they always have gotten. 

This is why at Joy Acupuncture Health Centre we ask our patients to make a commitment to their treatment and take responsibility for their health, to work in partnership with us in attaining their best health.

We may ask, for instance, that you take up a stress reducing practice such as meditation, Tai Qi, Qi Gong, or Yoga. We may ask you to make a few dietary changes. We might even tell you to have some fun sometimes to balance your work life.

It is wise to pay attention to your practitioners’ suggestions. We have years of training and practice behind us, we know what works and what doesn’t. Your progress will be much better if you do, and you are more likely to have a much better balanced and healthy life.

Many who are not willing to make changes tend to drop out of treatment claim that Chinese Medicine doesn’t work, and seek the next treatment they hope will cure them. Those who stay and make changes, even gradual ones, reap the rewards.

Vibrant Health is a commitment and a process; it does not magically happen. At Joy Acupuncture Health Centre we are excited to help you on this journey.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call 619-322-4492.

You can find more information about Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture at www.joyacupuncture.com.

Even though Chinese Medicine has been practiced in this country for many years it is still poorly understood. This, I believe, is entirely the fault of the practitioners of this powerful medicine, including myself.  I am hoping that in this small article I can explain what is so special about Chinese Medicine and in the process dispel some common misconceptions.

1.       Chinese Medicine is a Comprehensive Medical System

While many think just of acupuncture, Chinese Medicine is actually a comprehensive medical system which includes acupuncture, therapeutic massage (Tui Na, etc) food therapy, lifestyle therapy, and internal as well as external use of herbs.

Because it has so many ways to treat it handles a variety of issues; dermatological, respiratory, digestive, gynecological, orthopedic, psychological, circulatory, infectious diseases, and so on.  

2.       Chinese Medicine maintains a holistic view of health

Holistic refers to seeing and treating the whole person, not just a dysfunctional organ. As a practitioner of Chinese Medicine I want to know what the symptoms the person is experiencing then I want to step back a bit and look at the body as a whole. I want to understand how this condition developed, the person’s unique constitution and lifestyle factors, the relationships between the imbalanced areas and other areas. Often times the presenting symptoms are but a reaction caused by some other imbalance that needs to be addressed.

3.       Chinese Medicine theory and practice are logically consistent and reproducible

Chinese Medicine is not just folk medicine. It has developed a theoretical framework that includes a clear definition of health, etiology of diseases, symptoms and patterns of disease, treatment principles, and treatment protocols. This system is logically consistent both forwards and backwards. If I see a treatment protocol I will instantly know what the treatment principles are and in what order of importance. I will also be able to name the pattern or disease and have a good idea of its etiology.

4.       Chinese Medicine treats each person individually

 I may have several patients who have low back pain and each one of them I might treat differently. For instance one person may have been a construction worker and hurt his back while working. Another person may be very fragile and weak and works sitting at a desk. Another may be an older person. Each of these people I would treat with different herbs, acupuncture points, and give different lifestyle advice because they are different people.

5. Chinese Medicine has fewer side-effects than bio-medicine

Acupuncture, if done well, will act to bring the body back into balance so that it has the ability to take care of itself. My personal philosophy is that Less is More, and will attempt to use the fewest and most effective points to provide the body with just enough information to take over the job. As a Practitioner of Chinese Medicine my job is to get the body back into harmony and health. Even though I may know where to insert needles, ultimately it is the body that takes over the healing process, I just assist.

Herbs typically have fewer side effects than pharmaceuticals because we use whole herb and take advantage of the synergistic effects of all the herbs in the formula. Herbal formulas are complex and seek to address the primary presenting symptoms, secondary issues, and harmonize the effects of all the herbs with the specific individual.

Biomedicine often uses an isolated, refined, and concentrated chemical that has one or two physiological effects generally ignoring the possible effects of the variety of substances in the original medicinal.

6.      Chinese Medicine focuses on health and longevity

The best doctors of Chinese Medicine in ancient China worked for the emperors and their job was to keep the emperor and his family healthy, strong, and virile. Those practitioners understood that to prevent a disease before it manifested was the highest form of medicine.

This medicine is so well suited for health preservation and disease prevention, but so few actually use it as such. Our biomedical health system in the United States is very slanted to treating sickness once it arises. Most of us are conditioned to seek treatment when the symptoms are pronounced enough to limit our function in some way.

 Jocelyn has written an e-book about Chinese Medicine and Joy Acupuncture Health Centre. Go to our home page at www.joyacupuncture.com and download your complimentary copy. (only 23 pages!)