Shoulder is undoubtedly one of the most active joints in our body. Due to its vulnerable anatomy any extreme movement can lead to muscular stiffness, strain or sprain. Shoulder pain affects millions of people every year, and it’s one of the most common reasons people seek medical help. In modern world, it has become a global health concern, especially for the office workers who sit long hours in front of computer. If not cured, it may substantially affect your day-to-day activities and health.

A growing number of people have been trying acupuncture because it is a non-drug therapy that treats the root of the condition. Unlike prescription drugs, acupuncture has no side effects.

What Causes Shoulder Pain?

There are a number of things that can cause shoulder pain, injury, disease of ligaments, dislocation, strain, sprain or periarthritis. Shoulder stiffness and pain is also caused when you keep your shoulders in a fixed position all the day.

The Chinese theory suggests that shoulder pain is caused due to disruption in the flow of Qi, energy and body fluids. This imbalance of energy gives you painful sensations.

What Acupuncture Does?

Since shoulder pain is linked with mechanical strain and emotional stress, acupuncture addresses both the components. It stimulates the flow of energy through different meridians. Our body has a large number of channels. It’s been observed that the location of pain and stiffness follows a specific channel. The therapists identify acupuncture points on related channel to unblock the stagnation that is causing pain.

Depending upon how chronic or acute your condition is, you’ll notice a marked improvement after about four sessions. It takes about 8-10 acupuncture sessions to fully recover from shoulder pain.

Growing Evidences

The popularity of acupuncture led researchers to find out if it really helps shoulder pain. The latest findings published in Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine  revealed that acupuncture significantly alleviated the shoulder pain in 82% subjects. After diagnosis of their shoulder pain, all the patients who volunteered were ranked on a scale of zero to 10, where 10 being the most severe condition. Half of them were given western treatment and the remaining people were given acupuncture treatment for seven weeks.

About 50% patients in the western medical care group saw improvements. On the contrary, above 80% people in the acupuncture group reported significant improvements.

More and more research is being published in journals around the world that support the Traditional Chinese Medicine for shoulder pain treatment.

The Bottom Line

Acupuncture is a safe and effective procedure. This non-pharmaceutical approach has no side effects. Looking at its effectiveness, many health organizations in the US are encouraging people to go for alternative therapy. It has been useful for even the ones whose shoulder pain didn’t respond well to the conventional medicine.