Speeding Up Recovery Time from Sports Injuries
I know that I have already posted a lot of links to articles expounding the benefits of using acupuncture for pain management; but what about from recovering from a physical trauma - such as a sports injury? Forgot to properly align yourself when you last lifted weights? Didn't warm-up before spending a couple of hours on the tennis court? Took on a Cross-Fit class while trying to stay at the same pace as those who've been doing these moves for years? Yeah, we've all been there - come home from a day at the gym or outdoors only to find ourselves with a muscle or tendon injury and not just the usual aches and pains of a hard work-out. Turns out that not only can acupuncture help manage chronic or long-term pain, but that it can also actually help to speed up the recovery process from a physical injury. In fact, seeing an acupuncturist soon after a sports injury can significantly improve healing. The theory behind this? Acupuncture helps to reduce inflammation in the body; inflammation is what creates the pain (impeding proper flow of our blood and lymph systems and pushing on our various nerve receptors). While alleviating the pain, acupuncture also simultaneously stimulates the release of various hormones and neurotransmitters in the body that help the alleviate the feelings of pain (think of your body's own supply of endorphins, enkaphalins, and serotonin). There are many journal articles on sites such as pubmed.gov that show the effectivess of acupuncture with recovery time from muscle injury. Below is a link to an article in a men's health magazine that may help peak your interest a little more without having to pore through entire journal articles.
