Are there benefits of combining Chiropractic to Acupuncture or vice versa?
Combining acupuncture with chiropractic care for musculoskeletal pain can offer several enhanced benefits compared to using either approach alone. Here’s how they can complement each other:
1. Enhanced Pain Relief: Acupuncture stimulates the nervous system and releases endorphins, which can help reduce pain. When combined with chiropractic adjustments, which realign the spine and joints, patients often experience more significant pain relief.
2. Improved Muscle Relaxation: Acupuncture can help relax tight muscles, making it easier for a chiropractor to perform adjustments. This synergy can reduce muscle tension and improve joint mobility more effectively than adjustments alone.
3. Reduced Inflammation: Both acupuncture and chiropractic care can help lower inflammation. Chiropractic adjustments relieve pressure on nerves, while acupuncture targets specific points to encourage blood flow and decrease swelling, together enhancing the anti-inflammatory effects.
4. Holistic Healing Approach: Acupuncture is believed to balance energy (or “Qi”) flow throughout the body, promoting overall wellness. This can support the body’s natural healing processes, complementing the structural focus of chiropractic care to enhance recovery.
5. Longer-Lasting Results: The combination often provides more durable pain relief. Acupuncture addresses underlying energetic imbalances, while chiropractic care corrects structural misalignments, which can help maintain musculoskeletal health over the long term.
6. Faster Recovery: Patients may experience quicker improvements because each therapy targets different aspects of the healing process. Chiropractic adjustments work on skeletal alignment, while acupuncture enhances blood flow and reduces muscle stiffness, together facilitating quicker recovery from injury or chronic pain.
This integrated approach is particularly beneficial for patients with chronic pain conditions, sports injuries, and conditions such as sciatica, arthritis, or headaches. Many people report feeling greater overall wellness, improved range of motion, and a sense of balance in both physical and mental health.
Is Acupuncture safe?
In the hands of a licensed and trained practitioner such as Dr. Lea Kelley, acupuncture and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) is very safe. It is a pain-free, effective, treatment for many acute and chronic conditions that has been used for thousands of years.
Is Acupuncture painful?
Acupuncture treatments are not painful. Acupuncture is performed with hair-thin needles that are sometimes even hard to feel and that do not resemble the pain felt from a hypodermic needle. Patients often fall asleep and are in deep relaxation on the table.
People report a sensation sometime after the insertion of the needle, but this is a pressure-like sensation rather than a pain.
Are there any side effects from Acupuncture?
One of the great advantages of acupuncture is that it is very safe. Other than an occasional bruise, there are no side effects.
Can Acupuncture help with fertility issues?
Yes. Acupuncture TCM can be very helpful for those having trouble conceiving or having the family they would wish.
Can you have Acupuncture done while pregnant?
Yes! Pregnant mothers-to-be seek acupuncture for Sciatic pain, lower back pain, nausea (morning sickness), anxiety, depression and more. Ask Dr. Kelley for more information.
What can Acupuncture do that going to the doctor can’t?
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) views the human being very differently from western medicine. It does not separate the body from the mind, or the inside from the outside, but takes a comprehensively holistic view of the person, the complaint and the context it is happening in. TCM can often diagnose and treat ‘odd complaints’, problems that western medicine can’t put a label on.
Can acupuncture improve my health even if I’m not ill?
To go to your “regular doctor/GP”, you generally need to be ill. Not so with TCM – you can use acupuncture and TCM even when you are not ill, just ‘not feeling 100%’, or you don’t want to wait until you get ill.
TCM has always been used to improve health, to be so well that you don’t get unwell, and be able to live your life to the fullest.
In olden times in China, the patient used to see their practitioner regularly in the understanding that it was the practitioner’s job to help them stay well. If they did fall ill, they wouldn’t pay for the treatment.
Do I need to believe in acupuncture for it to work?
No, you don’t. The effectiveness of acupuncture is not based on faith. Acupuncture can even be done on unconscious persons and animals such as your pets, racehorses, livestock, etc.
What can I expect during my Acupuncture visit?
Needles are sterile, generally cause no bleeding upon entry or removal, with little or no pain being felt; however, slight bruising may be experienced on a rare occasion. The number of treatments necessary will depend upon your condition, if your symptoms are chronic or acute and your health in general. The needles may vary in size, depending upon your condition and the course of treatment prescribed. In addition to needling your treatment may also include a variety of non-needling techniques such as moxibustion (heat), herbal formulas, etc. One advantage of acupuncture treatment is the absence of serious side effects which may result from the use of prescription drugs.
What sort of health conditions do people most often come in for using Acupuncture?
People mostly know about acupuncture for acute and chronic pain. Both respond well to acupuncture, sometimes very quickly. With acute pain, you may feel 80% relief after one treatment, and some people feel 100% better. Getting to the bottom of chronic pain is an ongoing process over multiple sessions. And some people come in for one thing, such as sleep problems, and discover another benefit that keeps them coming back, like relief from anxiety.
Acupuncture pairs nicely with other forms of medicine. A Chiropractic session immediately after your acupuncture with Dr. Kelley takes total body care to a whole new level. It’s often used during cancer treatment to help with nausea. As stated in another question, Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine is highly recommended and used routinely before, during and after fertility care with your Reproductive Specialist. And it’s good for complex conditions like autoimmune conditions, post-surgical care to enhance healing and more.
How does Acupuncture work?
Acupuncture seeks to release the flow of the body's vital energy or "chi" (or Qi) by stimulating points along 14 energy pathways. Some scientists believe that acupuncture needles cause the body to release endorphins -- natural painkillers -- and may boost blood flow and change brain activity.
Can I do Acupuncture and Chiropractic during the same visit?
Yes! Starting with a relaxing, Qi-balancing, anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving, muscle spasm-relieving acupuncture session than following up with an immediate chiropractic manipulation (or other techniques) is best full-body balancing method in such a short time. Patients leave feeling noticeably more relaxed, mobile and relieved.
What if I am afraid of Acupuncture and Chiropractic ?
Dr. Lea Kelley/The Dragon and Phoenix Healer has multiple pain-free, relaxing modalities/therapies. Take a look at our other modalities such as Cupping, Moxibustion, Scalar Wave Laser therapy with or without the mat, Frequency Specific Micro-current (FSM), BEMER Vascular Therapy, LED color therapy, Detox Therapies, Stem-cell therapy using X-39 (phototherapy) and more!
Does Dr. Lea Kelley order blood tests or lab tests?
Yes! Order your blood tests with Dr. Kelley during your appointment and schedule your blood draw on-line. Results will be sent to our office. Once they are ready, Dr. Kelley will notify you to schedule an office visit for review, interpretation and next steps such as which therapy to do next. Lab test kits for various labs and panels can be sent to you for your sample collection.
What Sets Our Clinic Apart?
Dr. Lea Kelley is a California State Board, nationally certified (NCCAOM) licensed acupuncturist and California State Board Licensed Chiropractor with a combined 27+ years experience with various conditions and modalities. If you need another set of eyes looking at your medical tests with holistic therapy options, Dr. Lea Kelley is who you need to talk to.
Is Chiropractic treatment safe?
Chiropractic is widely recognized as one of the safest nondrug, noninvasive forms of health care available for the treatment of neuromusculoskeletal complaints. Although chiropractic has an excellent safety record, no health treatment is completely free of potential adverse effects. The risks associated with chiropractic, however, are very small. Many patients feel immediate relief following chiropractic treatment, but some may experience mild soreness, stiffness or aching, just as they do after some forms of exercise. Current research shows that minor discomfort or soreness following spinal manipulation typically fades within 24 hours.
Neck pain and some types of headaches are treated through precise cervical manipulation. Cervical manipulation, often called a neck adjustment, works to improve joint mobility in the neck, restoring range of motion and reducing muscle spasm, which helps relieve pressure and tension. Neck manipulation, when performed by a skilled and well educated professional such as a doctor of chiropractic, is a remarkably safe procedure.
Some reports have associated high-velocity upper neck manipulation with a certain rare kind of stroke, or vertebral artery dissection. However, evidence suggests that this type of arterial injury often takes place spontaneously in patients who have pre-existing arterial disease. These dissections have been associated with everyday activities such as turning the head while driving, swimming, or having a shampoo in a hair salon. Patients with this condition may experience neck pain and headache that leads them to seek professional care at the office of a doctor of chiropractic or family physician, but that care is not the cause of the injury. The best evidence indicates that the incidence of artery injuries associated with high-velocity upper neck manipulation is extremely rare—about one to three cases in 100,000 patients who get treated with a course of care. This is similar to the incidence of this type of stroke among the general population.
If you are visiting your doctor of chiropractic with upper-neck pain or headache, be very specific about your symptoms. This will help your doctor of chiropractic offer the safest and most effective treatment, even if it involves referral to another healthcare provider.
When discussing the risks of any healthcare procedure, it is important to look at that risk in comparison to other treatments available for the same condition. In this regard, the risks of serious complications from spinal manipulation for conditions such as neck pain and headache compare very favorably with even the most conservative care options. For example, the risks associated with some of the most common treatments for musculoskeletal pain (i.e. over-the-counter or prescription nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) and prescription painkillers) are significantly greater than those of chiropractic manipulation.
Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that overuse and abuse of prescription opioid pain medications is among the leading causes of accidental death in the United States.
What type of education and training do Chiropractors have?
Doctors of chiropractic are educated as primary-contact healthcare providers, with an emphasis on diagnosis and treatment of conditions related to the musculoskeletal system (the muscles, ligaments and joints of the spine and extremities) and the nerves that supply them. Educational requirements for doctors of chiropractic are among the most stringent of any of the healthcare professions. The typical applicant for chiropractic college has already acquired nearly four years of pre-medical undergraduate college education, including courses in biology, inorganic and organic chemistry, physics, psychology and related lab work.
Once accepted into an accredited chiropractic college, the requirements become even more demanding — four to five academic years of professional study are the standard. Doctors of chiropractic are educated in orthopedics, neurology, physiology, human anatomy, clinical diagnosis including laboratory procedures, diagnostic imaging, exercise, nutrition rehabilitation and more. Because chiropractic care includes highly skilled manipulation and adjusting techniques, a significant portion of time is spent in clinical technique training to master these important manipulative procedures. In total, the chiropractic college curriculum includes a minimum of 4,200 hours of classroom, laboratory and clinical experience. The course of study is approved by the Council on Chiropractic Education, an accrediting agency that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.