Blog & Columns
Useful information about health and Korean medicine.
Total 36 posts
What is numbness that runs from the buttock down the leg?
If you have trouble holding in or passing urine or stool, reduced feeling around the groin, or weakness in both legs, go to the emergency room right away. A bundle of nerves may be compressed, and in that case time changes the outcome. If you wait, it becomes hard to reverse. Also, if you can't lift your ankle so your foot drags, or your leg strength is noticeably fading, that's not something to wait on either.
When and how should I start rehab exercises?
You start by holding still against resistance. Because the joint doesn't move, you can do it even while it still hurts, and it's safer for that reason. When people hear "exercise," they picture lifting weights or moving joints through big ranges. Doing that first during recovery leads to reinjury. What you do first is exercise where you use force but your body doesn't move. Because the joint doesn't move,
If the pain is gone, am I fully healed?
Pain stopping and being fully healed are different things. Pain is the first to go, and weakened muscles and ligaments come back later. In the clinic we say, "When the pain is gone, you're about halfway there." If you stop here, you often end up coming back a while later with pain in the same spot. Pain mostly comes from inflammation. When the inflammation settles
How is manual therapy different from Chuna?
Both are hands-on treatments; what differs is who does it and what other treatments come with it. We can't say one is better than the other. This is one of the questions we're asked most often in the clinic. First, let us be clear about something: we don't have data that compares the two treatments side by side. So what follows describes only the differences, not which is better.
If my pain keeps coming back even after treatment, what should be looked at?
Not the spot that hurts, but the place that is funneling force into it. If only the painful spot is treated over and over, it gets better only while it's being treated and comes back when treatment stops. Some people keep having pain in the same spot. It gets better with treatment, then hurts again a few weeks later. What's needed then is not more of the same treatment, but finding out why the strain keeps building up in that one spot.
What does Chuna treatment do?
It's a treatment that uses the hands to move the joints and surrounding tissues, loosening stiff areas and realigning spots that are out of place. It doesn't just mean cracking bones with a popping sound. When people hear "Chuna," many picture a loud "crack." That's only one of many techniques, and it doesn't have to make a sound to be done well. Gently moving a joint within its range of motion
What is pharmacopuncture, and how is it different from regular acupuncture?
Pharmacopuncture is a treatment in which a purified extract from medicinal herbs is injected through a fine needle. While acupuncture only provides stimulation, pharmacopuncture adds the herbal ingredients directly to the spot on top of the stimulation. We're often asked, "Is it a kind of acupuncture, or an injection?" It's a bit of both. Where it goes follows acupuncture points, and the way it's delivered is closer to an injection. Structures under the skin
Does Exercise Help with Spinal Stenosis?
Exercise can't widen the narrowed space. But exercise really does help increase how far you can walk and lengthen the time between rests. There's a reason we make this distinction first. When people hear "treat it with exercise," they expect the narrowed passage to widen. That doesn't happen. What changes is the conditions under which the nerves pass through that narrow space.
What Are the Early Signs of a Herniated Disc in the Lower Back?
Numbness running down into the leg is a more important sign than back pain. If the numbness runs from the buttock down the back of the thigh to the calf, we suspect a pinched nerve. This is where simple lower back muscle pain and a herniated disc part ways. When it's muscular, the pain stays in the lower back; when a nerve is pinched, it travels down along the path of that nerve. When sitting
I Had Surgery. Why Do I Need Separate Rehabilitation?
Surgery repairs the damaged area; rehabilitation makes that area usable again. Even after repair, if you don't use it, it stiffens, and once it stiffens, it hurts again. Many people think everything is done once surgery is over. But for a few weeks after surgery, pain makes you move less, and moving less means muscle loss and stiff joints. Once that state sets in, surgery
Is There Evidence That Acupuncture Works for Spinal Stenosis?
There's no conclusive evidence yet. There is a study that pooled and analyzed 6 randomized studies with 582 people, but its authors concluded they could not find conclusive evidence on effectiveness and safety. That's the reason we're writing this. Some places tell people with spinal stenosis that "acupuncture will make it better," but the evidence we have now doesn't support saying that.
Does Acupuncture Mean Fewer Back Surgeries?
A study analyzing Korean national health insurance data found that people who received acupuncture had about a 37% lower risk of lumbar spine surgery. But this doesn't mean acupuncture prevents surgery; it means that when the two groups were followed, this difference showed up. Surgery is the biggest worry for people who come to us with back pain. So this question needs an evidence-based answer. As it happens