A Drug-Free Option for Work Injuries
Have you or someone you know been injured on the job? Are you looking for a drug-free option to reduce your pain and improve your ability to get back into the workforce and even more importantly, back into your life? Today we’re going to talk about a drug-free option that can support your current medical care to enhance and speed up your recovery from work injuries.
First, it’s important to know that doctors in California’s workers’ compensation system are required to provide evidence-based medical treatment. This means that they must choose treatments that have been shown to be scientific and evidence-based in the ability to cure or relieve work-related injuries. Those treatments are laid out in medical treatment guidelines utilized by all doctors that treat these injured workers. They provide details on which treatment should be given, the extent of treatment, and the treatment’s duration.
Excitingly, acupuncture has now been recognized and adopted by these guidelines as scientific and evidenced-based.
The guidelines state, “Acupuncture is used as an option when pain medication is reduced or not tolerated.” So, you as an injured worker have the right to this modality if you’re having problems with medication, trying to reduce medication intake, or if you simply prefer a drug-free option. The guidelines also go on to say that acupuncture “may be used as an adjunct to physical rehabilitation and/or surgical intervention to speed up recovery.”
In our modern medical system, the combination of many therapies into an integrative approach can significantly improve patient outcomes. This combination typically has a greater affect than any one modality. Adding acupuncture is a safe and effective approach to the treatment of many health problems, especially when it comes to pain and inflammation.
Furthermore, the guidelines go on to state that, “Acupuncture can be used to reduce pain, reduce inflammation, increase blood flow, increase range of motion, decrease the side effect of medication-induced nausea, promote relaxation in the anxious patient, and reduce muscle spasm.” So what is this saying? It’s really saying that acupuncture treats and restores the body’s natural healing processes. In other words, through the stimulation of acupuncture, you are reactivating the body’s natural self-repair processes to support, enhance, and speed up healing! What a concept!
One last point the guidelines cover is that, “Acupuncture is indicated to treat chronic pain conditions, radiating pain along nerve pathways, scar tissue pain, and pain located in multiple sites.”
When patients are stuck in these chronic pain and inflammatory cycles, I have seen acupuncture play a major part in not only reducing pain and the need for medication, but also more importantly improving one’s overall emotional state and sense of well being. So, I would encourage you to consider acupuncture as part of your medical treatment to get you back into your work and more importantly back into your life.
If you’d like to find out more about how we can assist you with your work injury and how we can best integrate the use of biomedical acupuncture along with your current health care, in a safe and effective way, contact our office at (619) 287-4005 to schedule a free consultation where we can answer any questions you have, and to find out how we can help you with your healthcare needs.