The foot is a highly sensitive area of your body. It has 38 bones connected by numerous joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments, and is vulnerable to many problems. Many people wear the wrong shoes for their feet. They either wear shoes that are too tight or shoes that are too loose. Either way is detrimental to your foot health. Other problems can be heel spurs, corns, bunions or hammertoes. These are all painful conditions that acupuncture can address and help.
Significance
Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese healing practice that engages your body in its own healing process. Acupuncturists believe that a flow of energy, or chi, runs through meridian points in your body and that this chi can be blocked in certain areas. When these meridian points are blocked, they must be opened so that your energy or chi can flow strongly again. Modern scientists have said that one explanation of acupuncture's seemingly workable mechanism is that acupuncture needles stimulate the nervous system to release chemicals in the muscles, spinal cord and brain.
Effects
Acupuncture, once thought of as a "quack medicine," is now being looked at seriously by Western doctors. It can't be totally explained in Western terms, but in specific studies, pain of all types was alleviated by acupuncture. One such study, done by Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Richmond, California, involved 67 patients with foot pain that could not be healed by Western medicine or exercise. When acupuncture was applied, there was total relief of pain in 31 cases and significant pain relief in 19 of the cases.
Identification
Acupuncturists claim that if you have foot pain, it may not necessarily be pain just associated with the foot. Chinese doctors believe that parts of the foot are connected to internal organs. For example, if you have heel pain, it could be because you have a kidney deficiency. So using acupuncture opens the meridian channels that alleviate the pain, and a dose of Chinese herbs treat the kidney deficiency.
Electroacupuncture
Another study was performed on people who had pain from plantar fasciitis. These patients were treated with electroacupuncture and regular acupuncture. Electroacupuncture is when a handheld probe is used and instead of inserting needles, electrical stimulation is applied to the specific area. This study was done with 11 patients. At the end of the study, nine of the 11 patients reported a 50 percent improvement in pain. The conclusion was that using both methods, electromagnetic and regular acupuncture, was the most effective.
Warning
Whichever treatments you use on your foot pain, don't write off acupuncture. It has been around for a long time, and Western doctors are beginning to recognize its benefits even if they can't explain how or why it works in Western terms. Before you go searching for the nearest acupuncturist, ask for recommendations, check the practitioner's credentials, how long she has been doing it, and determine whether she has passed the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, or NCCAOM.
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