Your feet don't fit in your shoes and their contours are unmistakably puffy. You might just be retaining water, or the swelling may indicate a more serious condition or illness, from allergies to lymphatic cancers. If the swelling persists, consult your primary care provider to determine potential causes. Depending on the diagnosis, you might ask for a referral to a local acupuncturist as a complementary or alternative to Western medical treatment.
About Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a healing modality used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, which uses hair-thin needles to stimulate specific points on the body. These points relate to meridiens, or pathways of vital energy, known as "qi." An acupuncturist determines which of over 2,000 points require stimulation, based on a diagnosis of the patient's illness. According to TCM, the disease is caused by an imbalance in energy, which relates to specific bodily organs and manifests as excess or deficiency, coolness or heat. Given the dramatically different framework of TCM, when compared with Western science, the causes of swelling in the feet do not necessarily line up with Western diagnoses.
Causes of Swelling
Western medicine may attribute swelling, medically known as "edema," to a number of conditions. Angioedema is a swelling condition just below the skin, typically the result of allergies or reactions to external irritants. In more serious cases, the swelling may indicate lymphatic illnesses such as Hodgkin's disease or leukemia. Cellulitis, a bacterial infection, also causes swelling, as well as redness and tenderness. Bursitis causes swelling, typically around the joints. Usually bursitis is accompanied by aching, pain or a limitation in movement.
Acupuncture for Swelling
While TCM does not attribute disease to the same causes as Western medicine, or classify illness according to the same definitions, conditions such as bursitis, cellulitis and edema may respond favorably to acupuncture treatment. The University of Maryland Medical Center recommends acupuncture as a complementary or alternative technique for all three conditions. However, the center further indicates that no conclusive scientific evidence establishes the effectiveness of acupuncture. For an infectious disease, such as cellulitis, puncturing the skin may also increase the risk of spreading the infection.
Acupuncture for Pain Relief
Even in cases where acupuncture has not be scientifically proven to alleviate swelling, the healing art may offer relief of pain symptoms. For patients with swelling in the feet, this may prove particularly important to overall quality of life, as it can greatly affect mobility. According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a major trend in scientific acupuncture research is on its pain relief properties, especially when compared with "sham" or fake acupuncture. A 2009 systematic review of studies on acupuncture and pain relief found that the modality demonstrated remarkably better results than no treatment at all, though sham acupuncture also produced better results than no treatment.
References
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Acupuncture: An Introduction
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Angioedema
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Cellulitis
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Bursitis
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Acupuncture for Pain
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