Does acupuncture hurt?

Many people never had acupuncture in their lives, and wondering the same questions:

Does acupuncture hurt?

Well, here I am to explain to you about the pain level of acupuncture.

First of all,

Should acupuncture hurt?

Well, acupuncture should not be painful.

In the dermis layer of skin, there are many sensory nerve endings, and these endings are responsible for pain sensation.

But the needle puncture through the dermis layer fast enough, there shouldn’t be any pain.

Why?

Because if the needle go though the skin fast enough, the sensory nerve endings are not stimulated. The damage is so quick that the nerve believe what happened was an illusion. It is fooled.

this is why the acupuncture shouldn’t be painful during the first insertion.

What should you feel during acupuncture? 

Or the rephrase the question:

Should there be any sensations? 

Yes, there should be.

Why? and What kind of sensation?

The following sensations are normal with acupuncture:

1. 酸–Soreness (like muscle sore after use)
2. 麻–Numbness and electrical shock
3. 胀–Pressure
4. 重–Heaviness

The feelings are very awkward, wired feeling, sometimes it is feeling you never have before.

Why we are looking for these sensations?

In TCM theories, these sensation indicate ‘Qi’ had arrived, and when ‘Qi’ flows in the meridians, disease will be treated and condition can be recovered.

Let’s talk about the anatomy and physiology

Soreness — could happen when the needle stimulation in the muscle tissues, allowing the tissue to get ride of garbage

Numbness — there are two type of numbness I discovered
1) you sit on your leg for an hour, your leg start to loss sensation
2) then you stand up and free up the blood flow, blood rushing into your leg, numbness with tingling

Electrical Shock — probably hit a nerve. you may feel the shock then your body part jumps

Pressure — bloating, pressure, or whatever you call it — this is the weirdest feeling you could feel in your body parts, so far I am not able to interpret what caused it, but surely there must be some explanation.

Heaviness — in TCM it means there are too much dampness (湿), but in anatomy, I believe it is muscle tissue

Why someone may feel pain during acupuncture?

The patient need to figure out if it is pain, or if it the weird feeling. Also, if the feeling travels down or up the body.

If it is just pain, not moving, then it means the ‘Qi’ is not flowing; if the ‘Qi’ doesn’t flow, the acupuncture wouldn’t be effective for this session.

Sometimes the pain are occuring because the needle hit a vein. Arteries will dodge away from needle, but vein will just cause pain. After removed the needle, this location may bleed a bit.

If the pain travels up or down along the meridians, to other parts of body, then the condition can be treated faster. Usually this is not pain, but one of the above weird feelings.

Should I tell my therapist about my feeling?

Yes. It is a very good idea to tell your therapist what you are feeling, and they will be able to adjust accordingly.

Basically, if an acupuncturist just insert a needle in your body and leave you, there was no feelings, then this treatment will not be very effective.