Transcript:
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So moving on, we have Maya F who says, “I’ve heard about alternative therapies like acupuncture or yoga for disc issues. Do you have any insights into their benefits or are they a complimentary approach to PT?” Short answer is yes, they’re complimentary approaches to PT. That doesn’t mean they’re not worth looking into. You want a diversity of things that could help you because you know the right help at the right time can change your life. So let’s dig into acupuncture. There’s traditional and there’s modern, different approaches you’d have to investigate on your own more about what that actually means. Yes, they both involve needling, but the studies on acupuncture, even though it’s been around forever, have mixed results in terms of effectiveness for neck pain. But that doesn’t mean that it can’t help reduce some of your pain because it releases endorphins, which are natural pain relievers, and improves blood flow, which helps with tissue healing. And it’s generally considered safe. So, you know, it’s worth a go if you want to give it a go. The only thing I would mention is it’s not the same thing as dry needling. PTs can do dry needling, it’s very different even though it sounds similar and it involves needles. The reality is a PT doing dry needling took a weekend course. Not bashing my own profession, but you know, you gotta skill recognizes skill. I went to PT school to get a doctorate for several years, acupuncturists went to school for several years to become acupuncturists. So, you know, go to the one that you feel more comfortable with.
Yoga, yoga’s got a lot of potential benefits of improving your flexibility, posture, core strength, helping your breathing patterns, reducing your stress. The only issue with yoga is the style. The style can either work for or against you because certain poses can definitely aggravate disc problems if you’re going into like hyperextension or if you’re inverted where you’re in like a tripod stance or something like that. So choose a gentle, restorative one at first and kind of go from there. You know, interview your practitioner who’s going to be guiding you through. Let them know what’s going on with you, but it is definitely complimentary. And I know you didn’t ask about it, but maybe you have heard of it. I would also recommend you looking into qigong, which is kind of like breathing mixed with tai chi in a lot of ways. It’s a very relaxing and restorative approach to exercise that can benefit really any problem, not just disc issues. We’ll be bringing someone on the show in a couple of weeks who can talk to you more about that as well. So stay tuned. [Music]
