Post Surgical Pain

Acupuncture stimulates the release of pain releving hormones, increases circulation, and stimulates the natural healing abilities of the body.  Moxibustion and acupuncture are often used together due to the combinations effectiveness at reducing pain and swelling following surgery.  Moxibution can also be used alone around bandages during the initial weeks to promote healing and prevent scarring. For patients who have at least two weeks old surgical scars, acupuncture can be performed. Acupuncture breaks up scar tissue and improves circulation in order to reduce scar pain and keloid.  Recent research has show that acupuncture is extremely useful for relieving post-operative constipation.  These studies concluded that patients who regularly get acupuncture performed better than those who take only laxatives or stool softeners.

Gua sha is a scraping of the tissue with a smooth object. Gua sha is often used to address pain because of it's ability to stimulating microcirculation to soft tissue. This increase in blood circulation promotes the removal of waste products locked in the tissue. These waste products are brought to the surface of the skin, making marks on the skin called "petechia". When these waste products are at the surfacethe lymphatic system can drain them out of the body more effectively. In this way gua sha reduces inflammation and promote the bodies natural healing abilites.

Moxibution therapy, often called moxa, involves the burning of mugwort leaves. Mugwart has been used for centuries all over the world for it's healing abilities. Moxa draws white blood cells to an area. White blood cells remove waste materials and toxins from the body. Being of moxa's ability to do this it is able to decreasing inflammation, reduce scaring, and promote healing.