Acupuncture & IMS

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is the procedure of inserting and manipulating fine needles into specific points on the body to relieve pain or for therapeutic purposes.

The word acupuncture comes from the Latin acus, "needle", and pungere, "to prick".  Fi you are using the traditional Chinese medicine approach, acupuncture points are situated on meridians along which qi (a "life energy"), flows. Modern acupuncture texts present them as ideas that are useful in clinical practice and continue to inform the practice of acupuncture, but there is no evidence to support their existence and they can not be reconciled with contemporary biology, physics or chemistry.

Intra Muscular Stimulation

IMS or Intra Muscular Stimulation, is a needle technique that has been used in Canada and Sweden for many years, is often described as a "sort of scientific acupuncture". But instead of the "chi" energy and meridian lines of traditional Chinese medicine, it is concerned with the musculoskeletal system. The technique was developed from the 1970's onwards by the Canadian professor Dr Chann Gunn.

Whatever the nature of chronic pain, muscle spasm is often an integral part. IMS is based on a technique familiar to physios, who induce relaxation in a muscle by tightening it and then letting go. The advantage with the needling is that it can go deep into the body- sometimes several inches- to hit the right spot. A knotted muscle will "grab" the needle and after a while "let go"- and carry on relaxing after the needle has been removed. This can reset a hyperactive nervous system which causes increased tone and muscle banding in the musculoskeletal system.