What is the difference between Acupuncture, Dry needling and Advanced Neurological Acupuncture?

Advanced Neurological Acupuncture is a rarely mastered advanced way of treating where the patient is able to feel an instant effect within under a minute of the needles being placed into the body. Needles are placed distally to the area in which the patient is complaining about, and all treatments can be performed while the patient is in an upright position, and fully clothed. The only parts of the body needed are the elbows to fingers, knees to toes, and the head. This style of treatment shows the true power of what Acupuncture is actually capable of, and begins to correct the cause of the problem from the first treatment. Advanced Neurological Acupuncture offers instant pain relief, and is the quickest way in allowing the body to have a complete recovery. Once the correct course of treatments have been complete, the patient is able to stop with the treatments as the true underlying cause of the problem has been corrected, and the body is now able to heal itself. This is the case not only for physical issues, but also internal issues, both acute and chronic.

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As previously mentioned, Acupuncturists must undertake a minimum of 4 years study with thousands of hours’ worth of clinical practice; they are the ‘True Professionals’ when it comes to needling the body. Acupuncture practice incorporates many different needling techniques and a variety of these may be required to gain the best results. A registered acupuncturist is qualified in many techniques, including trigger point, and will adopt the best approach depending on the patient’s individual needs. The best approach does not rely on trigger points alone and sometimes trigger points are not necessary at all. If you’re only having ‘dry needling’, you are missing out on most of what a registered acupuncturist has to offer. Acupuncture is able to correct physical issues, as well as internal issues of the body, by treating the cause of the problem, and not just the symptoms. In regards to pain, slight relief (like dry needling) is generally felt after the session, with symptoms returning 48-72 hrs later; however after 4-5 sessions the cause of the problem begins to be corrected, and with continual sessions the issue will slowly but surely be fixed for good.

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The practice of ‘Dry Needling’ involves inserting a needle into a trigger points, causing a local “twitch” response, allowing the muscles to involuntarily contract or “jump”. This is believed to allow the muscles to relax, yet only addresses part of the symptom and not the cause of the problem. This technique is one of many that Acupuncturists may use, however can be quite painful and unnecessary.
In Australia, in order to obtain a license to ‘dry needle’, a Physio, Chiro, GP, Osteopath, or anyone who wants to, only needs to complete a 20 hour course (unlike an Acupuncturist who studies for a minimum of 4 years with thousands of clinical hours). This is just enough time for people to gain a rudimentary understanding of how to ‘needle the point that hurts’ and perhaps deliver short-term symptom relief. This technique does not last, and symptoms generally arise again due to the cause of the problem not being corrected. Dry Needling also only attempts to treat physical issues, with the same points being used for the same issues, and no individualised treatments being given.

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What is pain?

Any time there is pain in the body, there are sensory nerves which are firing; these may or may not be related to a structural problem causing the sensory dysfunction. 95% of the time with chronic pain, there is no major structural reason/cause for the pain (nothing pushing on a nerve, no bulging disc, nothing leaning on a spinal nerve) but the person still has pain! The problem with most doctors who are not well versed in the field of neurology is that their immediate assumption is that if you have pain, there must be a structural reason for it. In other words, there must be some form of structure, being bone, soft tissue, disc or some object actually pushing on the sensory nerve, causing it to continuously fire. This assumption is not always true. This is usually when general practitioners prescribe prescription pain relievers, which unfortunately nerves do not respond well to (even drugs such as narcotics); hence the cause of the problem not being corrected, and the pain is not eliminated from the body. So why is the pain still there? This is because the patient is caught in a sensory motor loop, meaning their body has literally forgotten how to shut the pain down. This is due to a neuropathic problem where the nerve itself is swollen, firing continuously, sending incorrect information to the brain; hence creating a major problem for the patient where they are stuck in a pain cycle.​

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How are pain killers effecting my body?

Long term use of pain killers dulls the nervous system. This is the reason as to why children and babies respond very fast to Advanced Neurological Acupuncture, as their neuro-system has not yet been compromised. On the other hand, elderly people who are on multiple medications; they have dulled their own beta-blockers, and the body now relies on this external substance to be consumed in order to make a change. Advanced Neurological Acupuncture still works in these cases, however the length of time it takes to achieve the desired results will be longer, as the body must be retrained, and retaught the fact that it does not have to rely on pharmaceutical drugs to heal itself. The natural health and vitality of the patient will determine how effective they are in getting over their problem; therefore everyone is an individual case.

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How can the body heal itself?

Blood is the main healing component of the body. Everything we consume gets digested, eliminating the bad and keeping the good. Now this good “stuff” (nutrients from food) is transferred into the blood stream, with oxygen which the body has inhaled, and continuously spreading.

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When there is an injury to the body, the body freaks out and thinks that it needs to protect itself, therefore constricting the blood vessels to that ‘injured’ area. By doing this the body believes it is stopping anything bad from going through the blood stream to the site of the injury; however what it is actually doing is preventing the body’s natural healing elements (found in the nutrients and oxygen) from being passed through the blood stream to heal that area. Due to this vasoconstriction (closing of blood vessels) the brain doesn’t want you using this area because you could make it worse; therefore it inhibits the motor function of your injured area, so now there is stiffness, and doesn’t move very well. This is called “guarding”. That’s why when people have chronic pain, the whole area is stiff; that stiffness is a trick being played on that area of your body, by the midbrain. So here you are caught in a situation where there’s not a strong enough signal strength in that proprioceptive pathway, the brain won’t release those opioids, but it will constrict the motor nerve going into the area, and now you’re caught in a chronic pain and stiffness cycle which not even drugs and medication will fix because there is no structural problem, but instead the blood vessels are just vasoconstricted.

The way to correct this issue is to open the blood vessels back up again. But how can that be done? Through Advanced Neurological Acupuncture! When a needle is put into the body it sends a message (impulse) to the midbrain through the nervous system and proprioceptive pathways. The midbrain then releases enkephalins, which are the body’s natural opioids, and about 1000 times more powerful than a histamine drug (such as oxycontin) to specific sites on the body, depending where needles have been placed. These opioids (enkephalins, endorphins, etc) which have been released, open up the blood vessels at the “injured” site; which then allows oxygen and nutrients to be spread, creating instant pain relief! This process needs to be repeated as the body has a “freak out” thinking that it must once again shut off the blood vessels to protect itself; therefore repeat treatments are needed in order to reboot the signal strength in the brain and get this to stick, to keep the vessels open for the blood and nutrient flow; basically just re-establishing neurological homeostasis.

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To make this work, the needles have to be put in specific areas on the body, depending what, and where, the issue is. The reason for this all comes from the day we were conceived and developed from an embryo, to a foetus, and a foetus to a baby. This process is completed in an unravelling motion (refer to pic) where you were once ‘ball-shaped’ and had all parts of your body, from your wrist, to your ankle, to your shoulder, to your hip, to your neck, to your throat, to your spine, to your pelvic area all connected as one. During this unravelling process of developing from an embryo, into a foetus and into a baby, these parts un-attach physically from each other, however neurologically will always be connected. Therefore if a needle is placed into the wrist, it will send impulses to the midbrain, which releases chemicals to open up the blood vessels of the areas all previously mentioned that the wrist was once physically connected to as a foetus.

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This here is a major reason as to why people can’t get over “chronic pain” situations. It is also the problem with physical therapy and why it does not always work, as physical therapy techniques don’t involve neurology; causing the therapist to think “oh your wrist is weak”, so let’s just work out the wrist. But you are actually going against the whole entire genetic tendency to not use that wrist, because it’s injured (or at least the brain thinks it is). First you have to take the pain away; then if it’s still weak, physical therapy will fix that. But to try to do physical therapy as a pain relief method, by using the appendage is not a good idea as you could injure them even more, causing greater damage.

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Why is blood flow important?

At birth, the blood flow in the body is the best that it will ever be! Babies are just a big ball of blood vessels, hence why they are pink, and are like rubber. They can fall down 2000 times in the first few years of their lives while learning how to walk, yet where are the bruises? They heal almost instantly, like a healing machine. Whereas if we fell down 2000 times in the next three years, our bodies would not cope very well at all. What happens over time is that vascular flow in the body gets worse as we age; this is fact. Vessels get damaged with trauma, they clot up from bad eating habits, and all types of other stuff. So over time the flow of blood in the body, and nutrients, get worse and worse, until eventually there are certain body areas (usually the joints, the brain, the heart, the muscle, and the extremities) where blood flow will drop way down from its original condition at birth (up to 70%), so now the body has lost the ability to heal itself, hence the chronic problems begin to appear. With this, there will be a lack of nutrient flow in the nerves of the area, lack of nutrient flow in the tissue of the area, and if the area gets damaged then the body has one hard time correcting itself.

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The key to living a more vital life is to improve the vascular flow! This is because health is highly oxygenated, highly nutritious blood coursing through the body! That is health; and those people can live an extremely long time. When people who live into the “extreme” ages of 110-115 years old are asked what they did to get to that age, they usually say that they never ate very much, they never rested a big amount, they never really retired, they stayed happy, etc. However the one thing they never say is that they exercised the hell out of their bodies. This is a current ‘western-living’ phase where people believe stressing their bodies out to the max will help them in the long run; they are wrong. It’s because excessive or competitive aerobic exercise (ie competitive cycling, long distance running, etc) will damage the ventricles of the heart, creating an issue with the natural blood flow. That is why people should listen to the age old saying of ‘everything in moderation’.