Which is better, acupuncture or massage

I have been doing traditional Chinese medicine physiotherapy for 12 years. To be honest, there is no absolute superiority or badness between these two methods. Whether the effect is good or not depends entirely on whether it can match your symptoms and adapt to your body's acceptance.

For example, the young man from the Internet company who came here last week had a stiff neck for two days. His neck was as hard as plastered with cement. He grinned in pain even when he turned slightly. His muscles were in a state of acute spasm. He was also very afraid of needles. He hid behind the filiform needles in my box when he saw them. In this case, I would definitely give him a shoulder and neck massage first, using a gentle rolling method to slowly loosen the tight sternocleidomastoid and trapezius muscles. He would be able to turn his head normally in less than 20 minutes. If you forcefully give him acupuncture at this time, his muscles will be tense. Not only will he faint from the needle, but the feeling of the needle inserted will not be transmitted, and the effect will definitely be greatly reduced.

Oh, by the way, if you have cold legs like Aunt Zhou, massage won’t be that useful. My aunt is 68 years old. She has been suffering from cold blood and blood stasis in her legs for almost ten years. When the temperature cools down, she is in so much pain that she can’t get out of bed. Her muscles are loose and the coldness is trapped in the bones. Last time she came here, my apprentice massaged her legs for 40 minutes, which made her arms sore. The aunt said that the skin was hot but the inside was still cold. Later, I gave her acupuncture points at Zusanli, Yanglingquan, and Xianyanguan, connected them to electric acupuncture, and applied moxibustion for 15 minutes. My aunt stood up and took two steps. She said that most of the coldness had dissipated, and she could go downstairs to buy dinner when she got home that day.

Many customers also told me that they heard that acupuncture has strong penetrating power and can cure the root cause, while massage can only relax the superficial muscles. This is actually too one-sided. A while ago, a truck driver with chronic lumbar muscle strain came to see me. He had several deep muscle knots in his waist that were sore and made him break into a cold sweat when pressed. He said that he had had acupuncture in other places three times before, but he always felt that it was not good, and the soreness and pain still could not go away. I massaged his deep tendons slowly three times for 40 minutes each time. When he came for the third time, he said that the hard knots on his waist were almost invisible, and it didn’t hurt much after sitting for a long time. The acupuncture effect was better than before.

To put it bluntly, these two are different conditioning tools, and each has its own applicable scenarios. For example, for people who are dizzy from needles, you cannot forcefully press and insert the needles. People with sensitive skin and particularly poor pain tolerance do not need to endure the pain of massage for the so-called "good effect." I usually rarely use one method alone when treating problems for clients. For example, for a client whose lumbar protrusion is oppressing her legs and causing numbness, I will first massage for half an hour to loosen the tight muscles in the lower back, and then insert a few targeted needles to eliminate edema in the nerve roots. The recovery speed is much faster than using one method alone. If you are really confused about which one to choose, it is better to find a reliable physical therapist to find out what your problem is, and then choose the one that suits you. There is no one-size-fits-all "better".