Acupuncture for pain that keeps coming back.
Acupuncture lowers the nervous system’s sensitivity to pain, and the pain eases.
What acupuncture does in the nervous system.
When pain persists, the nervous system stops responding normally and stays in a protective state. Acupuncture calms that state, so tension and pain reduce.
Fine needles are placed at specific points that target the nervous system directly, without medication. Needling works at three levels. At the point, blood flow increases and the body releases its own pain-relieving chemistry. At the spinal cord, needling dampens the pain signals traveling to the brain. In the brain, it shifts the nervous system out of a stress response and into recovery.
How a visit works.
Your pain pattern, history, and movement are evaluated to identify which muscles are involved and how sensitive the nervous system has become.
Fine needles are placed at specific points based on your assessment. Each point is selected for your pattern.
The nervous system responds. Inflammation reduces. Muscle tension releases. The pain eases.
Which conditions acupuncture treats.
Persistent pain sensitizes the nervous system. If your condition involves inflammation, disrupted sleep, muscle guarding, or pain that returns after treatment, acupuncture lowers that sensitivity.
Select a condition to see how each is treated.
Don’t see your condition? Ask. You’ll get a clear answer before you book.
What it feels like.
The needles are much thinner than a hypodermic needle. You typically do not feel them enter the skin. Once placed, you may feel a mild heaviness, warmth, or dull ache. That sensation is the nervous system responding, and it fades within seconds.
Treatment typically produces deep relaxation. Some patients fall asleep. Afterward, you may feel calm and loose.
Not all acupuncture is the same.
Acupuncture is practiced in many ways: some approaches focus on traditional meridian theory, others on symptom management. Acunatomy’s is evidence-based, grounded in anatomy, neuroscience, and clinical research.
Eugene Baek has trained across Traditional Chinese Medicine, Japanese Palpation Technique, and Korean Constitutional Treatment, and has spent 21 years refining an approach built around one question: why does this patient’s pain keep coming back? Every placement is based on your assessment, not a template.
Acupuncture is central to how Acunatomy treats pain.
Acupuncture lowers the pain.
Dry needling releases the muscle.
Acupuncture lowers the nervous system’s sensitivity to pain, and dry needling releases the contracted band of muscle at the trigger point. Each does what the other cannot, which is why Acunatomy combines them in a single visit.
Where does it hurt?
Or find it on the body →Common questions about acupuncture.
Its effects exceed placebo. In the largest analysis to date, 39 trials and 20,827 patients, acupuncture outperformed both sham needling and no acupuncture for back and neck pain, osteoarthritis, chronic headache, and shoulder pain, and the benefit held at one year (Vickers, 2018). The practical test is measurable change in pain and function within a defined number of visits.
Some patients need less medication as the pain reduces. Any change to prescription medication should be made with your prescribing physician.
Needling stimulates sensory nerves in skin and muscle, triggering responses in the spinal cord and brain: release of endogenous opioids, changes in pain-processing regions, local effects on blood flow. This input lowers the nervous system’s sensitivity to pain.
Yes. In the hands of a licensed acupuncturist, acupuncture is one of the safer interventions in pain care. Side effects are usually minor and short-lived: slight soreness, occasional small bruises, sometimes temporary drowsiness. Sterile, single-use needles are standard practice. In a study of 229,230 patients, 8.6 percent reported a side effect, mostly minor bleeding or bruising, and 2.2 percent needed any treatment for one (Witt, 2009).
Yes, and at Acunatomy they usually are. Dry needling releases the trigger points in the muscle; acupuncture lowers the nervous system’s sensitivity to pain. Treating both in one session is the core of the practice’s approach, because each does what the other cannot. See the full comparison →
That depends on what gets treated. When only symptoms are addressed, relief fades in days. When the muscles and the nervous system behind the pain are treated, results tend to hold, and visits are tapered as they do. If pain returns, part of the pattern is still active, and the assessment adjusts.
Yes. Stress and poor sleep raise the nervous system’s baseline arousal, which raises pain and keeps muscles guarded. Acupuncture lowers that arousal, which is why sleep and stress are asked about at every visit.
Frequency follows the condition, not a fixed schedule. Acute problems respond best to closely spaced visits early on; chronic patterns need consistency over a longer arc. As results hold, visits are tapered. Your schedule is set at your first visit.