Lower Back Muscle Pain – The TCM Perspective

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), pain occurs when there is obstruction in the flow of Qi and Blood through the channels, organs and tissues. More often then not pain is a subjective ailment involving physiological, emotional and psychological issues and can thus be quite difficult to treat, especially more so in the Western medical paradigm, as western science has only in very recent times, understood and acknowledged the importance of the emotional and psychological factors in causing diseased states.

Where pain of a chronic nature has been poorly treated by Western medical science, especially when it is of a chronic nature TCM and especially acupuncture, has filled the void quite admirably. In fact, the first forays of genuine interest in TCM and Acupuncture were established in the 1950’s, when the first reports of operations under acupuncture analgesia were reported from China. Since then, many studies into the efficacy of acupuncture analgesia have been conducted both in the Western and Eastern arenas.

Today, although Acupuncture has achieved world fame, the general community as a whole, is more familiar and comfortable with the pain relieving effectiveness of acupuncture than with the therapy as a complete form of medicine, equal to if not more powerful than the Western model. In China, acupuncture has been used for thousands of years as a treatment for pain relief. In TCM, pain is seen as a symptom which manifests when there is a disharmony in the free flow of Qi and Blood ie. when pain occurs Qi / Blood is blocked.

In order to accurately interpret pain and to facilitate appropriate treatment strategies, the symptom of pain (Qi and Blood stagnation in TCM) has to be analyzed according to the 8 Patterns of Differentiation. TCM can be a very effective method of recognizing and treating different types of pain and can be particularly useful in the diagnosis of back pain and lower back pain.

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