The following is a list of some of the common causes of pain from a Chinese Medicine point of view.
1. Qi (Energy) and Blood Stagnation:
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine theory, the nature of life is to flow. When injury is caused to a body it usually causes a block in the flow of qi and blood. Initially this concentration of energy may be helpful to repair damaged tissue, but unfortunately the accompanied feeling behind such lack of energy flow is pain. A person’s tendency to not move areas that are injured will further increase such stagnation and thus pain. This can be the cause of pain even when the injury occured many years ago. Acupuncture and its associated therapies are great at creating movement in qi and blood and thus relieving pain.
2. Blood Deficiency:
Sometimes pain will be caused by blood not adequately nourishing the muscles and tendons in an area. Such pain is generally dull in nature, tingly or numb and worse with movement, better with rest. Acupuncture can be used to increase blood flow to the area and to nourish the body’s blood in general. Sometimes this diagnosis corresponds to muscular astrophy and/or anemia.
3. Wind, Damp, Cold Invasion:
You may have noticed someone complaining that his knee pain gets worse every time the weather is cold or damp or even that he can predict weather by his pain. In Chinese Medicine thinking such pain is caused by the wind actually invading and channel and getting stuck there with elements of damp (heaviness, swelling) and cold (fixed and severe pain worse with cold) accompanying it. This sort of pain can be improved by warming and drying methods in Chinese Medicine especially with therapies such as moxabustion and cupping.