Anyone tried Dry Needling or Acupuncture for Pain or Neuropathy?

Hi, @chabela, and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. Thanks for sharing this positive treatment experience with acupuncture for your foot pain.

Will you share more about what the acupuncturist does during your sessions? How quickly after starting this therapy were you feeling some relief?

Thank you for welcoming me to the group!
My acupuncturist places the needles on certain points on my lower extremities and forearms. She traces major nerve pathways and follows muscle borders in many instances. She explained to me that many of the recognized acupuncture points are located near a nerve branching or plexus, a gland, or an organ, and function by stimulating these structures into action by calling the body's attention to the area. She also treats me with Auriculotherapy, I was amazed the first time she started examining my outer portion of my ear with a fine ”stiletto” and she touched a point that was incredibly painful. When I ask her what was that, she showed me a chart and the intense pain was in a point which reflected my left heel ( the area that was bothering me the most at that time ).
My experience while on session is pleasant, relaxing, and not painful, only mild discomfort in certain insertion areas.
Sounds crazy but sometimes I enter her office limping with intense pain and left with minimal pain, being able to walk.
Is something can't be explained in terms of traditional medicine.
I have to make clear I continue using my medications daily ( Gabapentin and Cymbalta), but prior to Acupuncture despite medications and other treatments I wasn't able to walk. This treatment requires ”maintenance”, sadly as all of you understand, there is no cure. But being able to diminish pain intensity is Godsend.

Hi, @chabela - thanks for sharing your experiences with acupuncture for your peripheral neuropathy. @summertime4 talked about planning to get acupuncture and perhaps could share about it if this treatment has started? @jager5210 @arcticmark @mlross4508 also mentioned getting acupuncture — not necessarily for neuropathy-related pain, but for pain -— and may have some thoughts for you.

@lisalucier Hi I start acupuncture on Sept 24 2019. I would love to hear from others who are doing acupuncture and will provide my experiences when I begin. I am praying it will offer some relief for all of us involved.

My reply won’t encourage you, sorry in advance. I had 18 treatments, two per week. She used 20-25 needles per session, I relaxed for an hour. Overall no change so I decided to save my time and money. Some say immediate difference so I hope that’s the case for you. Ten years ago when I had shingles it helped immediately, and then only twice more for good measure! So it can certainly work! Best wishes to you

Hello, Acupuncture is like any other treatment it helps some people and some conditions. What I have heard is that you need to try at least 10 sessions in rapid succession and see if it works. I had three completely different acupuncturists, the first took 2 1/2 hours per session with lots of meditation between changes in needles and positions. Great music, very relaxing ultimately felt that it took too much time and a massage felt better. I only did I think 4 treatments with this guy, who by the way was the nicest guy. The next ones were a husband and wife team who took 20 minutes per session and felt that patients were shared so I talked to the husband about my bad back and neuropathic pain and after a few sessions the wife pinch-hit and gave me my treatments and then back to the husband. I did 12 sessions with them and didn't feel better so stopped. Then a friend in DC who had a chinese doctor help with Hep-C from a blood transfusion in Africa and swore by both Chinese herbs and acupuncture got me to see a Chinese doctor who his doctor in DC identified as the best acupuncturist in Boston. I saw him for 14 times tried chinese herbs and it just didn't work. I have Chinese colleagues who see Chinese doctors and take Chinese herbs for any ailment and they and my friend all have been dramatically helped by acupuncturists.

All that being said, if you have tried it 14 times and it isn't working for you, I would think you've given it a good try and you might want to try something else. The only caveat to that is my Chinese colleagues have told me that Chinese medicine works slowly and most westerners can’t slow down enough to let the medicine in. They say that they don't like the quick fix of western medicine and like the slow, but they feel longer lasting cures from Eastern medicine. It might be worth a little reflection on whether you have given it a chance to heal you, or whether you might need a different attitude to really give it a chance to work.

I am trying PEA also!

PEA helped me at the 9th week, give it time. Best wishes

Thanks! I am hopeful. Ordered the topical today as well...Pam

I tried acupuncture regularly for months and never saw any difference in my pain level. I suffer from severe pudendal nerve entrapment and have for about 17 years.