What is the difference between acupuncture and massage

Based on my eleven years of clinical experience in physical therapy, the core difference in the efficacy of acupuncture and massage is the depth of action and the dimension of adjustment. Massage is more about immediate relief of local symptoms, while acupuncture is more about deep-level regulation of overall problems. Of course, this is not absolute, and there are many overlapping effects of the two.

Last week I saw a little girl who was just a sophomore in college. She had suffered from dysmenorrhea for four or five years. Every time she came to the aunt, she had to take painkillers to cope with it. When she came for the first time, she was sweating from the pain. I pressed the acupuncture points on her lumbosacral and abdominal areas for 20 minutes. Immediately, the pain disappeared by 70%, and she jumped away. However, in the second month of her period, she came again holding her stomach and said that she felt better after the last massage, but she still had pain this month. Later, I switched her to an acupuncture plan. I performed Sanyinjiao, Guanyuan, and Ciliao a week before each visit, and adjusted her menstrual cycle for three consecutive months. Last week, she came for a follow-up visit and said she felt almost no pain this time, and even the previous backache was gone.

Of course, this does not mean that massage is inferior to acupuncture. I met a young man who practiced powerlifting. He strained his hamstrings due to too many squats. He felt a hard, cord-like nodule on the back of his thigh. It didn’t go away even after two shallow punctures. He came to us. Master Li, who has been doing massage in the gym for 20 years, used the tip of his elbow to push it calmly three times, and the nodules were almost dispersed, and running and jumping were not affected at all. Now whenever he gets a strain during sports, the first thing he sees is a massage master, and he does not consider acupuncture at all.

To make an analogy, the body's meridians, qi and blood are like the water supply system of an old community. Massage is equivalent to tapping the exposed water pipes. Knock out the debris blocking the pipe mouth, and the water will flow immediately. If you have a stiff neck or a stiff waist after sitting for a day, you will feel comfortable immediately after pressing it. This is the principle; but if the water pipe is blocked inside, or even the water pressure on the attic is not high, just tap on the pipe outside. If it doesn’t work, you have to find the corresponding valve node and adjust it. This is the role of acupuncture. It can directly stimulate the corresponding acupuncture points through the skin and muscle layers, and adjust the qi and blood status of the whole body along the meridians. Those old problems that have been accumulated over the years, such as the old cold legs that hurt when the temperature drops, and the migraines that occur on time every month, can only be comfortable for most of the day after acupuncture. Only by adjusting the acupuncture treatment course can it really improve.

There is now a lot of debate in the academic community about the boundaries between the two. Some studies say that experienced masseurs use deep relaxation techniques, which can reach a depth of 5 centimeters, which is no shallower than ordinary filiform needles. The effect on musculoskeletal problems is more direct than acupuncture; some people think that acupuncture is more effective than acupuncture. The systemic regulatory effect cannot be achieved by massage. For example, for problems such as diabetic peripheral neuropathy and postoperative intestinal paralysis, the clinical effectiveness of acupuncture is much higher than that of massage. These disputes have not yet been concluded. Traditional Chinese medicine conditioning chooses methods based on specific symptoms. There is no saying that one is better than the other.

I usually make plans for clients. Last time, the programmer who worked at the desk for ten years had a straightened cervical vertebra and often felt dizzy and numb in his hands. He first loosened the tense muscles in his neck and shoulders for 20 minutes, and then inserted four or five needles in the Jiajiao and Sanli of his hands. After three times, most of the numbness in his hands disappeared, which is faster than doing either method alone. If you just have sore shoulders and back pain due to overtime work recently, you can just choose massage instead of acupuncture. If the pain persists for three or four months and does not get better, then it is recommended to try acupuncture.