Side effect of Acupuncture-autonomic dysregulation?

Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.

So a few general observations. First, I would make certain you are seeing a fully trained Chinese Medicine practitioner - not a physiotherapist, MD, or some other medical specialist who is practicing acupuncture on top of their normal training. Reasons for this should be obvious, but I mention it just because the points you described her using seem not only fairly elementary, but also more of how it is practiced by non Chinese Medicine specialists. So there’s that.

Second, you know you have cervical issues and everything you are describing including numbness in your neck can easily arise from that alone. It’s far more likely that the overdone massage rather than the acupuncture irritated things - if anything did.

That said, acupuncture is generally a somewhat slow process. So on one hand, properly practiced, you nearly never get any of the types of aggressive responses you are describing from a treatment or two, but, generally, it means you have to give it time.

In short, this means, that if you trust the training of the practitioner - give them around 5-9 times before making broad judgements about the effectiveness for you as an individual and certainly for all of your other patients. If you don’t trust your practitioner and/or they cannot explain what they are doing and why a response like this would happen you need to see someone else. See point 1 above.

To answer your basic question, I wouldn’t give a single acupuncture treatment so much power - not only is it functionally impossible to do what you are describing (i.e. reengineer your autonomic nervous system) - it’s just not that powerful to create much of a change from one time. But a misaligned cervical disc certainly can do all of this - which is, of course, the entire reason you are going for treatment. So if you trust your practitioner, tell them your responses, and give them an appropriate amount of time to treat you before deciding what to do next.

Comment by Archived User

It would be highly unlikely that acupuncture itself (when done by a fully trained and licensed acupuncturist) would account for any of your experiences. I personally think 45 minutes of electric stimulation is a little long but again even at the highest settings it would be unusual for it to account for that kind of response. It would depend to some extent on the unit she used and the settings (waveform, voltage, amperage, etc) she used but again regardless of those specifics it would be a pretty unusual response. If anything I would suggest that perhaps whatever stretching she did could have agitated the disk prolapse.

Comment by Archived User

Hello Stephen! I am new to this site and very curious to know more about your background in the field. Can you provide me with an email so I could “pick your brain” a bit? With Appreciation, David Dayanim

Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.

Please use our forms to discuss, as that is the very purpose for them. This helps others to benefit from the conversations. If it is something that can’t be openly discussed in a public forum then it is likely that that is a conversation that should be had with your local practitioner.

Comment by Archived User

Chad and Stephen,

Thank you for your help/comments.
I was waiting for my MRI results and discussions with spine surgeon before I posted anything on this. First of all, my symptoms have improved about more than 80% in the last week (after full 10 d of symptoms). I followed my wife’s (integrative physician) advice with anti-oxidative diet/supplements. MRI showed a moderate disc at C5-6 level, which is a lot better than what it looked like 1.5 years ago. I do not need surgery at this point in time.
I think acupuncture did not make it worse but I think the bit of manipulation and my position while I was laying down on the board for continuous 45 min, face down, made it worse. I feel like my face rest was a bit higher. I had a bit of pain/discomfort but not much. I think in that position, with my neck retracted, my disc impinged on the cord just the right way to cause a reperfusion injury when I was done with the session. It could also be the fact that it just got worse randomly at the same point. Regardless, I think, for future, I just have to be stern about the fact that no manipulation etc for anything on my neck.
BG