Acupuncture Heals Before and After Surgery

In 1971, Richard Nixon made his historic trip to China. He was accompanied by a New York Times journalistic named James Reston. While in Beijing, Reston developed a case of appendicitis, and had to undergo an emergency appendectomy. After his appendix was removed through conventional surgery at the Anti-Imperialist Hospital in Beijing, his post-operative pain was treated by Li Chang-Yuan with acupuncture. Reston was so amazed with the post-operative pain relief that Acupuncture gave him, that he decided to write about his experience upon his return to the states in The New York Times. In his article, "Now, About My Operation in Peking", New York Times, July 26, 1971, Reston described his experience. This was probably was the first exposure many Americans had to Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). 

 In 2014, acupuncture is becoming increasingly present in mainstream medical settings and we may see it be used pre and post surgical procedures.

Why Get Pre- and Post-Op Acupuncture? Surgical procedures, no matter how small, are significant health events that have physical and emotional effects. Here are six benefits of including acupuncture in your preparation for and recovery from surgery:

It will calm you down.  Nervous about having surgery? Schedule an acupuncture appointment about one week before. It will help calm your nerves. It can also improve your sleep, something many people struggle with prior to a procedure. After your acupuncture treatment, ask your acupuncturist to leave you with some ear seeds. These are tiny, very hard seeds made of an herb called Vaccaria.
 They are placed on acupuncture points, usually in the ear, to provided a sustained effect after you leave the acupuncturist’s office. To activate the points, just press the seeds a few times daily for about 30 seconds.

It will strengthen your immune system. It’s important to stay healthy leading up to any surgery—some surgical procedures must be rescheduled if the patient is ill. After surgery, you may have to stay in the hospital for a while, which means being in close contact with sick people. Acupuncture can help strengthen your immune system so that you go in for surgery as planned and recover as quickly as possible.

It will decrease postoperative pain and side effects. Getting acupuncture after surgery can help relieve postoperative pain. When you have less pain, you’re able to start moving around and getting back to normal more quickly. In addition, less pain means fewer pain medications, many of which can cause nausea, vomiting and itching. By decreasing postoperative pain, acupuncture helps reduce these side effects.

It will reduce cosmetic scars. Acupuncture can work wonders on scars. After your surgical scars have started healing, your acupuncturist can needle underneath the scar and perform moxibustion with a tiger warmer directly on the area. This technique works well with old and new scars. If the scar has developed a keloid, it may take longer to see improvement, but in time, the scar will soften and become less noticeable.

It will reduce internal scarring. The same benefits of acupuncture apply to internal scars—acupuncture and moxibustion break up scar tissue, regardless of where it is on the body. By loosening up internal scar tissue, acupuncture can provide improved mobility and decrease pain. Thinking about scars from an acupuncture perspective, acupuncture helps reconnect the acupuncture meridians that may have been cut into during surgery. In doing so, acupuncture can bring back sensation to the affected area and help restore normal functioning of the interconnected meridian system.

 It will help you recover faster.  Rest and sleep are two keys to recovering from surgery. The days and weeks after surgery are a good time to be quiet and still, and to do less. It’s a time to ask friends and family for help. From an acupuncture perspective, these are all acts of cultivating Yin. Certain acupuncture points, and self-care recommendations from your acupuncturist, can speed up your recovery by encouraging you to take the time you need to heal.

Keep Your Acupuncturist Informed --Make sure to tell your acupuncturist if you are about to have surgery. Acupuncture is safe before and after surgery. However, some acupuncture points can have a similar effect to the blood-thinning medications you’re told to avoid before surgery. Events such as surgeries can affect us on multiple levels, physical and emotional.

A holistically based treatments like acupuncture can effectively address all of these factors.  Even Tony Stark (Iron Man 3) (notice acupuncture needles near neck area) thinks so!