low back pain and sciatica

Complaints: Chronic low back pain and right sciatica for at least 10 years. Disc herniation surgery had relieved some of the pain but it was still constant. Walking more than one mile caused severe cramping in the hips.

Acupuncture: Right-side yang horary points in Wood-Order of GB44, SI2, ST43, LI5, ST36 (ST36 is as good as UB40) plus the central earth points SI3, LI3, GB41, and UB65 for this constitution with Lesser Yin and Greater Yin combination (aka Kapha in Ayurveda, Melancholic in Unani, Soeumin in Sasang, and LinGin in Tetrasoma).

Treatment process: The first treatment in Metal-Order of LI1, UB66, GB41, SI5, and ST36 had immediately relieved the pain and it was still better next day, which was the day of second treatment. However, the repeat of the same points did not reduce the pain but it came back as intense as usual. On the third visit, a change to Wood-Order was immediately helpful but the relief was temporary. Wood-Order was repeated into the 6th visit. The pain had dramatically decreased for two weeks in intensity, frequency, and duration. In the third week, the pain began to come back but was still better by 2/3 compared to the original even without acupuncture for these 3 weeks.

Discussion: Often, improvement is not linear. In some patients, the improvement is not dramatic until after several sessions.