WHY DOES MY HIP HURT?

There are several reasons you may experience pain in your hip region. The pain may result from some inflammatory process in your hip joint directly, or it can be a referred pain.

The most common reasons for hip joint pain are inflammation in the hip joint, hip tendons, bursa, and muscles. In addition, traumatic injuries may lead to muscle and tendon strain, cause a labral tear or even fracture of the hip joint.

Referred pain is the type of pain you may feel at a site different from the diseased body part. For example, sciatica is the inflammation of the spinal nerve, but it may cause pain in the hip area. Sacroiliac joint dysfunction is another reason you may experience pain in the hip area.

IS ACUPUNCTURE GOOD FOR TREATING HIP PAIN?

The effectiveness of acupuncture treatment for hip pain entirely depends on the causative factor. In our experience, acupuncture works very well for clearing inflammation from the body. It is a scientific fact that acupuncture is effective for chronic pain [1]. Therefore, patients who experience pain due to soft tissue inflammation, such as tendinitis, bursitis, or the early stages of arthritis, find acupuncture helpful in relieving their symptoms. We also see evidence of success in treating patients with pain due to injuries of soft tissues. For example, acupuncture is probably the best solution for hip pain due to sciatica and piriformis syndrome. Best of all, acupuncture delivers lasting results, so you don’t have to have continual treatments to stay pain-free.

Our clinic also has a unique protocol to speed up the mending of bones and healing of soft tissue. Patients with hip pain due to labral tear or sacroiliac joint dysfunction also find acupuncture helpful.

Unfortunately, in our experience, acupuncture has a limited effect when the hip pain is due to severe anatomical deformities. For example, hip pain due to osteoarthritis can be relieved for a short time, but it usually comes back.

[1] Acupuncture for chronic pain: individual patient data meta-analysis

WHERE DO ACUPUNCTURE NEEDLES GO FOR HIP PAIN?

To treat hip pain, we must select effective acupuncture points which reflect the etiology of the problem. The first step in this process is to identify the diseased meridians. For example, we know that the Foor Yang Ming sinew channel ascends to bind at the hip joint. Next, the Foot Tai Yin sinew channel binds in the anterior region of the hip. Finally, the Foot Shao Yang primary channel enters deeply in the hip at the acupuncture point GB-30.

Once we know the implicated channel, we can choose meridians and the points to balance the diseased channel. Acupuncture theory relies on the idea that small, well-defined areas of the body, such as the hand, foot, face, scalp, and ear, correspond to all organs and parts of the body. For example, we can select points around the shoulder or the ankle joint, hand, or foot to treat pain at the hip joint. Some of the essential points to treat hip pain are LI-15, SJ-14, Ht-1, Lv-3, SJ-2. When hip pain results from a bone spur, the acupuncture point of choice is Ming Huang 88.12, an extra acupuncture point from the Master Tung acupuncture system.

HOW MANY ACUPUNCTURE TREATMENTS DO I NEED TO FEEL BETTER?

Although many patients experience an improvement of symptoms even after a first session, it’s essential to keep in mind that acupuncture works cumulatively. In our experience, most hip pain patients will improve after eight acupuncture treatments, provided you receive treatments in a relatively short time. We recommend two acupuncture treatments a week, at least in the beginning.