This happens any time you get a sensation when needling. First the patient feels something. Here, acupuncture is working through the parasympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system. Pain stimulates the sympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system. Generally, we want to calm the sympathetic part of the nervous system. So pain is not desirable. Needling a point, we are generally stimulating the parasympathetic nerve ending at the point which is in the muscle, This will get you the normal effects of the point. If you stimulate the sympathetic nerve ending at the point which is just under the skin you might get a different effect. Stimulating the sympathetic nerves under the skin is what we are doing when we use a roller wheel or 7-star or plum blossom hammer. This effect is utilizing the “Gate Control Theory”. This helps numbness by increasing the propagation of sensory signals up to the brain. Whereas stimulating the parasympathetic nerves decreases the propagation of sensory signals up to the brain. This helps with pain. The only point I purposely needle the sympathetic innervation is DU20. Here I am trying to raise the yang. Besides, where the point is tender is usually at the sympathetic innervation at DU20. This spot is on the anterior “rim” of the point. Needling anywhere on the body can release endorphins. Even getting a tattoo will do that. This is a more general effect of getting sensation. Needling a point can have many effects depending on the point. It might relax a certain muscle or muscle group, or affect a brain chemical or chemicals, or increase or decrease some function in the body such as increasing or decreasing the production of HCl in the stomach. Were you taught any of this in school? I doubt it. But obviously you should have.
You also must understand the adaptation response of the nervous system. If the nervous system is stimulated by a constant stimulus, it will begin to ignore it. Except pain signals. The brain knows the difference and will not ignore constant pain signals. There are two places where you will run into this. First is when you do constant electro-acupuncture. The body will eventually start ignoring it and the sensation the patient feels will diminish. So you will often have to turn it up some more. That won’t happen if you do dense/disperse or other waveforms . The other place where you might run into it is if you treat at the same frequency as they do in China. They just often treat too often. Then the patient has to take a break from treatment. This will only happen if you give the same treatment each time.
I have found that twice a week is a perfect pace to begin your treatments and you will avoid this problem. In China they might treat every day or every other day for a week or more. Then they will have to take a week off. Ridiculous. If at twice a week you are getting improvement but it won’t hold, then go to 3 times a week. You usually will only have to do it for a week or two before it will hold between visits. That is when you know when to stretch out the treatment again. So I go twice a week then once a week, then every other week, then once a month. Then it will usually hold on it’s own and I will only see them if it acts up again. And if they do come in again, it will only take one or two treatments to get them good again.
You should have been taught about “needle shock”. This happens when the patient’s nervous system, in particular the autonomic nervous system, is “on edge”. In essence, it is more unstable and can be thrown out of balance more easily by a strong stimulus. A patient who is very tired, low energy, is nervous, upset, etc. can set them up for needle shock. Similarly, an acupuncture treatment itself changes the balance of the autonomic nervous system and a strong stimulus cam throw it out of balance also. This is why we caution patients not to eat a big meal, or have sex, or strenuously exercise and avoid stressful events right after a treatment. This is especially true when we are using traditional points to treat an internal problem. When we are treating most injuries, we are working through bio-electric phenomenon and not so much through the nervous system except by releasing endorphins.
When we are treating a lot of painful areas, the patient can get very woozy from the endorphins and can be a danger driving home. Thee best way to treat this is needling Du20 at the end of the treatment. If done correctly, their eyes will pop open and they will feel better almost immediately. You can even leave the needle in so the patient can stimulate the point themself if needed going home. Just tell them to wrap the needle in some tissue in a way so no one handling the trash can get poked by it before throwing it in the trash.Now, using moxa at a classical point will have its own effects because you are stimulating different nerve endings (heat receptors). In addition, adding heat will increase the formation of structured water, increasing those effects.
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