Pain

Medically reviewed by Dr. Tony Willcox, PhD, D.A.O.M., A.P.
Last reviewed: September 2026

Pain is the body’s alarm system — a signal that something needs attention. Acute pain comes on suddenly from injury or strain and usually fades as the body heals. Chronic pain is different: it lingers for months or years, sometimes long after the original cause has healed, as the nervous system stays ‘switched on.’ This is why chronic pain can be so stubborn, and why approaches that calm the nervous system’s pain signaling — rather than only treating the injury site — often matter so much.

Pain takes countless forms, and among the most common that bring people to acupuncture are:

• Musculoskeletal pain — back, neck, shoulder, and joint pain
• Osteoarthritis and other joint-related pain
• Nerve pain, including sciatica and neuropathy
• Headaches and migraines
• Sports injuries and post-injury pain
• Chronic, widespread pain such as fibromyalgia
• Shoulder Pain — rotator cuff strain, bursitis, and stiffness that limit reaching and lifting

Because pain is a symptom with many possible causes — some requiring specific medical treatment — a diagnosis from a physician is considered an important step, helping rule out serious causes and allowing acupuncture to be used as part of an informed plan.

Chinese medicine has a memorable saying: where there is free flow, there is no pain; where there is pain, there is no free flow. Pain is understood largely as stagnation — Qi and Blood no longer moving smoothly through a channel, whether from injury, tension, cold, or depletion. Treatment aims to restore that flow, release the blockage, and ease the surrounding tension, which is why acupuncture is applied both at the site of pain and at points along the affected pathways.

Modern research suggests acupuncture influences the body’s own pain-control systems — prompting the release of endorphins, modulating how pain signals travel through the nervous system, and calming the stress response that so often amplifies pain. In practice, treatment combines local points at the site of pain with distal points, and electrical stimulation is sometimes added for stubborn or nerve-related pain.

For pain driven by tight muscle bands and trigger points, dry needling is often used to release those areas directly as part of a broader plan.

Pain is where acupuncture has its strongest evidence. A landmark 2012 individual-patient-data meta-analysis pooling nearly 18,000 patients across 29 high-quality trials found acupuncture superior to both sham and no-acupuncture care for chronic pain — including back and neck pain, osteoarthritis, chronic headache, and shoulder pain (Vickers et al., Archives of Internal Medicine, 2012). The authors noted the difference between real and sham acupuncture, though statistically real, was relatively modest. So acupuncture is best used as one supportive part of a comprehensive pain plan, not a stand-alone cure.

Many specific pain conditions have their own dedicated pages at Acupuncture Zen, including:

• Back Pain
• Neck Pain
• Sciatica
• Osteoarthritis
• Headache and Migraine
• Fibromyalgia
• Postoperative Pain

If your specific pain isn’t listed, the office is glad to discuss whether acupuncture might be a supportive complement to your care.

A first visit begins with a thorough conversation about where the pain is, how it behaves, how long it’s lasted, and what medical care and medication are already in place. Dr. Willcox will assess the affected area before selecting a point protocol tailored to the type and location of pain, which may include dry needling for muscular pain. Because chronic pain patterns take time to shift, relief usually builds over a series of sessions, and treatment works best alongside movement, physical therapy, and the rest of a patient’s care.